Thread by @jonworth

The biggest problem with 🛤 in 🇫🇷?

SNCF's and the regions' attitude to the 🚙

Read the 🧵 - it'll make sense

The whole approach to rail in 🇫🇷 is that - outside Île-de-France, and a couple of tiny pockets around Lyon, Strasbourg and Marseille - the 🚆 is a complement to the 🚗, not an *ALTERNATIVE* to it

This leads - in long distance rail travel - to abominations like Lorraine TGV, Aix-en-Provence TGV and Haute-Picardie TGV

These stations - nicknamed beetroot stations - are basically massive car parks, with no regular trains and just a 🚌 to the nearest town

To use these stations *you need a 🚙*

But you're exaggerating I hear you say. There are TGVs to smaller towns as well

Sure, there are. But then timetables to connect onto regional trains in those places don't work

Look at the connections from Paris to Villefranche Vernet les Bains

The latest I can depart Paris is 11:11 in the morning and still get to Villefranche

The last TER train from Perpignan to Villefranche goes at just 19:16 - for a trip taking 50 minutes

It ought not be too hard to provide a train that connects with the TGV that arrives at 21:13 from Paris

But NO. That sort of thinking does not feature

If you are the sort of person who lives in Villefranche or Prades and wants to go to Paris... you will 🚙 to Perpignan

Or take a route between important regional centres - Nancy to St-Dié-des-Vosges for example

Look at the gaps in that timetable!

And look how late the first train is!

And then you get a clump of trains at the peak hours... when kids need to return home after school

This is a timetable *designed for those people in society who CANNOT have cars*, it is not designed for professional people who might choose to live without one

So what's the solution?

What counties like Belgium, Netherlands, Germany (regionally), Austria and Switzerland do

Run at least one train every hour, all day, around the clock. From 6am until 10pm, at least

The Germans call this a Taktfahrplan

In English it's a clock face timetable

It means that *however* you live, and however your plans change, you can still rely on the train

Your kids fall ill and you need to get back to Wendisch Rietz (population 1620 people, 60km from Berlin)? No problem! One train an hour, all day, every day

Kids fall ill and you need to get back to St-Dié or Villefranche? Ooops, there's a 2+ hour gap in the timetable... so 🚗

A good railway network is one that is the backbone of a public transport system that can accommodate the needs of all sorts of people, all the time, and *can cope when those needs change*

Railways in France are simply not built with that in mind

The 🚗 is the flexible backbone, not the 🚆

And sure, don't get me wrong, there are problems with networks in other European countries, and especially in Germany where I'm based

But give me the German approach to rail over the French approach any day

/ends

P.S. You might notice I have not mentioned the TGV inOui / OUIGO split here. That's basically a distraction - an effort to do something for social groups who can't afford to go on a TGV.

Give *everyone* a decent train instead, whether regional or long distance!