European Railroad Discussion > French Intercity Trains In Trouble?

From International Railway Journal.  Might need to copy and paste, since it looks like the "+" at the end didn't hyperlink: http://www.railjournal.com/index.php/main-line/french-regions-call-for-action-to-save-intercity-services.html?channel=524&utm_source=WhatCounts+Publicaster+Edition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=IRJ+Rail+Brief+May+28+2015&utm_content=Full+Article+

Thursday, May 21, 2015
Call for action to save French Intercity services
Written by Keith Barrow
THE Association of French Regions (ARF) and the Federation of French Towns have warned the French government that it must act decisively to save the so-called balance of territory (TET) trains, a network of 40 loss-making long-distance services which serves 355 towns and cities across 21 regions.
"We fear that over half of the TET services will be lost and routes will be transferred to the regions," Mr Jacques Auxiette, president of Pays de la Loire and the ARF commission for infrastructure and transport said at a press conference held by the two associations on May 20.
At the end of last year the government formed a commission of politicians and industry experts, chaired by member of parliament for Calvados Mr Philippe Duron to develop proposals for the future development of the network. The commission is due to present its initial report in the next few days.
The two associations say they are concerned that the state and French National Railways (SNCF) view the TET services in purely financial terms and warn that this could lead to the loss of vital social and economic links between regional towns and cities. Losses from the TET network are forecast to reach €400m by next year.
"The existence and survival of the TET trains is extremely important to our towns and cities, and helps to prevent economic decline in the regions," says Mrs Caroline Cayeux, mayor of Beauvais and president of the Federation of French Towns.
The associations are urging the government to bring forward the concesssioning of public service obligation inter-regional services to enable private operators to enter the market. Currently the government has no plans to implement this before 2019.
Auxiette says regional governments are willing to consider the transfer of some routes to the regions, "subject to adequate financial compensation" from the state.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/02/15 15:46 by knotch8.

Non TGV intercity trains in France have been in serious trouble for a long time, this is nothing new. SNCF are simply not interested in anything which isn't a TGV. The 'good' news is that - according to Today's Railways Europe (issue 235) - that a French government commission has reported in favour of not just maintaining but of expanding, with new MU rolling stock, non-TGV intercity services. If agreed it will most likely mean the end of loco hauled services, which may not be so welcomed by railfans. Unfortunately although daytime intercity services (known as TET in French) may have a future the same commission concluded that there is NO future for domestic overnight trains.

86235 Wrote:
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> Unfortunately although daytime intercity services
> (known as TET in French) may have a future the
> same commission concluded that there is NO future
> for domestic overnight trains.

As I recall, it was suggested that a couple of domestic night services could continue, those being (I believe) the route from Paris to St. Gervais and Paris to Toulouse/Latour de Carol, but perhaps I am imagining things. There has also been speculation in German railfan circles that the Luxembourg/Strasbourg - Perpignan service might continue in summer only, though that may be wishful thinking.

Do you see this loss of locomotive hauled stock being of immediate concern?

Taken a lot of pictures on French Riviera just a few weeks ago and earlier it looks like they always seem to get the very oldest of all rolling stock there. This creates a kind of heaven to old train watching of course, and makes railroading there so much more interesting than would be with just the newer EMUs around. Lots of locomotives, hundreds of Corail coaches in all imaginable colors and even ages old push-pull silver sided coaches and EMUs arer still around and well. Now there also seem to be alot of local regional and "national" coloring around too.

In the picture is one of the recently painted / vinyled class BB22200s shark noses that handle today many of the push pull sets on Riviera. How interesting and unusual color scheme for a French loco!    

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"Same train", just three years ago...

BB25500 (the electric loco type in picture) seem to be gone for long now. But the same ribbed sided coaches solder on. Amazingly, now two seem to be alike, or maybe I should be careful and say that despite my efforts I have not yet to find two that would be completely alike after all these decades of use  8-D

Along with these local and regional trains there seem to be a bunch of interestingly colorful coached longer distance services.

 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/15 06:02 by McKey.

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Glad to hear that rail service won't be eliminated although I would like to have rode some loco hauled stuff before the EMU and DMU fleet expands. There would be little alternative for travel in France without the Intercity Trains. When planning for a couple days there two years ago I found that there is basically no intercity bus service in France. It would be an impossible undertaking to replace all the train services with buses from the ground up. In Mexico the buses ended up being faster able to connect more places than the passenger trains ever could as the Autopistas (Motorways, Tollways) improved. France the rail network connects everything at competitive speeds. The only other way to see France would be to drive which would hurt tourism for sure.

Jim