All managements want to bother only with what's profitable -- and branchlines rarely are, even if new vehicles and station renewals get funding and result in boosted passenger numbers. So, on one hand, the corporate culture is a consequence and function of the level of political commitment to subsidizing public transport. On the other hand, this line-by-line view is short-sighted -- and especially SNCF (with the two decades long bad record of its far-from-city-centre TGV stations) should have realised the role of feeders in the profitability of its mainlines. Then again, this over-reductionist line-by-line view is again dictated by politics, for 4-5 decades now.

SNCF is definitely behind its European peers in what's possible with the new vehicles even on mainlines, what with the slow spread of regular interval timeplans, and the policy of limited stop services.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}