26th December, 2019
Travellers face more disruptions in France Thursday as the over three-week-old rail strike continues despite the Christmas holiday.
Only about half of the high-speed TGV trains is expected to run as scheduled on Thursday, state rail company SNCF warned.
This is an improvement on Wednesday, when only one in three scheduled TGV trains was running.
The ongoing industrial action across France has resulted in severely disrupted rail travel.
According to dpa/NAN, hundreds of thousands of people travelling to and around France over the holiday have been affected by the strikes.
A pause in the strike action wished for by President Emmanuel Macron’s government never materialized, and the tourism and retail sectors felt the pinch.
The French government is expected to meet again with union negotiators on January 7.
Weeks-long protests and strikes against Macron’s pension reforms have created massive disruptions for rail traffic across the country and for local transport in Paris.
Macron’s centrist government has pushed the reforms in order to do away with 42 different pension schemes and replace them with a points-based system.
Workers would also be required to work longer under the new arrangement.