Rail commuters jostle for buses in France

Many air passengers on transit through Paris were expected to continue their journeys to neighbouring countries like Luxemburg and Belgium by train. In view of the rail workers’ strike however, the airlines made alternative arrangements to convey their passengers to their final destinations by bus instead of high-speed trains. Passengers waited in the chilling Paris […]

Many air passengers on transit through Paris were expected to continue their journeys to neighbouring countries like Luxemburg and Belgium by train. In view of the rail workers’ strike however, the airlines made alternative arrangements to convey their passengers to their final destinations by bus instead of high-speed trains. Passengers waited in the chilling Paris cold Sunday morning to catch spaces in the buses. As soon as buses arrived, they scrambled in with their luggage, and a journey to a nearby city expected to take an hour by train was made in more than three hours.
A shaken Nigerian passenger on an Air France flight from Abuja en route Houston, Texas was moved to ask an air hostess if the strike would affect his travel plan as he first had to drop by in nearby Liege by train.  He never got any response.
Workers of state-owned SNCF have been on a nation-wide strike since Wednesday, causing major disruptions on suburban and intercity high-speed trains. They threatened to continue the strike after talks with Transport Minister Frederic Cuvillier broke down late late last week.
The trouble is over a bill to merge Reseau Ferre de France, owner of France’s rail networks and the main train operator, SNCF, to reduce a debt of 40 billion-euros in a move government says would create more cohesion in the rail network and fine-tune it for privatization in 2019. But the workers oppose the merger, saying it would not help sector, and argue that the bill cannot even protect their jobs.