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STRIKES

Strike to ‘strongly disturb’ Parisian bus and tram services on Monday

Strikes over working conditions means that bus and tram lines in the French capital will be running at 60 percent capacity on Monday, with further disruption expected later in the week.

Published: 22 May 2022 17:18 CEST
Strikes will see tram and bus lines operating at a significantly reduced capacity in Paris on Monday.
Strikes will see tram and bus lines operating at a significantly reduced capacity in Paris on Monday. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

A fresh wave of strikes at the RATP – the company responsible for operating public transport in Paris – will result in widespread disruption on Monday. 

While Metro and RER services will run as normal, bus and tram services will operate at a significantly reduced capacity. 

In a notice to passengers published on Sunday evening, the RATP said that some bus lines would be closed completely. Only two out of three buses will run on the lines that remain open during the daytime. The night bus service will run as normal. 

On average, three out of five trams will run on Monday. 

Normal traffic is expected on tramlines T5, T6 and T7. 

On T1, only one out of two trams will run, with a ten minute interval between each shuttle. The line will only run between Gare de Noisy and Gare de Gennevilliers. Operation times are limited to 06:00-11:00 and 15h:00-20:00. 

On T2, only one out of two trams will run during rush hour. The line will connect Porte de Versailles and Puteaux with shuttles running every ten minutes during rush hour and every 20 minutes outside of this. Between Pont de Bezons and Charlebourg, shuttles will run every five minutes during rush hour and every fifteen minutes outside of this. 

T3a will operate one out of every two trams, exclusively between Pont du Garigliano and Porte d’Italie. The line will run from 06:30-11:00 and 16:30-21:00. 

T3b will operate half of all trams, exclusively between Porte de Vincennes and Porte de la Chapelle. Traffic will only run from 06:00-10:30 and 15:30-20:00. 

The T8 line is by far the most disrupted with only one in every four trams running. The line will only operate between Saint-Denis – Porte de Paris et Epinay–Orgemont. Trams will run between 06:00-10:00 and 16:00-20:00. 

Further strike action is expected on Wednesday, although RATP are yet to disclose the scale of that later disruption. 

What is behind the strikes? 

Bus and tram workers are striking over proposed plans to open up RATP services to subsidiary companies, with changes to working conditions.

As of January 1st, 2025, all bus will be transferred to the subsidiaries or competing companies who won bids issued by the regional transport authority, Île-de-France Mobilités. 

RATP plans to put the new working conditions into effect – those that would have been set to apply in 2025 – as early as July. These changes would impact at least 18,000 drivers. 

Specifically, drivers will fall under the “territorial social framework” (CST), the minimum legal framework for working hours, which will require 35 hours of work per week (and 37 hours per week for select drivers). Currently, the RATP’s rules regarding working hours are more advantageous, with the average driver working 33 hours a week (excluding overtime and travel time). 

Union management has been fighting against these proposed changes for over a year, having already held a strike March 25th, which impacted over 30 percent of bus lines in the Paris region.

Now, they calling for mobilisation to “defend their working conditions” again.

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TRAVEL NEWS

Revealed: The ’15-minute rule’ on French trains

A recent update to SNCF Voyageurs' general terms and conditions of sale requires passengers to take their seats within 15 minutes of departure, or risk losing it.

Published: 18 September 2024 16:21 CEST
Revealed: The '15-minute rule' on French trains

“Failure to claim a reserved seat within 15 minutes of the train’s departure from the station indicated on the ticket may result in the loss of the reserved seat and, more generally, of any seat,” reads a September update of the general terms and conditions of sale.

Consumer watchdog UFC Que Choisir spotted the update to SNCF’s T&Cs earlier this month. 

Its meaning is clear. If your seat is left vacant during this period – for example if you have decided to head for a coffee in the buffet car before finding your seat – it can potentially be reallocated to another passenger.

But, it turns out, it’s all a bit of a storm in a teacup. The intention, according to SNCF Voyageurs, is not to catch out unwitting customers. It told BFM TV that it was intended to “facilitate the repositioning of customers on board in the event of a passenger’s absence”.

And it has its origins in a 2021 European regulation that allows passengers travelling without a reserved seat to claim one if it is free, or considered to be free.

In truth, not many passengers board TGVs without a reserved seat – when you book your ticket you are usually allocated a number ticket. When booking online you can select whether you want to be upstairs or downstairs, in a window or aisle seat or choose to request a seat next to a friend. If you are travelling in first class you can select the precise seat you would like.

But it can happen – for example, if a traveller has missed a connection, they will be invited to board the next train in that case will not have a reserved seat. Likewise if a train has been cancelled, passengers will usually be invited to take the next one.

Equally, the vast majority of TGV users find their seats as a matter of priority, rather than heading immediately for the buffet car. Furthermore, SNCF Voyageurs said that the rule has been in place for some time, and that staff on the train would seek to find a solution in cases of conflict. 

“No new instructions have been given to train managers, and the inclusion of this practice in the T&Cs is for information purposes only.”

The rule applies only to the high-speed TGV trains – both InOui and the budget OuiGo lines – but not the InterCité or local TER lines. On TER trains seats are usually not reserved so are allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis (or possibly on a ‘standing in the corridor’ basis if you are on an especially busy train).

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