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The Grenoble-Veynes line that is disappearing is actually a Rhônes-Alpes TER lines... But since it is of little interest for the region (going into another, PACA), it is dying out. The cars are old and decrepit. In the maintime, parallel to that line, a motorway is being built from Grenoble to Sisteron...

And of course, because of the regional financing, a logical line such as Grenoble-Aix-Marseille doesn't exist. I'd bet one can find examples like this all across France.


Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Sun Mar 25th, 2007 at 06:55:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes, that's what I said about inter-regional lines...

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
by Melanchthon on Sun Mar 25th, 2007 at 07:41:11 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I was speaking more precisely of the inter-regional, not really express lines (rather thanlong distance intercity such as, say, Bordeaux-Lyon or Lyon-Strasbourg which I felt you were referring to). Grenoble-Veynes is probably running under 100kph for most of its length :)

It's also a spectacular line... a couple photos :

Just found a nice French wiki on trains, and a nice website that seems to have a wealth of train-related informations.

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères

by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Sun Mar 25th, 2007 at 07:34:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]
That's a wonderful line. But what I dream of is to travel across the Massif Central in a not too distant summer, and there, the cull of scenic lines has been severe...

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 04:36:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]
You should take a look at this : la liaison ferroviaire Bordeaux Limoges Lyon

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
by Melanchthon on Mon Mar 26th, 2007 at 08:12:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]
...and not just France.

In the German language, Provinzialismus (provincialism) and the connected word Kleinstaaterei (appr. 'statelet-ism') has some strong historic connotations. During the latter time of the many German states and statelets, and then until WWI when the constituents of unified Germany retained significant autonomies, all-German nationalists applied the above words for any problems arising from the application of local sovereignity/autonomy. But one field where there was definitely more to it than the clash of rival identities was railways: there were compatibility issues, over-expensive projects kept within single statelet borders, unreasonable parallel projects, and needed but unrealised cross-border lines. Some of those were built post-WWI. But from the mid-nineteen-nineties, it's back to 19th-century conditions: the same financing mode also applied in France led to a dying of services on branchlines crossing the borders of the Länder.

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

by DoDo on Sun Mar 25th, 2007 at 06:30:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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