I agree that such a triumphalism let me feel a bit uneasy. Cooperation beetween Deutsche Bahn und SNCF is nihil, and it won't be better.
Problem is, Siemens choose the transrapid, and being in bed with the DB, they are now entrenched in a defensive position. And I believe the SNCF guy are not the most international experienced of the french economy too.
Just an example: You can't buy a special fare ticket of one country in the other. German Bahncard has agreement with 26 countries in Europe, but not France. So, I should get out of the train in the first station after the border.
The TGV in Munich is just a Show, no improvement between Stuttgart an Munich. I stop here, I'm just upset. I have sent a customer brief to the DBahn out of frustation amonths ago when I discovered the "fahrplan" won't change in any meaningful way to attract interstate traffic. La répartie est dans l'escalier. Elle revient de suite.
Doesn't mean it will happen, of course. And it will take stronger federal institutions, or maybe just forcing existing insitutions to do their job in the public interest (eg I can't believe that the competition commission isn't doing something about this, are they only good for ramming through neo-lib prescriptions on behalf of private industrial interest?) Fai de bčn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
I have read that one of your compatriot is the project manager put in Charge by the commission for accelerating the corridor paris -Munich -Vienna -Budapest - ?
I hope he is good... La répartie est dans l'escalier. Elle revient de suite.
Seems to be a good EU bureaucrat, even if probably marketista, what he isn't is either a railway expert or someone influential who could push national governments around.
What I could gather from press reports is that the EU's effect so far is constrained to countries promising at least no delays in already planned projects along the corridor. I mean, in practice -- the press conferences made these appear bold new initiatives. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Under Giscard, surely? "It's the statue, man, The Statue."
