Thread by @jonworth

Why French rail needs better timetables, part 6242639

These are the times for Paris-Lille trains on Monday 14 November, across the morning and lunchtime

If you think *only* about Paris-Lille this sort of makes sense… More trains for commuter peaks

But what if Paris-Lille is only one part of your journey, and you need connections?

My trip is Nuits-sous-Ravières (2 hours south of Paris) to Bruges (90 mins north of Lille) on that day

And I need to be in Brugge by 13:15 or so

And so it all breaks down…

The earliest I can get to Paris
08:04

And then Paris-Lille-Brugge
08:45 - too early, not enough time to safely take RER Gare de Lyon - Gare du Nord
10:16 - gets me to Brugge too late

If there were a 09:45 that’d get me to Brugge at 12:44, and that’d do just fine…

In this case there is an alternative - Thalys via Brussels - that will get me there on time… But will cost me twice as much as going via Lille 😡 Because Thalys prices are a scandal, but it’s a #CrossBorderRail high speed train, so no one cares

Trains are part of a network

Most passengers Paris-Lille might indeed only do that - but design timetables *only for them* and you exclude people who are NOT only doing that trip!

Damn rail in France is annoying…

/rant ends