Frustrated French travellers have climbed through train windows to board the few services still running today as strike action paralyses the country's rail service.

A video shot on a Paris commuter train show a father passing his crying child through a window to another man before climbing in himself.

Another shows commuters embarking on trains the same way as packed platforms prevent them from getting to the doors of the carriage.

France has been crippled for a second day in a row, with 86 per cent of train services cancelled, following one of the worst days of industrial strife since Macron was elected president nearly a year ago.

The situation is now so bad that riot police are being used to patrol platforms and other parts of railway stations in France.

Paris police were called in to maintain public order on replacement buses, with a spokesman saying: 'They are extremely overcrowded and tensions are running high.'

As Paris commuters took to the roads instead, traffic website Sytadin reporting 350 kilometres (220 miles) of tailbacks - double the usual amount.

Commuters have been forced to set off hours early, work from home or find other solutions such as carpools due to disruption that is set to cause months of problems for French businesses.

Protest: Demonstrators attend a rally called by French trade union CGT at Saint-Charles train station in Marseille, on the second day of three months of rolling rail strikes

The roof is on fire: Protesters later moved outside the station, and burned flares as they demonstrated in Marseilles

At Lille station in northeastern France, 56-year-old Marc Cornille was worried the disruption could cost him his temporary job contract.

'I understand their demands, just not the way they're going about it,' he said of the rail workers.

WHAT ARE THEY FIGHTING FOR? THE BENEFITS OF FRANCE'S RAIL WORKERS President Macron is looking to reform the benefits awarded to rail workers, currently enjoyed by 92 per cent of the SNCF's 150,000 staff. Perks include: - Job for life. Guaranteed employment after a 2.5year trial period. - Early retirement. Drivers can retire at the age of 52, and office workers at 57. Retirement age in France is now 62. - Average salary for a rail worker is 37,080 euros (£32,396), compared to 34,944 euros (£30,530) for the average Frenchman. However, SNFC says that these figures also include top execs, and that 60 per cent of staff are paid under 36,000 euros per year. - Free rail travel for family members. - All rail workers are on a 35-hour working week. - 28 days paid holiday every year. Advertisement

The SNCF has warned the walkouts would continue to have knock-on effects Thursday for France's 4.5 million daily rail users as staff struggle to get regional services running again as normal.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has told travellers to brace for 'difficult days ahead', but he insisted the government will press on with reforms which it says are needed to make the SNCF cheaper to operate as EU countries prepare to open passenger rail to competition by 2020.

Workers are protesting attempts by President Macron to reform the rail workers' 'special status', which includes job-for-life guarantees, retirement at 52 and 28 days paid holiday per year.

Only about 12 percent of trains were running yesterday - the first of a series of weekly two-day strikes that labor unions have called for the next three months.

Rail service is expected to remain 'very disturbed' today, with 86 percent of trains cancelled nationwide, according to forecasts from state-owned rail network SNCF.

As well as national travel, international rail services are also affected, namely the Eurostar high-speed trains connecting France with Brussels and London.

All for one: One of the demonstrators in Marseille is seen with a Guy Fawkes mask on his head

Big walkout: SNCF said 77 per cent of train drivers were on strike yesterday

Day two: Rail workers unions will be striking two days out of every five days for the next three months to protest President Macron's reforms

Five services from London to Paris and two services from London to Brussels and Lille, have been cancelled today.

Similar cancellations from the UK to France and Brussels are to be expected on days of strike for the next three months.

How, what, when? The dates when the French rail unions are on strikes are marked in red

Trains to Disneyland Paris have also been re-routed, with holidaymakers forced to change at Paris' Gare du Nord, meaning longer journey times.

No trains will run between France, Switzerland, Italy and Spain and only one in every three trains to Germany will operate, the SNCF said.

The strikes by France's rail unions have been brought on by President Emmanuel Macron's attempt to reform the national rail monopoly and open it up to EU competition.

SNCF is currently operating at a 48billion euro (£42billion) loss, with additional annual losses of 3billion euros (£2.6billion), and Macron says his aim is to balance the books.

However, rail workers say it is all a ploy to move towards a privatised rail network.

The reforms include plans to eliminate a special status that rail workers, known as 'cheminots', have enjoyed since the beginning of the 20th century.

The 'cheminot' status effectively guarantees jobs for life and other benefits, in keeping with the image of France's railways as an essential pillar of the country's infrastructure and its public services.

Once a rail worker passes a two-and-a-half year trial period, they are guaranteed a job for life, and they are allowed to retire much earlier than workers in any other industry - at the age of 52 for drivers.

The government wants to maintain the status for existing workers, but abolish it for new workers.

United: Demonstrators of all ages had gathered in the Saint Charles train station in Marseille

The rolling rail strikes, set to last until June 28, are being seen as the biggest challenge yet to the President's sweeping plans to shake up France and make it more competitive

Angry: Staff at French state rail operator SNCF walked off the job from 7.00 pm on April 2, the first in a series of walkouts affecting everything from energy to garbage collection

Macron's government says the guarantee is no longer tenable in a globalized and increasingly automated economy that requires more flexible workforces.

SNCF said 77 per cent of train drivers were on strike on Tuesday.

The overall proportion of rail workers participating in the work stoppage including employees on trains and on the ground - was 33.9 per cent, the company detailed in a statement.

Macron has made reforming France's economy a central plank of his presidency.

Many of his plans, particularly in the labor market, are meeting with increasing opposition from France's unions.

In the meantime, students at universities from Paris to Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes have been shutting down or severely disrupting classes for weeks arguing the changes are an elitist attack on France's egalitarian principles.

Strike travel: Commuters arrive at Saint-Lazare train station in Paris on day two of the strikes

Trains in France and the Eurostar international services are expected to remain 'very disturbed' today, the rail union said

Cancellations: Only around 14 per cent of trains are thought to be running today

Protesters at a second Parisian faculty, the Lettres de Sorbonne-Universite, blocked the campus on Wednesday, following students at the Lumiere Lyon 2 university in eastern France who joined the fray on Tuesday evening.

'The objective is that only knowledge compatible with the dominant ideology - compatible with a market economy - will get taught,' read a statement from the Lyon students, who have occupied the main lecture hall.

French unions and left-wingers have consistently called for students and workers to come together to resist Macron in a re-run 50 years later of the famed May 1968 anti-government demonstrations which saw them join forces.

'I'm working for a May 2018,' radical leftist and former presidential candidate Olivier Besancenot told France Inter radio on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Air France staff, garbage collectors and some energy workers staged separate walkouts along with train drivers, adding to a growing atmosphere of industrial discontent.

'This is the start of a social power struggle almost unknown in France,' firebrand leftist leader Jean-Luc Melenchon told a rail workers' protest in Paris.