The SNCF state rail company said only 60 percent of TGV high-speed trains would run and warned of even greater disruption on regional trains. It predicted just 35-50 percent of its Lyria high-speed service to Switzerland.

But Eurostar trains to London and Thalys trains to Germany and the Netherlands will not be affected, it said.

Metro and overland train services will also be badly disrupted, the RATP transport authority said, but buses and trams were expected to run normally.

French workers, spooked by the global crisis and fearful for their jobs, are preparing their biggest one-day strike since Sarkozy took office in 2007.

(AFP/Expatica)