Rail traffic in France was badly disturbed Thursday by a strike by staff of the state-owned SNCF company on Thursday, to protest for salary, employment, public service, strike right and the company's future when opening the traffic to the European competition, the company said.

Four French major Trade Unions called the strike, which started from 8:00 p.m. (1600 GMT) Wednesday and will last until Friday 8:00 a.m. (0600 GMT), SNCF said, leaving only 60 percent of high-speed trains and 35 percent of trains on national lines in service and between 25 and 60 percent of trains in operation.

High-speed Eurostar trains linking Paris to London, as well as Thalys trains linking Paris to several major European cities, were running on or close to schedule. According to SNCF, the strike mobilized Thursday 25.8 percent of the railway workers and the traffic was expected to be almost normal on Friday.

Source: xinhua