In today’s Guardian:
Train versus plane: with many domestic flights banned in France, we test its rail network
Visionary policy or pipe dream? An 18-day, 3,000km loop from Paris to the Atlantic and Mediterranean and back should tell us
www.theguardian.com
I bought a “one country” Interrail pass for £201 and set off on a circular loop round France by train, to see whether Macron’s policy was visionary policy or a pipe dream that discounted the strain it would put on crumbling public infrastructure. The 18-day route I’d plotted used trains from high-speed TGVs to rickety regional TERs, blending major cities with small towns. Arriving on the Eurostar in Paris, I’d head west towards Nantes, down the Atlantic coast to Bordeaux and seaside resort Soulac-sur-Mer, across the south to Narbonne and Marseille, before heading across country to the ancient volcanic region of Chaîne des Puys, before returning to Paris...
I’m fairly sure that if this report was about the UK, a train so over crowded that someone was almost injured by flying luggage would be the lead and headline. The graffitied train would probably be the main image. No mention of lines closed in recent decades, or the very infrequent service on most rural lines....I had a new respect for the scale and breadth of the French rail network. When I told this to a waiter in a Clermont cafe, he shook his head and told me French trains were “too complicated”, “too old” and “too slow”. When I said they were still far superior to British trains he burst into laughter.
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