Travellers in the French capital should brace for a difficult week on the rails. Lifestyle portal *Sortir à Paris* reports that from **12 to 18 October 2026** multiple Metro, RER and Transilien lines will see partial closures due to a mix of student demonstrations, security-related station shut-downs and major infrastructure works. The biggest immediate impact will be on **Tuesday 13 October**, when high-school and university unions plan marches from Place d’Italie to Les Invalides. Police have already ordered the pre-emptive closure of Rue du Bac (Line 12) and Varenne (Line 13) from 09:00, with more stations liable to shut at short notice along the protest route. Similar action last week forced the closure of Bastille and Barbès-Rochechouart, snarling cross-town journeys for commuters and tourists alike. Beyond protest-related measures, planned engineering will stop **Line 6** entirely on Sunday 18 October and truncate evening services on RER lines A through E, including the critical branches serving Charles-de-Gaulle and Orly airports. Evening curfews on stretches of RER A (Cergy and Boissy branches) and RER B (airport link) will push late-arriving air passengers onto replacement buses or taxis. For mobility managers the advice is clear: build in at least 30–45 minutes of contingency for intra-Paris transfers, pre-book airport shuttles where possible, and keep an eye on the Bonjour RATP and Île-de-France Mobilités apps for live updates. Visitors scheduled to attend conferences at Porte de Versailles or La Défense may find bike-share or ride-hailing quicker than the truncated metro. Although no formal RATP strike is scheduled this week, unions warn that unscheduled sympathiser actions cannot be ruled out if police tactics around the student marches prove heavy-handed. Employers should therefore maintain flexible attendance policies and remote-work options through at least next Monday.
Source: Sortir à Paris
