Airport blockades and train cancellations: What's happening in Thursday's French strike?
Thursday marks the eleventh day of widespread pension protests in France, from a blockade at Paris' main airport to plane and train cancellations, here's what is happening.
France's eight union federations have called for workers to down tools in the 11th day of mass strikes called since the beginning of the pension battle in January.
Flights
On Thursday morning activists from the CGT union blockaded Terminal 1 of Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, although access to the airport remains possible for passengers.
Grèves blocages Macron dégage
Pour nos retraites#NonALaReformeDesRetraites pic.twitter.com/Iv1wU9Fxoh
— CGT Roissy CDG Aéroport (@CgtULCdg) April 6, 2023
France's civil aviation authorities (DGAC) have requested that airlines cancel 20 percent of their flights in Marseille-Provence, Toulouse-Blagnac, Bordeaux and Nantes airports as air traffic controllers strike.
Despite preventive measures, "disruptions and delays are nevertheless to be expected on Thursday", the DGAC said in a statement.
#Perturbations | Mouvement social national interprofessionnel du 6 avril 2023. pic.twitter.com/QMIxKPAaMd
— Direction générale de l'aviation civile 🇫🇷🇪🇺 (@DGAC) April 4, 2023
Trains
France's national rail service, SNCF, announced that three out of four high-speed TGV and budget Ouigo trains will run on Thursday.
As for regional trains, the TER will run half of its usual services, and Intercités will run one train out of four during the day and there will be no night trains.
International services, such as Eurostar and Thalys, are expected to operate at "almost normal" capacity according to SNCF. Eurostar cancelled two trains on Thursday, the London to Paris train (9018) departing at 10:26 AM, and the Paris to London train (9007), departing at 7:13 AM, but the rest are expected to run as normal.
Activists also blockaded the train station at Angouleme on Thursday morning - an increasingly common tactic seen during the strikes when workers simply occupy the tracks in order to halt all trains in and out of the station. These type of actions are typically of a short duration.
City public transport
The Paris public transport network, RATP, will offer "almost normal" services on the city Metro, "with the exception of a few lines". Buses, trams and the Orlyval service will operate at normal capacity.
[#MouvementSocial] À la suite d’un préavis appelant à une journée de grève interprofessionnelle le 6 avril, la #RATP prévoit un trafic quasi normal sur le RER. Le trafic sera quasi normal à l’exception de quelques lignes sur le métro, et normal sur les réseaux Bus et Tramway. ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/oLyUpg6UfA
— RATP Group (@RATPgroup) April 5, 2023
Metro lines 3, 5 and 13 will be disrupted by strike action, and metro line 6 may be affected by the path of the demo in the afternoon.
Line 3 will run one train out of two, line 5 will run one train out of two in the morning and one train out of two in the afternoon, and line 13 will run two trains out of three in the morning and one train out of two in the afternoon. Services on line 13 will only operate from 6 AM to 8 PM.
Lines 4, 8, 11 and 14 will close early on Thursday.
As for the RER commuter rail service, some disruptions are to be expected. The RER lines A and B will run "almost normally". Two out of every three trains will run on the RER C and E lines, and two trains out of every five will run on the RER D line.
As for the Transilien, three trains out of four will run on the N and P lines, two trains out of three will run on the H, J, L and U lines, and one in every two trains will run on the K and R lines.
Outside of Paris, other French cities will also experience disruptions in public transport availability.
In Nice, none of the three tram lines will run on Thursday, and bus services are expected to be heavily disrupted. In Lyon, metro lines should operate normally, but tram lines will run with delays. In Marseille, disruptions on the RTM network are expected to be "moderate".
Traffic
According to French traffic watch dog, Bison Futé, the whole of France is expected to have "green" (normal) traffic levels on Thursday.
However, during previous days of protest and strikes there have been wildcard actions, such as highway blockages on city ring roads. Typically, traffic around major cities has increased on strike days. If you plan to drive in the Paris region on Thursday, you can consult the real-time traffic website Sytadin - link HERE.
