Strike, jams continue in Paris

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Commuters in Paris have braved severe traffic jams as transport workers in the city continued a second day of strikes against planned pension reforms by President Nicolas Sarkozy.

A spokeswoman for the RATP, the company that runs Paris's transport network, told CNN that subway trains and bus services were running at two-thirds capacity, but the RER, the city's suburban rail service, had ground to a halt.

This meant a second day of delays for beleaguered commuters, who were forced to use bikes, roller blades and scooters to get to work.

Many Parisians chose to stay at home, but those who decided to drive in were caught up in severe go-slows with transport Web sites reporting more than 320 kilometers (200 miles) of traffic backed up across the capital during Friday rush hour.

There were also fears for fans traveling to the final of the Rugby World Cup between England and South Africa this Saturday, with the RATP telling CNN it could not rule out the strikes continuing into the weekend.

"We will not know until the end of the day. We are still waiting for the unions to tell us their plans," said the RATP spokeswoman.

Elsewhere in the country rail services were getting back to normal after the country's biggest strikes in 12 years brought France to a standstill on Thursday.

The 24-hours of labor action by transport staff and workers in the gas, electricity and postal sectors was a response to Sarkozy's pension reform plans, which formed a large part of his election campaign.

Previous attempts to reform the pension plans have failed. In 1995, Prime Minister Alain Juppe caved in after three weeks of strikes crippled the country's transport system.

Opinion polls in the French newspapers, however, have revealed limited public support for the strikes this time round, with 67 percent of people surveyed for the daily center-right paper Le Figaro saying the the government should not "yield to the union's demands."

A spokeswoman for SNCF, the national rail authority, said there were still limited delays as they dealt with the backlog but that she expected services to be back to normal by the end of Friday.

She said two smaller unions -- Sud-Rail and FO -- were continuing with industrial action Friday but that most of the other major unions were expected to meet on Monday to discuss whether to strike again.

Most international train services were still running, however, with the Eurostar service between Paris and London laying on extra trains to ferry rugby fans to the final.

"If you're going to Paris on a Eurostar train, we'll get you there," Seth Williams, a Eurostar spokesman reassured supporters traveling to the game. E-mail to a friend