French public transport to improve on 42nd strike day

Wednesday marks the 42nd day of strikes in France against the government pension reforms, but train management SNCF said on Tuesday that the train flow will improve and continue to improve, with traffic gradually returning to normal.

A train arrives at Montparnasse station in Paris. AFP/Martin Bureau

Some 80 percent of TGVs, France’s high-speed inter-city rail service, and TERs, or regional trains, will be in operation on Wednesday.

• More transport chaos expected as French strike enters day 41
• French 'Spiderman' joins pension protests with Paris skyscraper climb

"On average, 9 TGVs out of 10 will be provided to all [of] France and International destinations" and traffic will be "almost normal to and from Paris," according to the SNCF statement.

Transilien trains, such as the RERs that operate within Ile-de-France, the Paris region, will be operating at 75 percent capacity on Wednesday. RER A and B are expected to run one out of two trains all day.

RATP does advise that traffic flow will still be “disrupted” despite efforts to improve service.

En dépit de ces améliorations et compte tenu du risque persistant de saturation du réseau, notamment sur le pôle de Châtelet-Les Halles, la #RATP invite tous les voyageurs qui en ont la possibilité à différer leurs déplacements ou à privilégier un autre mode de transport. pic.twitter.com/76GeuWXiGc

  RATP Group (@RATPgroup) January 14, 2020

 "Despite these improvements and given the high risk of saturation of the network, in particular at the Châtelet-Les Halles center, #RATP invites all travelers who can to postpone their trips or to choose another mode of transport" RATP said in a tweet.

All the Paris metro lines will be running, but some will only have partial service, according to RATP. Not all metro stations will be open, either. Metro lines 1 and 14 will operate at full capacity, due to the fact that they are run by computer.

Parisian trams will operate normally and an average of 4 out of 5 buses will run.

Earlier on Tuesday, RATP management released statistics showing that only six percent of train workers were on strike-- nearly 25 percent of all the drivers were on strike, with only 10 percent of the signal people off the job.