French railway strike

There is something depressingly familiar about strikes on France’s impressive railway network. As I’m writing this (October 19 2019), large numbers of people are hanging around stations wondering when they will be leaving. But the SNCF makes a range of information services available.

• Phone: Main lines-TER 0805 90 36 35; Transilien 0805 700 805 (freephone numbers on most networks)
• SMS/text Transilien: 4 10 20 (type in the name of your station)
• Web: Sncf.fr 
• App: Application SNCF

It’s worth remembering that rail strikes have to comply to certain levels of service in France. So trains usually run at about 60% of service. So our tip is to check the above numbers before deciding to make other expensive plans.

One good thing is that France has a very successful car-sharing service called BlaBla Car. Check to see if you can find your destination.