On the second day of a week-long strike, France's national rail company, the SNCF, announced on Tuesday, May 6, it "plans to run nine out of 10" TGV high-speed trains over the extended holiday weekend from Thursday to Sunday. "If your TGV is canceled, you will receive an email today or, at the latest, tomorrow [Wednesday] morning," said Alain Krakovitch, director of the TGV inter-city service. "And you have the option to rebook on another TGV on the same day, free of charge, obviously for the same destination."
SNCF CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou also said earlier on Tuesday that "90% of the trains" would run this weekend, despite the call to strike from several unions. "There will be variations depending on the days and, of course, on the destinations," Krakovitch said during a press conference in front of the Montparnasse train station in Paris. "But it is still too early to be more precise about the routes concerned," he added.
"All departures will go smoothly, as there is almost no strike on Wednesday and Thursday," and "there will be a train on Sunday to bring everyone back," Farandou said on France Inter radio station. "Do not cancel; your train will run," he urged, asserting that "most customers will really have the train for which they bought a ticket," while "some may have to shift by an hour or two."
All TGV InOui and Ouigo tickets remain exchangeable and refundable without fees for the week of May 5 to 11. An "exceptional" compensation measure is also in place for all passengers affected by cancelations, even if they decide to change trains. These "will receive a 50% discount voucher within 30 days," Krakovitch said. "This voucher is valid for a future TGV trip until August 29, 2025." The same will be true for Ouigo trains.
The first day of the strike on Monday had limited effects, sparing the major lines. The disruptions mainly affected regional trains, notably in the north of the country, where only one in three trains runnning. Traffic was also severely disrupted on certain lines in the Paris region, such as the RER B commuter train.
Regarding the TER and Transilien regional trains, "we are hopeful that the movement will stop fairly quickly and that the public service can resume its rights," Farandou stated. On Tuesday, train and RER commuter traffic in the Paris region was expected to be "disrupted in similar proportions" to Monday on the same lines (B, C, D, H, N, V, U), it was announced Monday evening.
Due to the strike, some travelers have already started looking for solutions. "There are already people who have canceled," "thousands," according to Farandou. "We have seen it; we made fewer sales for this May 8 holiday weekend than usual," he specified. "Our competitors are laughing. There are trains that are completely full. And Blablacar is up by more than 20% or 30%. Car rentals, the same," Farandou lamented. The rental company Ada reported on Monday that it was recording a 30% increase in reservations for this long weekend compared to 2024, when May 8 fell on a Wednesday.
The CGT-Cheminots and SUD-Rail unions are demanding higher wages and better scheduling of working hours, which they say are too often changed at the last minute. For the May 8 holiday weekend, an influential group of controllers joined the call for mobilization, giving it more weight. "I believe that the French do not really understand why some categories of railway workers are still demanding, in fact, money," Farandou declared.
Negotiations are "open," and "there is no point in making categorical strikes (...) that disturb everyone," said the CEO. "It is important to have the capacity to dialogue calmly, coolly, serenely, while listening to all the unions," he added. Meetings are scheduled for early June with representatives of conductors and train managers.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.