Nearly a quarter of TGVs have been cancelled, the day before France’s schools break up for the grandes vacances, as the CGT, Unsa, SUD-Rail and CFDT unions stage a 24-hour strike demanding wage increases in the face of rising inflation.

Just three trains out of four are running as scheduled on the Northern TGV Inoui, Eastern and Atlantic axes; while four out of five services and two out of three Ouigo trains will operate on the South-East network. 

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International traffic – such as Eurostar, Thalys or Lyria – should run “almost normally” throughout the day, according to SNCF Voyageurs. 

Intercité and regional TER services, however, are heavily affected by the walkout. Just one Intercité train in three is running, while all overnight services except for Paris-Nice have been cancelled, and three out of five scheduled regional TER services will not run.

Customers whose journeys have been cancelled should have been notified by SMS, SNCF Voyageurs said. The carrier offered train changes, but also encouraged users to postpone their travel if at all possible.

Commuters in Ile-de-France, meanwhile, face problems getting in and out of work with the following services in the greater Paris region affected.

Transilien Lines H and P: One train in three will operate

Transilien Lines J, L, N, R, U: One train in two will run as scheduled

RER B, C, D, E: One train in two will run.

T4: One tram will operate every 15 minutes

The strikes, coming so close to the start of the grandes vacances – the first big getaway of the summer is expected this weekend – will concern those looking forward to their holidays, with thousands of early getaways already disrupted by strikes by employees and subcontractors of Aéroport de Paris, firefighters from Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, easyJet and Ryanair, in particular, causing the cancellation of several hundred flights.

SNCF CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou insisted in late June that upcoming holiday departures were “not threatened” despite the threat of walkouts and said that the number of railway workers would be increased.

“We have put the issues on the table, we try to build a balance, because increasing wages is one thing, but there is also an economic issue: it costs and we must be careful about the impact on the price of tickets, for example,” he told broadcaster Public Senate. 

“It is necessary that at the end of the year, the company remains balanced so that it does not cost the country.”

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Unions and SNCF bosses are set for talks on Wednesday.