French President Nicholas Sarkozy's reform of the public sector may well trigger a strike on national railways, according to the UK's Transport Intelligence.
Mr Sarkozy is about to launch a campaign to reform the pensions and other benefits of government employees, which include the early retirement package allowing large pensions and the retirement age of 50 that the employees of the French railways have enjoyed for many decades.
Railway workers have been staunch in their defence of these privileges and broke the previous government's reform policy by stopping the Paris Metro as well as the railway in 1995 and 2003, bringing the country to a halt.
SNCF Fret's freight volumes have fallen more than 25 per cent over the past five years due to rising road and short sea shipping and competition from private companies after the opening of the French rail market. SNCF Fret's unreliability has also caused loss of customers, said the report.
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