The delays and cancellations caused by strikes on France's railways show no sign of abating, transport companies have warned.
Commuters face another two days of walking to work, as strikes over pension reforms continue. (Credit: Philippe LOPEZ / AFP)
Ongoing strikes across France have caused severe delays on the nation's rail network, and commuters face continued disruption on Monday and Tuesday as protests against President Macron's pension reforms roll on.
Rallies in major cities have seen clashes with police, and striking workers have closed much of the Paris metro as well as forcing the high-speed rail network (SNCF) to run a much-reduced service. Many flights were also cancelled, and schools across the nation shut as 800,000 people took to the streets.
Although French newspaper Le Monde reported that air travel is expected to return to normal over the weekend, and avoid further disruption on Monday and Tuesday, the rail network is not expected to do so.
Rail chiefs have said a meagre 15% of commuter trains would run as normal on the weekend, and only slightly more (16%) of high-speed TGV services would operate as scheduled.
"Although we do not have the details… this weekend, beyond this weekend, Monday… will still be very difficult." said Agnès Ogier, SNCF spokesperson.
And it's not just internal trains that will be affected. Only half of Eurostar trains to the UK and Belgium will be operating and travellers hoping to make the trip to Switzerland or Italy will have no luck as the Lyria and SVI services are likely to run no trains at all on Saturday or Sunday.
Commuters who turn to buses may have no luck, as RATP (the Paris metro service) said as many as 50% of buses in Paris could be affected over the weekend and into the start of next week.
Although the strikes continue to cause disruption, and meant many people will work from home again next week, not everyone is downhearted.
Luc and Catherine, Swiss tourists in Paris, told AFP that as they tend to walk much of the time anyway, "the metro strike didn't bother us too much".
However, they won't be taking the same approach on their return journey.
"On the other hand the SNCF strike... there's 459 kilometres separating Paris and Geneva, so we won't be walking".