France is set for a double whammy of transport woes from Tuesday night, as state rail company SNCF prepares a major strike on the same day that taxis are set to cause massive disruption in protest at competition from web-based minicab services, reports FRANCE 24.
The rail strike is due to start on Tuesday evening but will mainly affect rail travel on Wednesday.
Only one high-speed intercity TGV out of two or three will run, while regional trains will also be affected, particularly in the Paris area.
The Eurostar service connecting Paris and London will run as normal, and three out of four Brussels- and Amsterdam-bound Thalys trains will be operational.
Trains to Germany will be unaffected, but those going to Spain will be disrupted.
The rail strike, described by passenger associations as “incomprehensible”, takes place a week before France's National Assembly examines a proposed railway reform that aims to tackle the sector's soaring debt.
Transport Minister Frederic Cuvillier said on Tuesday the railway sector's debt currently stood at more than €40 billion, and would likely soar to €80 billion by 2025 if nothing was done about it.
At the heart of the proposed reforms are plans to open up France’s rail services to competition and plans to unite state-run rail operator SNCF with RFF, the heavily indebted company responsible for the country’s rail infrastructure.
“Striking will solve nothing and will only serve to punish passengers,” said Jean Sivardière of the French FNAUT consumer association. “Reforms are necessary, everyone recognises that, but there are more constructive ways of negotiating with the authorities than making everyone’s lives a misery.”
Sivardière told FRANCE 24 that nothing in the planned reforms would affect SNCF workers’ jobs or status, but that the strike was a protest at the “inevitability” of coming market competition against what is at present a complete state monopoly.
“This is a purely political strike,” he said. “It’s pointless and unfair to punish ordinary people for political ends.”
Rail passengers who manage to arrive in major terminals such as Paris will be doubly hampered on Wednesday by an almost total lack of taxis.
French cabbies are joining taxi services across Europe, including the UK, Belgium, Spain and Germany, protesting against the exponential rise of minicab services that use advanced mobile phone apps they say are akin to taxi meters, currently only allowed in licensed vehicles.
Read more of this report from FRANCE 24.