Strike in France 17/18 Feb, impact on Eurostar?

[MisterT]

I just heard about the strike in France that has been announced for 17/18 February. I'm travelling on Sunday from Rotterdam to London by Eurostar. Besides the 'it is possible to change your ticket to another day' and the fact that they cancelled all ticket sales for this weekend, there isn't any helpful information about it from Eurostar itself. Are the Eurostar trains from The Netherlands/Belgium to London likely to be impacted by this strike?
My train is still displayed as running, but how likely is it that it stays that way? Does anyone here have more information available by any chance, or experience with this kind of thing from previous strikes?

 

[nwales58]

London-Brussels: the industrial action is SNCF chefs de bord so unlikely to be affected as those are not french-crewed as far as I know.

 

[MisterT]

That is the kind of information I was looking for, thank you!

 

[Red Dragon]

My daughter and family are travelling on the 17th London Paris, and then Paris Lyon also on the 17th.
Eurostar should be ok but on to Lyon,
I can't see what they can do. Any advice on options would be much appreciated

 

[nwales58]

Although Eurostar are calling it a strike it is a 'mouvement sociale', industrial action short of a full blown strike in our terms.

About half TGV (and Ouigo and Intercités) services are expected to run.

The advice on sncf-connect.com is the same as usual during disruption: check after 1700 on the day before to see whether your train is cancelled (shows as supprimé), if so what else is running. So after 1700 (1600 here) on Friday you know what the plan is.

If cancelled you can change free of charge on any train up to Monday 19/02 or get 100% refund and, this time, a 50% reduction on a new ticket for within a month. If you booked on sncf-connect that is available automatically, if a 3rd party booking site I don't know what happens.

Grève SNCF : prévision et information des perturbations de trafic - SNCF Connect | FAQ sncf-connect.com DE

SNCF Connect : Grève SNCF : prévision et information des perturbations de trafic - SNCF Connect - Aide et Informations

www.sncf-connect.com

As it's Paris-Lyon, as soon as SNCF show cancelled you could see if Trenitalia still have space then get a refund from SNCF.

The bad news is that these are not good weekends to be travelling if you need to rebook. In case you don't know, French school holidays are arranged as 3 zones each with a skiing fortnight. Zone C is already away, zone A goes away this weekend. The following weekend is a disaster with zone B going to the Alps as zone C returns. See

Quel est le calendrier des vacances scolaires 2023-2024, 2024-2025, 2025-2026 ?

Les dates de la rentrée scolaire et des vacances scolaires de Toussaint, Noël, Février, Printemps et des grandes vacances dépendent de la zone (A, B ou C).

www.service-public.fr

Paris-Lyon on the 17th is relatively OK. If returning, the days up to the 26th are mega-peak as Paris is coming back at the same time as the rest of the north is going away. On usual behaviour I would expect another walkout then with a possible payoff to suspend the industrial action until after the holidays.

 

[rvdborgt]

Although Eurostar are calling it a strike it is a 'mouvement sociale', industrial action short of a full blown strike in our terms.

They tend to call any planned/announced strike a "mouvement sociale". Spontaneous strikes are sometimes called "grève". Normal people always use "grève".

 

[nwales58]

Is there a distinction between controleur and chef de bord in SNCF?

Reading more news this evening the dispute seems to be about the implementation of a previous agreement including 2 conductors per TGV (is that per set so 4 on a double set?) but I don't understand whether there is a different staff grade involved.

 

[Red Dragon]

Although Eurostar are calling it a strike it is a 'mouvement sociale', industrial action short of a full blown strike in our terms.

About half TGV (and Ouigo and Intercités) services are expected to run.

The advice on sncf-connect.com is the same as usual during disruption: check after 1700 on the day before to see whether your train is cancelled (shows as supprimé), if so what else is running. So after 1700 (1600 here) on Friday you know what the plan is.

If cancelled you can change free of charge on any train up to Monday 19/02 or get 100% refund and, this time, a 50% reduction on a new ticket for within a month. If you booked on sncf-connect that is available automatically, if a 3rd party booking site I don't know what happens.

Grève SNCF : prévision et information des perturbations de trafic - SNCF Connect | FAQ sncf-connect.com DE

SNCF Connect : Grève SNCF : prévision et information des perturbations de trafic - SNCF Connect - Aide et Informations

www.sncf-connect.com

As it's Paris-Lyon, as soon as SNCF show cancelled you could see if Trenitalia still have space then get a refund from SNCF.