Tourist sites
As of Wednesday, only the Palace and Estate of Versailles had announced that it expected to be affected by strike action on Thursday, with a message on their website explaining that the opening of the tourist site is likely to be "severely disrupted on Thursday".
During previous days of action, other popular tourist sites, such as the Eiffel Tower and Louvre have closed. Prior to departing, you would be advised to check the website of the tourist site in question to determine whether operating hours are to be affected by strike action.
READ MORE: 9 of the best activities to do in Paris on strike days
Fuel shortages and oil refineries
Striking workers have continued blockades of several French oil refineries with the intention of stopping deliveries of petrol/gasoline and diesel to filling stations.
As of Wednesday, 8.1 percent of fuel stations in the whole of France were experiencing some level of shortage. The impacts of ongoing strike action have affected different parts of France more than others. In the Paris region, for example, 30 percent of fuel stations were missing at least one type of fuel on Wednesday. Specifically, the SP95-E10 fuel type was most impacted by shortages.
Originally, the effects were concentrated on southern and western France, but the situation in these areas has improved, even as shortages in Paris worsen.
READ MORE: MAP: Where in France are blockades causing fuel shortages?
Schools
The two unions that represent the majority of primary and secondary school teachers, the Snuipp-FSU and Snes-FSU, have called for strikes and demonstrations on Thursday. Unions estimated on Wednesday night that about 20 percent of primary school teachers would walk out.
Striking primary school teachers are required to declare their intention to walk out at least 24 hours in advance, but providing advance notice is not obligatory for secondary school teachers.
Waste collection
The streets of Paris had begun to clean up as of Tuesday, after several weeks of strike action by Paris waste collectors came to an end. However, unions filed a new notice for rolling strikes, which are set to start on April 13th.
While this strike notice does not specifically concern Thursday's day of action, the union representing waste collectors called on workers to "participate actively and massively in the cross-sector days of mobilisation to come, and in particular that of April 6th".
As such, it is possible that there could be walkouts from waste collectors on Thursday as well.
Wildcards
Previous strike days have seen a rising number of surprise or unannounced actions, including blockades at airports and rolling roadblocks on the roads. As the temperature of the dispute rises, don't be surprised to see more of this type of action.
As of Thursday morning, several cities had begun seeing roadblocks. In Toulouse, traffic was reportedly blocked by protesters on the eastern side of the ring road near the Atlantic traffic circle.
In Brest, the Albert-Ier traffic circle was also blocked by demonstrators, and outside of Caen, multiple traffic circles were blocked again on Thursday morning.
#InfoTrafic Manifestations en cours, circulation bloquée aux alentours de #Caen:
❌ Mondeville: rond-point Décathlon
❌Colombelles: rond-point Normandial
➡️Empruntez les déviations et itinéraires conseillés pic.twitter.com/cTbjA8VK3i
— Préfet du Calvados (@Prefet14) April 6, 2023
Rennes several blockades were underway on the city's ring road on Thursday morning. As of 8:15AM, several dozen people had blocked the western branch of the road, between Porte de Beauregard and Porte de Lorient with traffic stopped in both directions.
La rocade sud est déjà complètement bouchée à Rennes #greve6avril pic.twitter.com/A4IpuTpAjO
— Le Mensuel de Rennes (@MensueldeRennes) April 6, 2023
Demos
There will be marches and demos in towns and cities across France - on the most recent strike day of March 28th at least 740,000 people took to the streets across France, according to the country's Ministry of the Interior.
France's ministry of interior announced that some 11,500 police and gendarmes, including 4,200 in Paris alone, would be mobilised on Thursday.
The march in Paris will begin at 2pm at Invalides, and it will move toward Place d'Italie. In Marseille, it will start at 10:30 AM at the Vieux-Port, in Lyon it will start at 11am at the PLace Jean-Macé, and in Nice it will begin at 10am at the Théâtre de Verdure.
