WessexEclectic Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 Opinion piece from 26/01/22 by John Lichfield on thelocal.fr . (Archive) Seems progress is being made, slowly... 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted January 26, 2022 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 26, 2022 16 minutes ago, WessexEclectic said: Opinion piece from 26/01/22 by John Lichfield on thelocal.fr . (Archive) Seems progress is being made, slowly... Not available without subscription. Connexions is the same, and now even LCI has made its news page a members only feature, so that's that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WessexEclectic Posted January 26, 2022 Author Share Posted January 26, 2022 44 minutes ago, Oldddudders said: Not available without subscription. Connexions is the same, and now even LCI has made its news page a members only feature, so that's that. Does the archive link not work? Don't have a sub either... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Colin_McLeod Posted January 26, 2022 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 26, 2022 Link works for me. Interesting proposal to reopen slow cross country rail services. Interestingly this is made possible by the nature of many French branch lines that connect other routes rather than running to a dead end terminus. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Andy Hayter Posted January 26, 2022 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 26, 2022 Whether you can read it or not might depend on your security settings. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted January 27, 2022 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 27, 2022 21 hours ago, WessexEclectic said: Does the archive link not work? Don't have a sub either... Yes, got the archive link to work, thanks. Splendid idea. Direct trains from Le Mans to Caen hint at a car-free route to Portsmouth, whence there are plenty of trains, of course. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold C126 Posted January 27, 2022 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 27, 2022 Sounds too good to be true, especially about returning freight, but I wish it well. Let us hope the French traveller is more of an 'aesthete' than the British. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordonwis Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 (edited) 7 hours ago, C126 said: Sounds too good to be true, especially about returning freight, but I wish it well. Probably is! The fundamental problem is the demography of France with such low population per area of ground. Some of the proposed routes are very long - what trains will they use - will there be catering? Depending on these (and other factors) would it work in the long term - I'm not convinced. Then there is frequency. The sheer size of France means that long distance cross country services can't be 'hourly shuttles' like equivalents between UK regional centres, so you are left with one or two trains per day. Edited January 27, 2022 by Gordonwis Additional point about frequency added 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold C126 Posted January 28, 2022 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 28, 2022 11 hours ago, Gordonwis said: Probably is! The fundamental problem is the demography of France with such low population per area of ground. Some of the proposed routes are very long - what trains will they use - will there be catering? Depending on these (and other factors) would it work in the long term - I'm not convinced. Then there is frequency. The sheer size of France means that long distance cross country services can't be 'hourly shuttles' like equivalents between UK regional centres, so you are left with one or two trains per day. It is funny that the demography of France - low population density - acts against wagon-load/'Speedlink'-style freight, I think, yet Britain's opposite also killed it off with it helping road haulage more. I admit I do not quite understand the arguments, but am perplexed by this paradox. As for not having an hourly shuttle, I feel this is the minimum to make a service attractive and what the usually-car-driving passenger will expect, and the article says there will be no buffet facilities on board. Mon Dieu! I just hope the French traveller follows my example, and packs a large and weighty feast when spending lunch-time on a train journey. This is making me thirst for a glass of Cotes du Rhone... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 (edited) I'm sure that French travellers will have no problem bringing their own on-board dining! The connection with Eurostar at Lille (Europe to Flandres) provides a convenient entry to the Railcoop system for UK travellers, without messing with ferries. Edited January 28, 2022 by EddieB 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Buckner Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 Would be interesting to find out what the average journey time/length would turn out to be. I wonder if the cheap fares apply if you change at a junction from one Coop train to another - could you get a through fare or would you have to buy two tickets. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordonwis Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 On 28/01/2022 at 12:02, Mike Buckner said: Would be interesting to find out what the average journey time/length would turn out to be. I wonder if the cheap fares apply if you change at a junction from one Coop train to another - could you get a through fare or would you have to buy two tickets. I think the average journey time would be of little relevance. The example journey times are already stated in the text. The long and the short of this project is that the trains will all take a very long time to get from one end to the other of each of the proposed routes. The first route on the list is Bordeaux - Lyon, due to open at the December 2022 timetable change. From what I can glean, the plan is to use X72500 railcars, so the following questions raise themselves: How attractive will the passenger accommodation (whatever stock is used) these turn out to be for very long journeys will the stock and/or services be any more reliable than they have been under SNCF ownership Will huge long single routes be sustainable, given that they have petered out over the years Will the routes actually be competitive with other modes? (Le Croisic - Basel is around 9 hours by road) If no-one actually travels end to end on these very long distance services will the services eventually end up being split into segments (which would essentially be a repeat of what has happened under SNCF) 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Storey Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 (edited) Hard to see the logic in this project. The delays alone over such distances could make this a very unreliable prospect. But the key issue is demand. When SNCF, and its Regional sponsors in many cases, can only muster a mere 6 direct trains a day between a large town like La Rochelle and a big city like Bordeaux, despite some welcome track upgrading fairly recently, and at reasonable prices, it suggests either a lack of demand (which I doubt very much - most of these trains are quite well filled, from observation) or an inflexibility in timetabling/rostering of crews and train sets and/or in taking risks. Even the new LGV from Paris (Tours) to Bordeaux cut its original service despite obvious demand, due to very high track access charges (part of the deal with the private consortium that built it, after construction costs rose). Despite the greater population density in England, the realisation that at least an hourly service (or as near as you can get to one) is needed to serve almost any line, to generate demand, is a lesson learned long ago. If the new RailCoop is to succeed, then it must test the market for shorter distance, more frequent journeys, before heading off-piste. Of course, that requires flexibility of which there is scant evidence so far on the French network. Frankly, the French who have cars, are wedded to them, but for good reason. Edited February 9, 2022 by Mike Storey spelin 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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