Your Options If There’s A French Train Strike

[Originally published May 31, 2018. Updated with new strike information]

I had everything planned to a T. After countless hours mapping out my June trip to France—flights booked, accommodations arranged, itinerary locked in—bam!

French Train Strike.

Back in 2018, France’s national rail union announced a major strike, with specific dates set from April 3 to June 28 (As required by French law, the union had to publish when they would be striking). And wouldn’t you know it? The day I was scheduled to arrive, some trains were cancelled.

Rather than panic, I adjusted. I altered my itinerary, rented a car, and made the most of it.

That experience taught me a lot—and with strikes happening again this spring, I’m revisiting the same questions: What are my options? How do I adapt?

Here’s what I learned then, what’s still relevant now, and the travel options you can consider if a train strike ever disrupts your plans.

1. Encountering French Strike Notices In 2018 And 2025

Springtime must be a popular time to strike because the SNCF Controller’s union has recently announced more strikes, nationwide: April 17-June 2, 2025. It was initiated by the Sud Rail union. My understanding is that the strike covers all weekends from Thursday night to Monday morning during this period to coincide with the spring vacations.

I might not be affected as different regions of France have different holidays. It all depends on whether they strike every weekend, everywhere, or just in the zones where there are holiday travellers.

Rail Strike Coincides With School Vacations

I will be in France May 22-June 9 and had planned to travel by train on May 31 and June 3. The first thing I’ve done is check when the school vacations are in the places I am travelling to. I discovered:

• Zone A covers Lyon, Tain L’Hermitage and Roanne and the Spring vacation dates are: April 19-May 4, 2025.
• Zone C covers Paris and the Spring vacation dates are: April 13-27, 2025

Like my dilemma back in 2018, I do have options if there are strikes planned for every zone, every weekend.

2. How I Discovered There Was An Impending Strike

French law dictates that unions must give 5 days advanced notice of a strike. For the strike in Spring 2018, a calendar was issued that showed all the dates in April, May and June. It was basically every 5 days there will be 3 days of strikes and it only applies to some trains, not all of them. Certainly future strike dates may be called off, but that’s up to the union.

Others Could Strike

In my research I learned that individual workers can also “strike” and don’t have to notify the government. They just have to call in to their manager the day before. The problem with this is that a scheduled train might have to be cancelled if they don’t have enough workers. So even if you think you’re OK, you might not be. You won’t find out until 5:00 pm the night before. I know this sound pessimistic, but I want to lay out all the risks.

3. Where To Get Information About Strikes In France

As soon as the dates for the French strike action were set, I saw the calendars everywhere on the internet. In addition to the major British and European news channels, here are some websites to check:

• C’est La Greve website
• SNCF (French National Railway) and SNCF disruption information
• Le Parisien

4. My 2018 Situation Dealing With The Impending Strike

My original itinerary was to fly to Lyon and then travel by train from the airport to Saint Charles station in Marseille which was only a few blocks away from the Airbnb I was renting.  I chose that particular Airbnb because it was near the train station. The perfect plan where no car would be needed for a few days.

Dilemma: How Would I Get To Marseille?

While June 28 was a strike day there was a chance the train I’d choose would not be one of those chosen; however, there was still a risk that my train could be cancelled but I wouldn’t know until the night before. I hate uncertainty when it comes to travel.

5. Options If There’s A French Train Strike

So how would I get to Marseille? Here were my options and the problems with some of them:

Option #1: Do Nothing

Take a chance the strike will end before the day I’d need to take the train.

Too risky. This strike didn’t look good. The union was protesting President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to reform the employment plans of its workers which he was doing so the rail company could be more competitive.

Option #2: Take a chance that there will be another train

How long would I have to wait? Would I even get on the next train? I wouldn’t be the only one inconvenienced. I cou just imagine the crowds and chaos.

Option #3: Take a bus

I looked into a number of bus lines (flixbus.com, eurolines.eu) for a bus that would leave from the Lyon airport. When I looked at the schedules the journey and route that I wanted were long but it was a possible option.

Option #4: Take BlaBlaCar

• BlaBlaCar is a ride sharing platform much like Uber, except one can go from one city to another. There is also now BlaBlaCar Bus.
• The downside is that you won’t know until at least 2-3 days before whether there might be any rides. And, the driver may not be going exactly where you want. The app shows all final destinations but even if you indicate “Marseille”, other towns are shown. Your ride also might not leave when you want, so you might be waiting a long time to be picked up.
• You can put on an alert to be notified of possible rides, but you might not find out until too close to your date. This was too risky for me. I did not want to wait too long for a ride (after having flown from Canada) and I didn’t want the entire trip to take forever.
• There is an app and website (https://www.blablacar.com/ )
• It is not possible to choose your language and currency separately. If you use their UK site, you’ll pay in pounds (GBP) by default. Think about it: you’re in France, charged Euros, but the price is converted to pounds. And because you live in Canada or the US, that charge is THEN converted into dollars. Imagine the amount of money you’re losing due to the numerous exchange rates.
• I have signed up with BlaBlaCar but have not completed the entire verification. I’ve only entered my email. It asks for my phone number and a piece of identification and I won’t be doing this until I’m in France with my French phone number. While everything will be in French, I will be paying in Euros (rather than in British pounds).

Option #5: Fly from Lyon to Marseille

I looked into flights from Lyon to Marseille but they were not cheap and the schedule wasn’t convenient (stopovers or leaving too late). In 2018, Air France had decided to strike too so that option was another risk!

Option #6: Rent a car and drive from Lyon to Marseille

I seriously thought about this but then decided not to. I would have jet lag and the drive would take a minimum of 3.5 hours. There would be the cost of the added car rental, gas, tolls and parking. I looked into the cost of parking and it wasn’t cheap (50 Euros) and I didn’t even need a car in Marseille! I calculated that the total cost would be about $175 more than taking the train. I really didn’t want the hassle of arriving in Marseille and trying to find the parking garage. I’ve driven in Marseille and hated it! The cost to cancel the Airbnb was only $33 and it was worth it.

Option #7: Change My Itinerary

So after considering taking another train, a bus, BlaBlaCar, or renting a car, I decided on a NEW itinerary in 2018. The cost to cancel the Airbnb was only $33 and it was worth it.

Check out my Trip #31 Itinerary

• Fly into Lyon; rent a car and drive to the Ardèche
• Ardèche (Vallon Pont d’Arc) for 3 nights
• Murs (Provence) for a week
• Train to Paris; stopover in Paris for the night
• Pick up rental car and drive to Etretat, Normandy for a week
• Head back to Paris for one night before flying home

Click on the map or on this link and you’ll be directed to a Google Map indicating all the places in this post.

Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google LLC, used with permission.

6. Plans For Dealing With A Potential Train Strike In 2025

It’s still a bit early to change my itinerary or decide to use one of the options I outlined for 2018. I’ll be keeping my eye on the news and hopefully the strikes will not happen on the dates when I plan to travel. If there is a strike, I’ll either take a bus or BlaBlaCar to my destinations. Renting a car at the last minute will likely be too expensive.

If you’re interested in driving through France, be sure to check out my other posts:

• Traffic Tickets In France
• Using Toll Lanes In France
• Driving Through Brittany For 6 Days
• How To Dispute An Unfair Car Rental Damage Charge
• Renter Beware: Costly Roadside Assistance In France

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