To a railway lover like me such meandering journeys through La France Profonde sound marvellous. Can they possibly be a commercial proposition?
The venture has been made possible by the EU-inspired scrapping of SNCF’s monopoly on French rail passenger services. The Italian rail company Trenitalia is already competing on the high-speed TGV line between Lyon and Paris.
The low-speed trains also grow from an initiative by President Emmanuel Macron and his government to rescue some of France’s under-used, 19th century, local railways – a reversal of the policy adopted in Britain under Dr Richard Beeching from 1963.
The cross-country, slow train idea was formally approved by the rail regulator before Christmas. It has been developed by French public interest company called Railcoop (pronounced Rye-cope), which has already started its own freight service in south west France.
A little research shows that a Caen-Toulouse ticket might therefore be circa €30 for an almost ten-hour journey. SNCF currently demands between €50 and €90 for a seven-and-a-half-hour trip, including crossing Paris by Metro between Gares Saint Lazare and Montparnasse.
Maybe Railcoop is onto something after all.
The company/cooperative has over 11,000 members or “share-holders”, ranging from local authorities, businesses, pressure groups, railwaymen and women to future passengers. The minimum contribution for an individual is €100.
The plan is to reconnect towns ignored, or poorly served, by the Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV) high speed train revolution in France of the last 40 years. Parts of the Bordeaux-Lyon route are already covered by local passenger trains; other parts are now freight only.
MAP France’s planned new night trains
For the time being it plans to lease and rebuild eight three carriage, diesel trains which have been made redundant in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
There will be no space for a buffet or restaurant car. Restaurants and shops along the route will be invited to prepare local specialities which will be sold during station stops and eaten on board.
What a wonderful idea: French provincial meals on wheels; traiteurs on trains.
Olivia Wolanin of Railcoop told me: “We want to be part of the transition to a greener future, which is inevitably going to mean more train travel.
“We also want to offer journeys at a reasonable price to people who live in or want to visit parts of France where train services have all but vanished. We see ourselves as a service for people who have no cars – but also for people who DO have cars.”
Full disclosure. I am a fan of railways. I spent much of my childhood at Crewe station in Cheshire closely observing trains.
The government commissioned senior civil servant, and rail-lover, François Philizot to study the problem. After many delays, he reported that much of the French rail network was in a state of “collapse”. Far from turning out to be a French Beeching, he recommended that a few lines might have to close but most could and should be saved – either by national government or by regional governments.
Since then the Emmanuel Macron-Jean Castex government has promised a big new chunk of spending on “small lines” as part of its €100 billion three year Covid-recovery plan. Even more spending is needed but, for the first time since the TGV revolution began in 1981, big sums are to be spent on old lines in France as well as new ones.
The Railcoop cross-country network, to be completed by 2024-5, will run (at an average of 90 kph) partly on those tracks. Can it succeed where a similar German scheme failed?
François Philizot suggested in a recent interview with Le Monde that a revival of slow trains might work – so long as we accept that a greener future will also be a less frenetic future.
“When you’re not shooting across the country like an arrow at 300 kph, you can see much more and you can think for much longer,” Philizot said.
Amen to that.
While it is 90 mins train trip vs 60 mins car trip, many riders live in between so the extra travel time for an average rider would be more like 10 to 15 mins.
I totally agree with Nathan. The end-to-end trip is not for everybody. Most commuters ride for 20 minutes.
There is something else that is very important to consider: Free wi-fi on board. If I am connected to fast internet, like I am now for example, then I can be doing this—and other work—on the train.
Another 30 minutes will get you to downtown. With a Burrard Subway, the Surrey-Chilliwack service can go all the way to North Vancouver. Expanding the network of user-friendly rail will entice more customers to use rail.
New municipalities would be added as partners along the route: New West, Burnaby, Vancouver, and three on the North Shore. That will add partners to the rail proposal.
Housing people within a 5-minute walking distance of the stop will attract even more users. Especially when the housing is guaranteed-affordable, or 30% of the median household income.
The Vancouver median income before taxes is $72,585. Divide that by 30% to calculate the cost of the affordable house and you get: $242,000. For $300,000 we can provide a Tesla in the garage and free charging at the tramstops and stations.
The Leewood Study is based on 18 stops over 98 km operating between 80 to 100 kph, stopping at 10 stations and 8 tramstops. So it is already operating as a ‘express’ or limited-stop service. That may need to continue even when more stops are added in the form of new tramtowns. We don’t want to make the service much longer during rush hour.
Following on this train of thought, modern tram would be delivering guaranteed-affordable housing to over 1 million people.
With 20,000 people per new tramtown, 30 stops would net housing for 600,000 people. The balance of the houses would be delivered as neighborhood intensification taking place around new stations and stops in existing neighborhoods at less than four storeys.
Modern tram is not just for tourism. Today, it represents our best shot at providing guaranteed-affordable houses in sufficient quantity to end the housing crisis.
To do that, we must STOP building the Skytrain-and-Towers.