TGV link to Barca from Paris

[coupwotcoup]

I have just purchased the latest Thomas Cook Timetable and was quite surprised to read that there are only two direct trains a day.
One is far too early to incorporate a E* trip and with the usual lack of synergy on local Spanish trains, it is impossible to connect anywhere locally from Girona after 9.30pm.
I presume that this service will improve once the new station at Barca is finished (is it still happening as I read there were a few problems?) otherwise it seems a lot of money for few trains.
Any heads up would be appreciated.
Cheers.

 

[Crispy75]

The standard gauge line only goes to Figueres so far, so you have to change there for Barcelona. The Madrid-Barcelona HS line won't reach to Figueres until 2012, when the first truly direct Paris-Barca trains will run (5:30h travel time!)

seat61 seems to think that the Paris-Barca route is currently fairly painless, with only one cross-platform interchange at Figueres.

 

[coupwotcoup]

The standard gauge line only goes to Figueres so far, so you have to change there for Barcelona. The Madrid-Barcelona HS line won't reach to Figueres until 2012, when the first truly direct Paris-Barca trains will run (5:30h travel time!)

seat61 seems to think that the Paris-Barca route is currently fairly painless, with only one cross-platform interchange at Figueres.

Been studying the minutiae and there is a second class connection from Figueras Vialfant to Barca which stops at Girona (my connection is a few miles further South).
Must be the only service of that class in Europe one needs a reservation for!

 

[Gordon]

Can I ask why you would be surprised to see that "there are only two trains a day Paris - Barcelona"?

It is an awful long way across Europe, and until recent years there would be one way of getting there and that is by one (long distance overnight) train a day

An equivalent might be London - Inverness, which only has the odd through service. On such a long distance route there are not enough hours in the day to provide more than a few daytime services.

 

[coupwotcoup]

I wouldn't expect there to be an hourly service but with the cost of building the new connection and being what I would consider a popular route, then four a day wouldn't beyond the realms of possibility, no?
These routes are devised and costed to maximise customers/passengers and having travelled regularly down to Spain by train since pre-Eurostar days, I would have thought that the timings would have been made to suit more people.
With the first train leaving Paris at just after 7am, it is geared up for the French only and although the second is fine, apart from the fact that the Spanish don't do connections very well and one is buggered at Girona at 9.30pm.
I agree one size does not fit all but a bit of joined up thinking can go a long way.
As you are on and purport to be an SNCF advisor, why do so many trains going down to the Spanish border - Cerbere/Portbou, terminate in France?

 

[Crispy75]

Because you have to change gauge, of course.

EDIT: Unless you're asking why, specifically, it happens on the French side of the border, not the Spanish side?

 

[coupwotcoup]

Not so with the local trains as the gauge in one platform at Portbou is still standard, with eight a day (approx) doing so but roughly the same amount terminate at Cerbere.
It happens the other way too, but have always been at a loss to understand why when it is hardly a high-profile route.