All trains between Spain and France cancelled until Monday
All trains running between France and Spain from today until Monday are cancelled due to the strike by inspectors of the French railway company SNCF, which has forced the cancellation of 60 % of French long-distance trains, including high-speed trains (TAV).
On international lines, the SNCF confirmed that services to Spain are the most affected by the four-day strike in relative terms, as a third of the services to Italy and Switzerland and half of those to Germany are being maintained.
In addition, Thalys trains connecting Paris with Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne, and Eurostar trains between Paris and London, are operating normally.
In the interior of France, a third of the TGVs in the east of the country and in the southeast, a quarter on the Atlantic axis, half in the north and a quarter of those of the low-cost brand Ouigo will be operating during these four days.
Only half of the conventional long-distance trains and none of the night trains will be in service.
The SUD-Rail, CFDT and FO unions are backing the protest, which mainly involves wage demands, but not the CGT, which is the SNCF’s main central union.
In France there are almost 10,000 train inspectors, of which around 3,000 work on the TGV and other long-distance trains.
In the case of the connections between Spain and France (Paris-Barcelona, Lyon-Barcelona and Marseille-Barcelona-Madrid), the cancellations come a week before the end of their joint operation by SNCF and Renfe.
The French railway company decided in February to unilaterally break the agreement with Renfe and from next week it will operate only one of these three connections, the one from Paris to Barcelona, because it considers that the others cannot be profitable.
As the French authorities have not yet given the certificates that Renfe has requested to continue operating the Lyon-Barcelona and Marseille-Barcelona lines, they will disappear next week.