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France's eight union federations have called for workers to down tools in the 11th day of mass strikes called since the beginning of the pension battle in January.
Flights
On Thursday morning activists from the CGT union blockaded Terminal 1 of Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, although access to the airport remains possible for passengers.
Grèves blocages Macron dégage
— CGT Roissy CDG Aéroport (@CgtULCdg) April 6, 2023
Pour nos retraites#NonALaReformeDesRetraites pic.twitter.com/Iv1wU9Fxoh
France's civil aviation authorities (DGAC) have requested that airlines cancel 20 percent of their flights in Marseille-Provence, Toulouse-Blagnac, Bordeaux and Nantes airports as air traffic controllers strike.
Despite preventive measures, "disruptions and delays are nevertheless to be expected on Thursday", the DGAC said in a statement.
#Perturbations | Mouvement social national interprofessionnel du 6 avril 2023. pic.twitter.com/QMIxKPAaMd
— Direction générale de l'aviation civile 🇫🇷🇪🇺 (@DGAC) April 4, 2023
Trains
France's national rail service, SNCF, announced that three out of four high-speed TGV and budget Ouigo trains will run on Thursday.
As for regional trains, the TER will run half of its usual services, and Intercités will run one train out of four during the day and there will be no night trains.
International services, such as Eurostar and Thalys, are expected to operate at "almost normal" capacity according to SNCF. Eurostar cancelled two trains on Thursday, the London to Paris train (9018) departing at 10:26 AM, and the Paris to London train (9007), departing at 7:13 AM, but the rest are expected to run as normal.
Activists also blockaded the train station at Angouleme on Thursday morning - an increasingly common tactic seen during the strikes when workers simply occupy the tracks in order to halt all trains in and out of the station. These type of actions are typically of a short duration.
City public transport
The Paris public transport network, RATP, will offer "almost normal" services on the city Metro, "with the exception of a few lines". Buses, trams and the Orlyval service will operate at normal capacity.
[#MouvementSocial] À la suite d’un préavis appelant à une journée de grève interprofessionnelle le 6 avril, la #RATP prévoit un trafic quasi normal sur le RER. Le trafic sera quasi normal à l’exception de quelques lignes sur le métro, et normal sur les réseaux Bus et Tramway. ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/oLyUpg6UfA
— RATP Group (@RATPgroup) April 5, 2023
Metro lines 3, 5 and 13 will be disrupted by strike action, and metro line 6 may be affected by the path of the demo in the afternoon.
Line 3 will run one train out of two, line 5 will run one train out of two in the morning and one train out of two in the afternoon, and line 13 will run two trains out of three in the morning and one train out of two in the afternoon. Services on line 13 will only operate from 6 AM to 8 PM.
Lines 4, 8, 11 and 14 will close early on Thursday.
As for the RER commuter rail service, some disruptions are to be expected. The RER lines A and B will run "almost normally". Two out of every three trains will run on the RER C and E lines, and two trains out of every five will run on the RER D line.
As for the Transilien, three trains out of four will run on the N and P lines, two trains out of three will run on the H, J, L and U lines, and one in every two trains will run on the K and R lines.
Outside of Paris, other French cities will also experience disruptions in public transport availability.
In Nice, none of the three tram lines will run on Thursday, and bus services are expected to be heavily disrupted. In Lyon, metro lines should operate normally, but tram lines will run with delays. In Marseille, disruptions on the RTM network are expected to be "moderate".
Traffic
According to French traffic watch dog, Bison Futé, the whole of France is expected to have "green" (normal) traffic levels on Thursday.
However, during previous days of protest and strikes there have been wildcard actions, such as highway blockages on city ring roads. Typically, traffic around major cities has increased on strike days. If you plan to drive in the Paris region on Thursday, you can consult the real-time traffic website Sytadin - link HERE.
