Day 2 of wildcat French train strike upsets start of holiday

PARIS – A wildcat strike is disrupting train travel in France for a second day, leaving thousands of people in the lurch at the start of school holidays.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe during a surprise visit Saturday to the Gare de l’Est station in Paris asked the SNCF train authority to examine legal means to get workers back on the job.

Philippe called the walkout a “hijacking” of the law.

Unions said strikers were exercising their “right to withdraw,” which can be invoked in case of perceived danger.

The CGT union called for the walkout after a collision Wednesday in eastern France between a regional train and a truck left 11 injured.

The Sud-Rail union said there was only one SNCF employee on the train, the conductor.