France faces second day of transport chaos

France faces second day of transport chaos

	Published : Fri, 19 Oct 2007 06:24 By : Agencies Print this Story

PARIS Thomson Financial - France faces a second day of paralysed public transport today as two rail unions continued to strike over planned pension reforms and services only slowly started to resume.

With two out of eight train unions calling for a 24-hour extension of yesterday's strike, the French state rail company SNCF warned that services would be have ry disrupted' this morning as it worked towards resuming normal services.

In Paris the metro and urban rail body RATP said that one metro train in two was operating, two out of three buses, but two of the main suburban commuter lines had yet to resume service.

'Operations are better than expected,' said a company official.

SNCF said early Friday only one-third of Paris regional trains would be running in the morning, rising to two-thirds in for the evening rush hour.

The company said it aims to resume by 4.00 pm (1400 GMT) full service for fast TGV and regular trains departing from and arriving in Paris, with one-third of trains running in the morning.

It expected to have only one-third of trains travelling between regions operating in the morning, with two-thirds operating in the afternoon.

Disruptions on Friday could affect the rugby World Cup action in Paris, where France plays Argentina for third place ahead of Saturday's final between South Africa and England.

Friday night's match is at the Parc de Princes stadium in southwest Paris -- a venue heavily reliant on metro lines.

SNCF assured English rugby supporters that Eurostar services between England and France were running normally on Friday, however. Around 60 pct of Thaylys fast trains to Belgium and The Netherlands were running, it added.

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