The RATP announced, Wednesday, March 8, to plan for Thursday a further improvement in traffic in Parisian transport, which will however remain disrupted during this third consecutive day of strike against the pension reform.
On the SNCF side, management announced on Wednesday that train traffic will remain “severely disrupted” on Thursday. One TGV Inoui and one Ouigo out of three should in particular run, as well as two out of five TER on average, depending on the region. Traffic will also remain disrupted on Friday.
On the Parisian network, traffic will thus be disrupted in the metro and very disrupted on the RER B line, but will be almost normal on the RER A (on average 3 trains out of 4) and normal on the bus and tram networks. The RER B will run on average one out of two trains at peak times and two out of three trains at off-peak times. The interconnection between the southern portion of the line – operated by the RATP – and the northern portion – managed by the SNCF – will be interrupted at the Gare du Nord.
In the metro, in addition to automated lines 1 and 14 which will operate normally, traffic will be normal or almost normal in the morning at least on lines 2, 4, 6, 9 and 11. Lines 3, 8, 10 and 13 will remain very disturbed. On Friday, traffic should improve further, according to the RATP. It should remain very disrupted on the RER B and disrupted on “only a few metro lines”. It will be almost normal on the RER A and normal on the bus and tram networks.
In the air, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) in France on Wednesday demanded that airlines give up 20 to 30% of their flights on Thursday and Friday, like the two previous days, due to the strike air traffic controllers.
As since Tuesday, Air France plans to operate Thursday “nearly 8 out of 10 flights, including all of its long-haul flights,” the company told AFP. “Last minute delays and cancellations cannot be ruled out,” however, Air France warned.
Despite the preventive cancellations, “disturbances and delays are to be expected” on Thursday and Friday, the DGAC stressed, inviting “passengers who can to postpone their trip and to inquire with their airline to find out the state of their flight.