FRANCE: France faces more disruption as strikes continue over the weekend

French rail strikes entered a fourth day with fewer trains running than a day before. French rail strikes entered a fourth day on Saturday (November 17), with fewer trains running than a day before and no easing was expected before a planned public sector workers strike on November 20. "It's a mess, sorry to say that but it's really a mess. I'm coming from Vitry sue Seine, I left at 0730 this morning and was waiting for a bus for 45 Minutes, then 45 minutes on the metro, then Gare du Nord. We have to go to Montfaimon. But there is no train before 1651," said one commuter. Railway workers voted on Friday to carry on their protest against pension reforms until at least Monday, despite a call from one moderate union to return to work and a tentative offering of talks from the state rail company SNCF. "This is lamentable that we have to pay the price for those who have secure jobs, this is really lamentable," said Bernard Parisian , a commuter waiting for his train at Gare du Nord station. The SNCF said on Saturday it expected only 180 fast TGV trains to run compared with 250 on Friday and 700 on a normal Saturday. Regional and freight train operations and the Paris metro were also disrupted.

ITN Source | November 17, 2007

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