Paris (AFP)
Traffic will remain disrupted at SNCF and RATP on Tuesday, the 27th day of the indefinite strike against the pension reform and on the eve of New Years, the two public transport groups announced on Monday.
SNCF plans to circulate half of its TGV and TER "on average", she said in a statement. TER traffic will be provided by trains and coaches, she said. There will be one Intercités train out of five, while a quarter of the Transiliens (RER SNCF, commuter trains) will run. International traffic will be "disrupted".
As every year in the Paris region, and in accordance with their contract with Ile-de-France Mobilités (the regional transport authority), access to SNCF and RATP networks in the Paris region will be free from Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. until Wednesday noon, recalled the two groups.
At RATP, traffic will still be "very disrupted" Tuesday by the strike, with two metro lines completely closed, two lines operating normally and the other twelve "partially insured", said the management of the management, which reports in a communicated a "slight improvement" overall on the metro network.
Train traffic will be normal on automated lines 1 and 14, while lines 7bis and 13 will be closed.
The metros of lines 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10 will run partially, with stations closed, and only during peak hours (6:30 am to 9:30 am, 3:30 to 6:30 pm). Partial traffic also for line 11 and only on "the morning peak", for lines 6 and 12 "only" on the evening peak, as well as for line 3bis which will be open "from 13:00 to 18:00".
Conversely, tram traffic will be "almost normal". Three quarters of the buses will run. RER A and B traffic, operated jointly by SNCF and RATP, will remain severely disrupted.
For New Year's Eve, in the Paris region, the SNCF will run suburban trains throughout the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, from the Gare de l'Est, Gare du Nord and Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris. For the three other Parisian stations (Austerlitz, Lyon and Montparnasse), "we will not have the means to provide this service", said AFP Alain Krakovitch, general manager of SNCF Transilien.
On the RATP side, the metro lines 1 and 14 will run "until 2:15 am" on New Years Eve, said the authority. The traffic of tram lines 2, 3a and 3b will be provided "all night (every 15 minutes)", as well as that of Noctilien bus lines "which will be strongly reinforced", added the RATP. Noctilien service will be "50%" higher than normal, according to a spokesperson for the management.
For January 1, Wednesday, the RATP "provides traffic close to that of December 25 but slightly improving on the metro and RER", with bus and tram traffic "almost normal", she said.
© 2019 AFP