Tourist sites
As of Wednesday, only the Palace and Estate of Versailles had announced that it expected to be affected by strike action on Thursday, with a message on their website explaining that the opening of the tourist site is likely to be "severely disrupted on Thursday".
During previous days of action, other popular tourist sites, such as the Eiffel Tower and Louvre have closed. Prior to departing, you would be advised to check the website of the tourist site in question to determine whether operating hours are to be affected by strike action.
READ MORE: 9 of the best activities to do in Paris on strike days
Fuel shortages and oil refineries
Striking workers have continued blockades of several French oil refineries with the intention of stopping deliveries of petrol/gasoline and diesel to filling stations.
As of Wednesday, 8.1 percent of fuel stations in the whole of France were experiencing some level of shortage. The impacts of ongoing strike action have affected different parts of France more than others. In the Paris region, for example, 30 percent of fuel stations were missing at least one type of fuel on Wednesday. Specifically, the SP95-E10 fuel type was most impacted by shortages.
Originally, the effects were concentrated on southern and western France, but the situation in these areas has improved, even as shortages in Paris worsen.
READ MORE: MAP: Where in France are blockades causing fuel shortages?
Schools
The two unions that represent the majority of primary and secondary school teachers, the Snuipp-FSU and Snes-FSU, have called for strikes and demonstrations on Thursday. Unions estimated on Wednesday night that about 20 percent of primary school teachers would walk out.
Striking primary school teachers are required to declare their intention to walk out at least 24 hours in advance, but providing advance notice is not obligatory for secondary school teachers.
Waste collection
The streets of Paris had begun to clean up as of Tuesday, after several weeks of strike action by Paris waste collectors came to an end. However, unions filed a new notice for rolling strikes, which are set to start on April 13th.
While this strike notice does not specifically concern Thursday's day of action, the union representing waste collectors called on workers to "participate actively and massively in the cross-sector days of mobilisation to come, and in particular that of April 6th".
As such, it is possible that there could be walkouts from waste collectors on Thursday as well.
Wildcards
Previous strike days have seen a rising number of surprise or unannounced actions, including blockades at airports and rolling roadblocks on the roads. As the temperature of the dispute rises, don't be surprised to see more of this type of action.
As of Thursday morning, several cities had begun seeing roadblocks. In Toulouse, traffic was reportedly blocked by protesters on the eastern side of the ring road near the Atlantic traffic circle.
In Brest, the Albert-Ier traffic circle was also blocked by demonstrators, and outside of Caen, multiple traffic circles were blocked again on Thursday morning.
#InfoTrafic Manifestations en cours, circulation bloquée aux alentours de #Caen:
— Préfet du Calvados (@Prefet14) April 6, 2023
❌ Mondeville: rond-point Décathlon
❌Colombelles: rond-point Normandial
➡️Empruntez les déviations et itinéraires conseillés pic.twitter.com/cTbjA8VK3i
Rennes several blockades were underway on the city's ring road on Thursday morning. As of 8:15AM, several dozen people had blocked the western branch of the road, between Porte de Beauregard and Porte de Lorient with traffic stopped in both directions.
La rocade sud est déjà complètement bouchée à Rennes #greve6avril pic.twitter.com/A4IpuTpAjO
— Le Mensuel de Rennes (@MensueldeRennes) April 6, 2023
Demos
There will be marches and demos in towns and cities across France - on the most recent strike day of March 28th at least 740,000 people took to the streets across France, according to the country's Ministry of the Interior.
France's ministry of interior announced that some 11,500 police and gendarmes, including 4,200 in Paris alone, would be mobilised on Thursday.
The march in Paris will begin at 2pm at Invalides, and it will move toward Place d'Italie. In Marseille, it will start at 10:30 AM at the Vieux-Port, in Lyon it will start at 11am at the PLace Jean-Macé, and in Nice it will begin at 10am at the Théâtre de Verdure.
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