Strikes and Things

Isn’t transnational travel so easy? That’s what they say. So there’s a gargantuan mammoth of a mountain separating Spain from France; who cares if the Alps have held off the Italian and Swiss countryside for centuries? Hasn’t the invention of the train changed everything? These days one can make it across the continent in mere hours via rail or even less via jet.
But in Europe it often feels impossible to plan ahead and actually expect things to move on accordingly. At least this unfortunate statement is true for those like me — young, aspiring university students studying outside their home country’s boarders. And, one who didn't know of the trials and turbulations present when training it internationally from small countryside cities.
From trains late in French: “retard,” Spanish: “tarde,” German: “spät,” Italian: “tardi,” Dutch: “laat,” etcetera and so forth, to the inevitable public service strikes brought on in autumn, traveling with only days to spare can become an unnatural disaster.
A round trip from France’s Southwestern city of Pau to Germany’s Munich via TGV and SNCF trains can run upwards of 300 euros, nearly $450 these days, which includes the lost time aboard creeping trains or simply, watching and waiting for a connect.
“My limit is 150 Euro,” said a friend of mine at the Université de Pau, Jenna Grubbs. “As long as it’s not more than that, sure, I’ll go to Belgium for one weekend before we go home.”
The 20-year-old brushed her short brown bangs away from her face as she stood attentively watching the SNCF employee search for an outgoing train to Brussels, Belgium. She didn’t mind the nine hour voyage as taking a night train would prevent her from having to pay for a night in a dreary hostel for upwards of 20 euro.
“No, no, this one is cheaper,” the man said as he pointed to the 1998 Dell PC in front of him. As he flashed the screen at her, she nodded in silent agreement.
“Ok, I guess, I don’t have to go to that last class on Friday,” she said to me, her fellow traveler.
Situations like these are all together too many in French train stations. What’s more is the overall overstatement of the benefits involved in European rail lines. Or perhaps frustration has simply gotten the better of me. Recently countries like France and Germany have taken off their uniforms and formed barriers around train stations across their countries. Paris’ Montparnasse Station was overwhelmed with let-down travelers who were unable to enter the station Thursday, October 18. The strikers hoped to prevent the new government, headed by President Sarkozy, from moving the retirement age of train and bus workers up five years to a young 60.
Over the third weekend in October hopeful voyagers looked up at the boarding call in search of their platforms, but were met with the common phrases: “Train Cancelled” or “Train Arrives Later.” The latter had to do with the overflow of vacationers boarding trains without tickets praying to go unnoticed as they walk from car to car eying empty seats. I was one of them. Armed with my Eurail Pass, Passport and Reservation ticket, I planned for a weekend journey to Barcelona, Spain, across the Pyrenees Mountains. Upon arriving at the first station I found the supposed one-day strike from the day before lasted another making my train a victim.
Holding firm that European Public Transportation was the best and wouldn’t let me down I took the seven hour catastrophic alternative to train — a bus ride from Pau, France to Toulouse. The Toulouse station was amassed with daunted rail riders missing trains left and right. Arrival on time is a sparse event in Europe.
“This, this is not the right train for you,” said a Spanish rail employee as he circled the date and time on my ticket. I had boarded a train 12 hours after my scheduled train left. The conductor glanced at my Eurail pass, pointed at the clearly wrong ticket, and I mumbled “France is on strike” in pathetic Spanish boardering on Franglais, in attempt at explaining why I was more than ½ a day late for the train.
The man, whose nametag read Antoine, starred again, said, “Ahh,” then walked on scooting by those with seats and squeezing by those standing in the aisles or near the toilettes. When trains are on strike everyone is in the same boat: an angry, sad, destitute boat.
“We caught a train to Perpignon after somehow getting out of Paris and now we’re trying to get to Barcelona,” said Eric Sader, a Canadian University student traveling abroad. “Paris was insane. I couldn’t even take off my back pack once we get on the train it was so packed.”
He added that while it only cost three euro to get from Paris to Perpignon with their Eurail Passes they lost a full day of travel due to the French strike.
Strikes have been an eminent part of European rail travel. In “Europe by Rail” the book slides in at the beginning of the 1000 page guide that trains can be a shady business during strike season. In France it always feels like strike season...or really is.
It should have taken the two Canadian’s less than 10 hours to get from Paris to Barcelona, Spain, and it should have taken me no more than nine hours from Pau to Barcelona. Train lines are full of “should haves.”
Although the Eurail pass offers the bonus of only having to pay for a reservation, when it comes down to it, time is money, and study abroad students simply do not have it. Eurail Passes can’t make trains run quicker or more efficiently. After excruciatingly long amounts of on the road travel, once one arrives at their final destination all is forgotten of the unbearable journey — until forced to return home.