News: England rugby fans caught up in French strike action
Flights > News > # 1531 (17/10/2007)
England fans travelling to Paris for Saturday's Rugby World Cup final may find themselves caught up in a national strike that threatens to paralyse the French public transport system.
Eurostar services, long-distance trains and even the Paris Metro are all likely to be disrupted by the stoppage, triggered by government attempts to cut pension privileges.
The French rail company SNCF has warned that only one in four trains will be running on Thursday, including RER services linking Paris to its three international airports, and Eurostar has advised customers to avoid all travel on Thursday and Friday.
Although the strike is initially planned as a 24-hour stoppage on Thursday, industrial action is likely to continue into Friday and possibly into the weekend.
Eurostar has already cancelled two London-Paris trains on Thursday and one Paris-Lille train on Friday. A Eurostar spokesman said the strike would have "minimal" impact on other services, but he acknowledged that further cancellations were possible.
He added: "So far we have only had to cancel a small number of trains, but the situation is subject to change at short notice.”
The company has said Eurostar passengers hit by the strike will be able to exchange their tickets.
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