Fed-up French travellers face travel chaos over Christmas as millions scramble for festive getaway with strikes showing no sign of letting up
- French train operator SNCF warned traffic would be ‘severely disrupted’
- SNCF will uphold aim to allow 850,000 ticket holders to travel this weekend
- Macron wants to forge 42 pension regimes into a single points-based system
- Almost all unions reject ‘pivot age’ of 64 for workers to get a full pension
Christmas travellers across France continue to face travel chaos as strikes leave trains cancelled and roads jampacked.
Hopes of a holiday truce were dashed after talks between the government and union leaders this week failed to ease the standoff, with train operator SNCF warning traffic would be ‘severely disrupted’ over the festive period.
SNCF said its aim to allow 850,000 ticket holders to travel this weekend was being upheld – but only half of its usual services were running.
Christmas travellers across France today faced travel chaos as trains were cancelled and roads were jampacked, as strikes show no signs of letting up. Pictured: Commuters and travellers stand in Gare de Lyon train station in Paris, December 20
‘I’m upset, this strike is unbearable… The government must do something,’ said Jeffrey Nwutu Ebube, who was in the northern port town of Le Havre trying to find a way back home in the southern city of Toulouse, around 530 miles away.
Many stranded travellers have turned to car rental agencies or sharing platforms since the strike began on December 5, but the last-minute surge in demand meant vehicles were hard to come by.
President Emmanuel Macron wants to forge the country’s 42 separate pension regimes into a single points-based system. Pictured: Macron today
‘We tried other ways, BlaBlaCar, etc, but everything is full, everything is taken,’ said Jerome Pelletier, a manager in the textile industry.
President Emmanuel Macron wants to forge the country’s 42 separate pension regimes into a single points-based system which the government says will be fairer and more transparent.
It would do away with schemes that offer early retirement and other advantages to mainly public-sector workers, not least train drivers who can retire as early as 52.
While some unions support a single system, almost all reject a new ‘pivot age’ of 64 – beyond the legal retirement age of 62 – which workers would have to reach to get a full pension.
They are hoping for a repeat of 1995, when the government backed down on pension reform after three weeks of metro and rail stoppages just before Christmas.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said Thursday that talks had made progress and called on unions to lift the strike ‘so that millions of French can join their families for the end of this year’.
Hopes of a holiday truce were dashed after talks between the government and union leaders this week failed to ease the standoff. Pictured: Commuters and travellers in Paris on December 20
Although the moderate UNSA union agreed, the hardline CGT and Force Ouvrier unions said they would not let up.
This weekend, the last for Christmas shopping, the RATP Paris train operator said metro services would be ‘heavily reduced’ on Sunday with only three driverless metro lines working.
The protest is also taking a heavy toll on businesses, especially retail during one of the busiest periods of the year, with industry associations reporting turnover declines of 30 to 60 percent from a year earlier.