French Strike - Train to Le-Mans Cancelled !?

[justin1230smith]

Has anyone heard of a strike the has affected trains into Le-Mans - The daily mail says ferries also affected !?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-183285/Tou...

I've got a Eurostar booked out of London in the morning to Lille where I was due to head to Le-Mans and I just got a rather bland email which I think translates to "there is a strike, no train !" - Glad I checked my emails or I would have been stranded in Lille - Nothing on Eurostar website and their telephone lines are closed !!!

Can any shed any light (or give me a lift from Essex )

Justin

• *********************

Chère cliente, cher client,

Vous avez prévu de voyager avec SNCF le 13/06/2014 sur le train 5232 à destination de LE MANS.

Nous vous informons que votre train ne circulera pas en raison d'un préavis de grève reconductible.

Vous pouvez vous faire rembourser intégralement votre billet sans frais quel que soit votre tarif, y compris pour les tarifs non échangeables, non remboursables. Le remboursement est possible en gare, boutique SNCF ou dans votre agence de voyage agréée SNCF et ce jusqu'à 60 jours après votre date de voyage.

Des informations complémentaires seront disponibles en fin de journée sur le site infolignes, sur l'application mobile SNCF Direct ou au N° VERT : 0805 90 36 35.

SNCF vous remercie de votre compréhension.

Vos données personnelles font l'objet d'un traitement automatique dans le respect de la loi "informatique et libertés" du 6 janvier 1978. Le traitement a pour finalité la gestion et l'exécution de votre contrat en dehors de toute finalité commerciale. Le responsable du traitement est SNCF - Direction de la Supervision, de l'Information Voyageurs et des Systèmes - 2 Place de la Défense, 92053 Paris - La Défense Cedex, France.

Ce message vous est envoyé par : SNCF - 2 place aux Étoiles - CS 70001 - 93633 La Plaine St-Denis Cedex - R.C.S Bobigny B 552 049 447.

• ************

[justin1230smith]

Now I'm depressed and my mates are on Maison Blanche, beer flowing already and Reuters confirms the rail strike for tomorrow

Options:

Find a ferry & drive myself down there tonight but chances of getting into Maison Blanche with the car ? - ZERO me thinks.

Find someone I can share a car with and get dropped at the gates.

- Anyone able to help ?

[allojon]

There seems to be availabilitytomorrow on Rail Europe which is an TGV offical site. Maybe it is just ad hoc trains not running and you can book yourself on to another time. Worth investigating.

[allojon]

Just seen you are via Lille, I was looking at Paris. Change your Eurostar to Paris and go that way?

[justin1230smith]

Thanks for the suggestions...

It seems I can get onto the Eurostar website as you suggest and maybe change to another route but with no-one on the end of the phone there I'm taking a gamble as to whether that train is running or not, the SNCF website doesn't even seem to make mention of cancellations, maybe too late for the web update team to post anything.

[Jasper3.0]

I'm flying to Austria on Saturday, the dailymail article suggests there are strikes there. I can find no evidence of strikes on the web.....

Are you sure that the daily wail article is correct?

[justin1230smith]

It seems flights and ferries were disrupted today (along with Europes cabs !!) but it seems only the rail side of things has been extended through Friday

Eurostar have now updated their website and are offering free change of dates.

SNCF website still shows many trains running so I was thinking of changing my booking as someone suggested but www.infolignes.com (the live service site) shows every one I type in as cancelled.

In summary, Eurostar can get me into France, maybe even as far as Paris but then SNCF is the weak link for tomorrow.

Now looking at Ferry options but it's a damn long boring drive

I suppose chartering a helicopter is a bit extreme !

Edited by justin1230smith on Thursday 12th June 21:37

[justin1230smith]

Right, in true British spirit I WILL NOT BE BEATEN, I WILL GO TO THE RACE !!!

The escape plan...

1) Eurotunnel booked for 3 hours time.

2) I think I have found a Maison Blanche ticket to park the car (fingers remain crossed for Jerry to come back to me on route !)

3) Wifeys SL55 keys prised from her hands.

- Any backup spare MB tickets as a fall back texted to 07850 633833 please.

Tally Ho !!!

[Johno]

Got the same e-mail, due to fly into Orly early morning and then train to LM, but now not sure what I'm gonna do. Potentially car rental is the only option for me :-(

[justin1230smith]

Spare seat in the Merc but going to be a long shot to make that work !

[justin1230smith]

Right, showered, car warming up, I'm hitting the road.

Have a great 24 hrs everyone

[Johno]

French stbox diesel 'small' car booked and tally ho.... c u in le man's..

Nothings as fast as a rental!

[Skywalker]

Satan trumped in my face with this strike. SWMBO was coming out via Eurostar & TGV to meet up with me at Le Mans. Found out yesterday that her TGV connection from Lille Europe had been cancelled.

The SNCF site had no end of problems for anything aiming for Le Mans.

Eurostar were absolute Stars. She was able to switch her Lonson St Panc to Lille ticket to London to Paris, and I drove up to meet her.

A shame to miss the Group C qualifying as well and Quali sessions 2 & 3 for the 24h - but Paris in sunshine was lovely, and we had a lovely meal in Boulogne-Billancourt before leaving to make our way back.

[FurryMonkey]

Does anyone have an idea of how reliable the infolignes.com website is? I'm booked Paris to Le Mans tomorrow and it suggests my train is running, whilst Justin's example above is a definite no-go. If it is running will it suddenly be a free for all?
Temped to chance it, else I need to get down to Folkstone pronto!

[Skywalker]

@FM we found the infolignes site useful - but themore we looked, the greater the number of trains that were 'whooshed' away as cancelled. Maybe tomorrow will be better than today.

[FurryMonkey]

Thanks. I've been keeping an eye on it and so far so good. Will sleep on it (briefly) and if I still looks good first thing I'll chance it.