France - railways, public transport, services and incidents (merged posts)

[whole diary]

[Hal]

SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) said today it will cancel up to 70% of TGV^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) services from Wednesday as the new lockdown - Reconfinement - has begun across France.

Occupancy of mainline trains has dropped to 15% from about 50% last week, as new rules prevent people from leaving their homes except in specified circumstances (work, medical appointment, food shopping etc). The Reconfinement will last for a minimum of four weeks from midnight 29 October.

[stuving]

About the revived sleeper trains, French press reports quote transport minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari as saying the first would be on the Paris-Nice line, and the second would link Paris with the Pyreneen city of Tarbes.

The new (or resumed) Paris-Nice night train did start with its first run last night. The only English report I can find is pre-reporting from yesterday, but it did happen as described - complete with Castex making the PA^▸ (Public Address) welcome announcement. What the fares will settle down at, and how much subsidy that will involve, is hard to say.
From RFI:

French PM to inaugurate newly resumed Paris-Nice night train service
Issued on: 20/05/2021 - 17:00

Planned for 16 April and then postponed due to the Covid-19 health crisis, the Paris-Nice night train leaves this evening for the first time in three years, with French Prime Minister Jean Castex as an honorary passenger. The resumption of the service is part of a government push for 'greener' transport options.

The French Prime Minister Jean Castex is due to inaugurate the night-time Intercités train at the Austerlitz station before sleeping in a first class carriage: departure at 8.52pm, arrival at 09.11am on Friday on the French Riviera. The journey will take a twelve hours, compared to less than six hours by TGV^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse).

This launch "highlights a virtuous mode of transport that contributes to the opening up of the regions. Nice is ultra-connected for the upper classes but less so for students and others," the Prime Minister's entourage told French news agency AFP.

Tickets start at 19 euros for a reclining seat, 29 euros for a second class sleeper and 39 euros for a first class sleeper.

Massive investment in the rail sector

The Paris-Nice Intercités, which stopped its operation in December 2017 due to a lack of profitability, will connect Paris-Austerlitz and Nice-Ville every day in both directions, with six stops including Marseille, Toulon and Cannes.

With this long route in his agenda, Castex wants to highlight a "rapid concretisation of the government's recovery plan", which has earmarked 5.3 billion euros for the rail sector, including 100 million euros for night trains.

It provides 50 million for the refurbishment of 51 night carriages and another 50 million for the reception of passengers and the adaptation of workshops.

...

[Lee]

More good news - Association Chemins de fer de Center-Bretagne (CFCB) have concluded an operating and circulation agreement with SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) Reseau to run tourist trains from Pontivy southwards to Lambel Camors from next summer. These will initially run on Wednesdays and Sundays, which are the 2 days per week that no freight paths are scheduled.

If this is successful, then a joint passenger/freight operating agreement will be sought to expand the number of operating days, and extend towards the junction with the main line at Auray, which is served by TGVs^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) to Rennes and Paris, and local trains to Quimper, Lorient and Vannes. The ultimate aim is to have a 7 days a week "national rail" SNCF service from Pontivy-Auray providing all of the above connections, coexisting with freight trains, and with tourist trains that would continue to run in the summer months.

Could something similar work in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)? Now, there's an idea...

The big day has arrived - Today Pontivy Interchange has opened, and the first tourist train has run:

[Richard Fairhurst]

Nicely timed to coincide with the Tour de France's visit to Pontivy, too!

[Lee]

Nicely timed to coincide with the Tour de France's visit to Pontivy, too!

Indeed - We had half-price rail singles and a €1 flat fare bus ticket offer for the duration of the Tour de France being in Brittany as well.

[Lee]

More good news - Association Chemins de fer de Center-Bretagne (CFCB) have concluded an operating and circulation agreement with SNCF^▸ (Societe Nationale des Chemins de fer Francais - French National Railways) Reseau to run tourist trains from Pontivy southwards to Lambel Camors from next summer. These will initially run on Wednesdays and Sundays, which are the 2 days per week that no freight paths are scheduled.

If this is successful, then a joint passenger/freight operating agreement will be sought to expand the number of operating days, and extend towards the junction with the main line at Auray, which is served by TGVs^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) to Rennes and Paris, and local trains to Quimper, Lorient and Vannes. The ultimate aim is to have a 7 days a week "national rail" SNCF service from Pontivy-Auray providing all of the above connections, coexisting with freight trains, and with tourist trains that would continue to run in the summer months.

