Millions affected as France rail strike enters second day

Paris April 4 (IANS) Millions of commuters faced inconvenience on Wednesday as France entered the second day of a railway strike against government-proposed reforms.

The state-run railway SNCF said that rail traffic will remain disrupted on Wednesday although the number of high-speed TGV trains will go up from one in eight to one in seven Efe news reported.

The rest of the schedule will remain the same with one long distance train in eight one regional and local trains in five and three international trains out of four running.

However all trains to Spain Switzerland and Italy remained cancelled.

Meanwhile the Thalys trains that run from Paris to Belgium and the Netherlands were running without any disruptions. Three Eurostar trains out of the four to London and one train out of every three to Germany were running too.

Due to the disruptions many people fell back on private transport leading to huge traffic snarls including almost 400 km long congestions in the Paris region in the morning said the French highways agency the Centre National d Information Routiere.

The government said the SNCF needed deep reforms to address its escalating debt which stood at $56.5 billion at the end of 2017.

--IANS
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