Parisian commuters faced travel misery on Friday as employees of the capital's transport network went on strike over plans to reduce their retirement privileges under President Emmanuel Macron's pension reforms, report CNA.
Ten of the city's 16 metro lines were shut completely, while service on most others was "extremely disrupted", Paris transport network operator RATP said.
Massive crowds waited on the platforms of the few lines still working, and officials counted about 200km of traffic backups during the morning rush hour, double normal levels.
The city's burgeoning cycle lane system was seeing a surge in traffic as people pulled out bikes to get to work.
Two of the three main suburban lines traversing the city were also severely disrupted, as were most bus and tram services.
Die Sokhanadu, 25, was stuck at a station on line 12, trying to get to his job working on the restoration of the Notre-Dame cathedral in the heart of the city.
"If the metro doesn't start running, I'm going to have to head home," he told AFP.
Others worried about their evening commutes, with the RATP warning that only lines one and 14 - the only two which function autonomously, without drivers - would be operating after 8.00pm.
The RATP warned Thursday that commuters should try to find travel alternatives and said it was financing free 30-minute rides on the Cityscoot network of electric mopeds.
US ride-hailing giant Uber is also hoping to seize the moment with two free 15-minute rides offered on the Jump electric bikes and scooters it has deployed in Paris.
At the Gare Saint-Lazare in central Paris, commuters swarmed off trains operated by the state-run SNCF before stopping in their tracks to consult bus routes on the cell phones.
Long queues backed up at bus stops as traffic was snarled at busy intersections. At the Gare du Nord train station, Europe's busiest, commuters suffered crowded platforms and long waits on the few metro lines running a reduced service.
"I am walking to work today and will be on the streets for at least four hours," Anthony, 21, who works in a restaurant in West Paris, told Reuters on his way to start a shift running nearly to midnight.
Unions want the strike, expected to be the largest since 2007 in Paris, to send a warning to Macron's government as it launches one of the most perilous reforms of his presidency - to merge France's 42 different pension systems into a single points-based system.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe promised on Thursday to take the time to listen to unions and broader public opinion after criticism in the past for turning a deaf ear.
"The prime minister's announcements will not have any impact. The strike has been launched and participation will be massive," Frederic Ruiz, who heads the CFE-CGC union at the Paris public transport company, RATP, told Reuters.