The bad news is that these are not good weekends to be travelling if you need to rebook. In case you don't know, French school holidays are arranged as 3 zones each with a skiing fortnight. Zone C is already away, zone A goes away this weekend. The following weekend is a disaster with zone B going to the Alps as zone C returns. See

Quel est le calendrier des vacances scolaires 2023-2024, 2024-2025, 2025-2026 ?

Les dates de la rentrée scolaire et des vacances scolaires de Toussaint, Noël, Février, Printemps et des grandes vacances dépendent de la zone (A, B ou C).

www.service-public.fr

Paris-Lyon on the 17th is relatively OK. If returning, the days up to the 26th are mega-peak as Paris is coming back at the same time as the rest of the north is going away. On usual behaviour I would expect another walkout then with a possible payoff to suspend the industrial action until after the holidays.

Thank you

Although Eurostar are calling it a strike it is a 'mouvement sociale', industrial action short of a full blown strike in our terms.

About half TGV (and Ouigo and Intercités) services are expected to run.

The advice on sncf-connect.com is the same as usual during disruption: check after 1700 on the day before to see whether your train is cancelled (shows as supprimé), if so what else is running. So after 1700 (1600 here) on Friday you know what the plan is.

If cancelled you can change free of charge on any train up to Monday 19/02 or get 100% refund and, this time, a 50% reduction on a new ticket for within a month. If you booked on sncf-connect that is available automatically, if a 3rd party booking site I don't know what happens.

Grève SNCF : prévision et information des perturbations de trafic - SNCF Connect | FAQ sncf-connect.com DE

SNCF Connect : Grève SNCF : prévision et information des perturbations de trafic - SNCF Connect - Aide et Informations

www.sncf-connect.com

As it's Paris-Lyon, as soon as SNCF show cancelled you could see if Trenitalia still have space then get a refund from SNCF.

The bad news is that these are not good weekends to be travelling if you need to rebook. In case you don't know, French school holidays are arranged as 3 zones each with a skiing fortnight. Zone C is already away, zone A goes away this weekend. The following weekend is a disaster with zone B going to the Alps as zone C returns. See

Quel est le calendrier des vacances scolaires 2023-2024, 2024-2025, 2025-2026 ?

Les dates de la rentrée scolaire et des vacances scolaires de Toussaint, Noël, Février, Printemps et des grandes vacances dépendent de la zone (A, B ou C).

www.service-public.fr

Paris-Lyon on the 17th is relatively OK. If returning, the days up to the 26th are mega-peak as Paris is coming back at the same time as the rest of the north is going away. On usual behaviour I would expect another walkout then with a possible payoff to suspend the industrial action until after the holidays.

Thank you nwales58 for your comprehensive reply. I'll pass it on to my daughter and her family.

Thank you nwales58 for your comprehensive reply. I'll pass it on to my daughter and her family.

 

[Class800]

If it's the chefs on strike, you'd hope people could travel provided they bring their own lunch!

 

[nwales58]

Have you tried TGV catering? Definitely no chefs (english meaning) involved, other than Lyria maybe.

 

[Red Dragon]

Thank you


Thank you nwales58 for your comprehensive reply. I'll pass it on to my daughter and her family.

A quick update.
Your appraisal and information was extremely useful, and my daughter and family were able to change their plans to avoid the strikes and the melee. Thank you.

 

[MisterT]

Eurostar has now published a list of cancelled trains, so anyone travelling can use their train timetable info to see if their train has been cancelled.
Example for London to Paris on Sunday (just change the stations and/or date to get information for other journeys): https://www.eurostar.com/uk-en/trav...ncras-intl/paris-gare-du-nord?date=2024-02-18

There actually seems to be some cancellations on the London - Brussels - Amsterdam leg, but luckily for me, my train is not on the list.

 

[nwales58]

Worth knowing some Brussels get cancelled. Wonder if it is to fill in for French crews and keep more Paris services running with only 2 cancellations.

 

[Ant1966]

Worth knowing some Brussels get cancelled. Wonder if it is to fill in for French crews and keep more Paris services running with only 2 cancellations.

We came back from Ghent to London yesterday (17th) via E*. 4 Brussels > London trains were cancelled, inlcuding 3 in a row in the afternoon! Luckily the last 2 trains of the day ran (including ours - which was obviously full) Ive no idea what happened to the previous 3 train loads of passengers, nor what E* do in terms of compensation or alternatives if you are effectivly stranded.

 

[rvdborgt]

Ive no idea what happened to the previous 3 train loads of passengers, nor what E* do in terms of compensation or alternatives if you are effectivly stranded.

From what I've read, that ranges from being very helpful and rebooking on the next available service to merely sending a text message "your train has been cancelled" and leaving it up to you to find out what to do.