Pensions: despite an improvement, traffic will remain "severely disrupted" at SNCF and RATP on Wednesday

Europe 1 6:10 p.m., March 07, 2023

SNCF management presented a slightly improved transport program for Wednesday compared to Tuesday, with a third of the trains in circulation for the TGV and TER.

Tuesday, the first day of a renewable strike initiated by all the unions of the group against the pension reform, only 20% of the trains are running on the main lines and the regional lines.

Thursday, SNCF provides traffic again "disturbed" for the third day of strike.

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90% of trains removed on province-to-province routes

For the TGV, the North, East and South-East axes will only see 40% of the trains running.

There will be 20% on the Atlantic axis and there will be one Ouigo out of three.

On the other hand, the connections from province to province will be almost interrupted with 90% of the trains removed.

Intercity traffic will remain very disrupted with 80% of trains removed.

Only two Paris-Brive return trips, one Paris-Clermont return trip and a Toulouse-Hendaye link via substitute coaches remain in circulation.

International connections will experience mixed fortunes with three out of four Eurostars and two out of three Thalys, but one out of three trains to Italy and Switzerland, one out of six to Germany and none to Spain.

In the Paris region, the offer will remain very degraded with a third of trains on lines A and B of the RER and H, J, K, L and U of the Transilien.

For RER C, D and E it will be even worse, as for lines N, P and R with 80% of trains removed and a service that will only serve certain sections, sometimes only at peak times.

Several stations will also be closed.

On Tuesday, the SNCF recorded a strike rate of 39%, lower than during the first day of mobilization against the reform on January 19 (46.3%).

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Traffic still very degraded in the metro

For its part, the RATP announced on Tuesday that it plans to improve traffic on Wednesday in the RER and buses, for the second day of the strike in Parisian transport against the pension reform, but the service will still be very degraded in the metro.

The RER will experience more regular traffic with two out of three trains on the A and one out of two on the B. Buses and trams will run almost normally.

On the other hand, in the metro, apart from lines 1 and 14 (automated) and 4 where traffic will be normal, the other lines will only offer between a quarter and a half of the usual service.

Some will close earlier than usual, although they will generally also be open outside peak hours, unlike Tuesday.

The RATP is also moving forward on Thursday March 9 and foresees a further improvement in traffic with a metro that would only be "disturbed", an RER A running almost normally like buses and trams, but an RER B "very disturbed".

For Wednesday, in detail, lines 3, 10 and 13 will close at 8:00 p.m. and will offer a service equivalent to half or a third of the usual offer.

Lines 6 and 11 will be unavailable from 10 p.m., while line 3bis will only be open during morning rush hours and line 8 only from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and then from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

All the other lines (2, 5, 7, 7bis, 9 and 12) will go until the end of service but with a degraded service as well.

Unlike Tuesday, all metros will run this time on all lines, from terminus to terminus.