Could something similar work in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)? Now, there's an idea...

The big day has arrived - Today Pontivy Interchange has opened, and the first tourist train has run:

I visited Pontivy Interchange last Wednesday (22 September 2021) and travelled on the tourist train. Report and pictures can be found here.

The summer operating season is now over, and the tourist trains have been more successful than anyone dare hoped, selling out every single service since the beginning of August. They are now taking a short break before resuming Winter/Santa specials in November, which I am sure will prove just as popular.

Although you obviously cant read everything into the performance of tourist trains, one cannot help but be encouraged as we continue to prepare for eventual full "national rail" reopening between Pontivy-Auray, for which - as I have mentioned on the forum before - the ball is now very much in our court:

Whilst in the UK, the idea of mixing national rail and heritage operations is viewed as radical and controversial, over here in Brittany it is far more commonplace. The Guingamp-Paimpol line has a national rail service during the winter months, and this is mixed with a steam service timetable over part of the route between Pontrieux-Paimpol during the summer months.

Similarly, once the final phase of the Pontivy Reopening Project is complete, there will be a national rail service between Auray-Pontivy during the winter months, mixed with a heritage tourist train operation during the summer months.

What we are waiting for with Pontivy is the completion of the development, construction and deployment of our own battery trains, which will also provide additional services on non-electrified routes such as Guingamp-Carhaix, Guingamp-Paimpol and Saint Brieuc-Dinan-Dol. These additional services cant be provided at present because a) we dont have sufficient spare DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) rolling stock and b) even if we did, our budget wouldnt stretch to the level of subsidy that, at least initially, would be required to operate those additional services with them.

Our experts tell us that once operational, our battery trains operating costs would be low enough to break even with just a handful of passengers on board per service, and as broadgage suggests for the WSR, we see them as the way forward for such services to be both economically and environmentally viable into the future.

I had my work hat very much on throughout my visit, and gained a lot of very useful insights. I will in the next few days post in "How Stuff Works" an overview of how our reopening business cases are progressing, and the processes we are going through.

[johnneyw]

Came across this today.  Could it be a model for elsewhere if it can be made to work?

https://www.thelocal.fr/20220126/opinion-frances-slow-train-revolution-may-just-be-the-future-for-travel/

[Bmblbzzz]

Interesting idea.

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.

Especially this bit. A totally different attitude to travel.

[stuving]

Interesting idea.

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.

Especially this bit. A totally different attitude to travel.

On whose part? The French - all those millions who charge off down the autoroutes on their holidays,and demonstrate their love of slow travel by sitting in enormous traffic jams?

[Bmblbzzz]

Not the speed. The idea of station stops designed to allow disembarkation, purchase and reboarding. (Normal in some parts of the world but not one I've encountered on European rail.)

[grahame]

Not the speed. The idea of station stops designed to allow disembarkation, purchase and reboarding. (Normal in some parts of the world but not one I've encountered on European rail.)

It used to be common practise at Swindon, and in more recent times at Abergynolwyn.

[broadgage]

Sounds an interesting idea, my main misgiving is the large number of stops proposed, 29 on one route !

I can see the merit of stops in order to enjoy attractions en-route, purchase food and drink, and presumably to travel to/from intermediate stations rather than along the whole line.

29 stops sounds very tedious though. Perhaps fewer might be better ? Maybe run a service with the same origin and destination every day, but varying the intermediate stops on different days.

If we are serious about the climate change emergency, we need to make more use of railways, both fast long distance services as an alternative to air, AND slower or local services as an alternative to leisure trips by car.

[stuving]

That article is a bit misleading, going further than anything Railcoop say. They are not pushing slowness at all, these just aren't TGVs^▸ (Train a Grande Vitesse) - more or less resurrected Corails. And that map of routes is of all the ones they have made access applications for, with no intention of running them all. They want to find out which could be made available, after ART do their technical and revenue abstraction tests. Even then, they are asking for other "friendly" operators to take them on.

[Clan Line]

May be of interest:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/magazine-24655733

Edit to correct URL - grahame

[JayMac]

Parisian Railways?

Gary Moore song innit?