French rail traffic was disrupted on Wednesday morning by a strike called by rail workers protesting against government plans to trim 1.5 per cent of the network's 240,000 workers this year.

Only one TGV high-speed train out of three was running on Wednesday and the strike was also affecting shorter routes ad commuter lines. SNCF, the state railway operator, forecast that one in three high-speed trains would be cancelled and commuter services badly affected.