RENFE running in Languedoc Roussillon?

[Focalplane]

This morning I was driving on the seaward side of Étang de Leucate at 10:55 am. Across the lagoon there was an all white TGV like trainset running south past Fitou. All white? Ah yes, it must be from Spain. Which means, I guess, that RENFE have started running over French soil to, is it, Marseilles?

[Joseph_Pestell]

Nice that they are finally using that expensive piece of civil engineering across the border. I have driven along there quite a lot over the last few years and not seen a single train. Yet in the UK we can't even find the money to electrify lines with a 4tph service.

[Clay Country]

This morning I was driving on the seaward side of Étang de Leucate at 10:55 am. Across the lagoon there was an all white TGV like trainset running south past Fitou. All white? Ah yes, it must be from Spain. Which means, I guess, that RENFE have started running over French soil to, is it, Marseilles?

That would have been a Renfe S100 AVE set. These trains have been modified for operation in France and are used on services from Barcelona to Marseilles and Toulouse.

[Focalplane]

Nice that they are finally using that expensive piece of civil engineering across the border. I have driven along there quite a lot over the last few years and not seen a single train. Yet in the UK we can't even find the money to electrify lines with a 4tph service.

To be fair, the RENFE train to Toulouse only runs on LGV track as far as Perpignan, while the service to Marseilles only uses LGV track beyond Nimes. Still no sign of any serious work being done on completing the high speed line from Nimes to Perpignan, only a lot of political wrangling between national and departmental interests.

[JeffP]

There's quite a bit of that going on over the proposed LGV link from Poitiers to Limoges too.