Moving purposefully

I read an article just now about how South Korea is planning to revive its non-stop Seoul-Busan railway services (these two cities are the country's biggest).  It said that direct services had existed, but were discontinued, though they believe the economics are now different.  This got me thinking about one thing that is great about France's high-speed network: - the extensive use of non-stop or "infrequent-stop" services with great journey times.  Great journey times are fundamental to a good railway system.  The service planning that SNCF is probably the greatest thing about our high-speed network: - French train journey times are fantastic.  A Frenchwoman loves to sit back, unwind and enjoy the moment, but she manages her time efficiently and therefore does not want to uselessly spend an unduly large amount of time on trains because of ridiculous service and timetable planning: - she doesn't like to rush, but she loves to move purposefully.  She doesn't want to be stuck on a train going nowhere, whiling away the time in long dwell times at stations.  This would deduct from the time she has to shop for the latest fashions and the choicest ingredients at markets.

Apart from a Frenchwoman wanting to move purposefully, SNCF is always in a hard-slog battle to compete with air travel, which is never easy.  On some routes, it is in the lead (Paris-Marseille TGV services have an absolute majority), whereas the Paris-Orly Toulouse-Blagnac air route is the most congested in Europe.  I guess this is due to the prosperity of Toulouse, the prevalence of its aerospace industry there and the extremely long journey times (5h27m direct, 5h24m with an interchange).  When the LGV Sud-Europe Atlantique and the Toulouse branch of the GPSO (Grand Projet Ferroviaire du Sud-Ouest) are complete, journey times will be 3h14m with a stop in Bordeaux and 3h07m without, which will hopefully reduce air journeys drastically.

I know this is comparing apples and oranges, but roughly equivalent high-speed journeys in Germany for instance would take a very long time because of very generous timetabling and stopping patterns that prevent various routes from being competitive.  For instance, Hamburg Hauptbahnhof-Munich Hauptbahnhof (admittedly with a few high-speed gaps, e.g between Würzburg and Nuremberg is about 780km, but the fastest direct service is 5h38m (5h36m possible with interchange).  It stops in Hamburg-Harburg, Hannover Hauptbahnhof, Göttingen, Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, Fulda, Würzburg, Nuremberg and Ingolstadt.  I am aware that Germany's settlement pattern is very different (lots of medium-sized cities everywhere), but they have missed several opportunities for reasonable journey times, e.g. by not building bypasses.  Apart from the Coburg bypass on the Erfurt-Nuremberg route to be opened this year, I struggle to think of high-speed bypasses in Germany where the town centre station is also served.  Given that Germans dislike anything outside the ordinary as far as punctuality goes, timetable planning often involves very generous run and station dwell times.  Probably, when they are planning timetables, they probably say, "How long does zis journey take at line speed?  Five minutes?  Give it an hour and ven it arrives on time, we will say, "Ve Germans are so efficient!""  There are plenty of stations that appear to be useless for high-speed traffic, given the low populations they serve, one example being Siegburg/Bonn station.

Austria also doesn't seem all that concerned about journey times: - whenever new railway improvements come along that should improve journey times, they always seem to slip in some more stops or journey time padding.  For instance, I cannot understand the need to stop Railjet trains in Jenbach.  Given that: -
1) Innsbruck, the major population centre, has a population of about 130,000, compared to Jenbach's 7,000
2) The Neue Unterinntalbahn (New Lower Inn Valley Railway) allows Jenbach to be bypassed at 220km/h
3) The Railjet trains, having a locomotive configuration, don't have particularly good acceleration
It therefore seems wasteful to stop trains in Jenbach.  I believe the Austrians were aiming for "1-2-3" journey times from Vienna, i.e. 1 hour to Linz, 2 hours to Salzburg and 3 hours to Munich and Innsbruck.  It is anybody's guess how this will be achieved if they are still pursuing it.  However, they will face some competition from Westbahn, which is planning to operate fast services to Salzburg (2h10m, compared to 2h22m with Railjet services), with alternate services going onward to Innsbruck (not sure of the journey times).

On the other hand, the French network has bypasses aplenty and is designed around great journey times.  Cities with high-speed bypasses where town centre through stations are served from both ends that I can think of include Douai, Arras and Lyon.  The LGV Sud-Europe Atlantique to Bordeaux will also include them at Tours (half in service, used by non-stop Bordeaux trains), Poitier and Angoulême, debatably Châtellerault as well.  Currently, there are no non-stop trains running to Marseille (seasonal, I guess), but where they exist, they have tended to offer journey times of 3h05m for the 742km journey.  Similarly, though the Paris-Bordeaux services only run on high-speed line to just beyond Tours, they offer non-stop journeys of 3h11m, which will drop to around 2h when the LGV Sud-Europe Atlantique enters service this year.  I don't quite understand the lack of a planned bypass at Bordeaux, given the need for Paris-Toulouse journey times to be competitive and a bypass for Eurostar trains not stopping at Lille Europe would be good, as the line goes round three sides of a square, but RFF has generally been enthusiastic about building bypasses.  I am loathed to speak favourably of anything British, but the Ashford bypass is a fantastic feat of engineering: - the line goes underground as it approaches the outskirts of Ashford, stays underground a little way, comes up alongside Ashford International station and runs on a flyover through Ashford, allowing trains to pass through at 300km/h.  This means I can minimise the time I spend in the unsophisticated UK, MDR!

I particularly appreciate good journey times when it is necessary to receive foreign clients at the Paris office, as well as during fashion show season (I hope Marseille becomes a fashion capital one day).  Many foreign visitors come to Paris thinking they will find a quintessentially French city with the Eiffel Tower, people eating frog legs and snails, people wearing striped jerseys and berets etc.  The Eiffel Tower is there and isn't going anywhere, but with all the immigrants and the foreign cultures they inflict upon us, Paris is definitely not a French city!  Other nearby cities, though they have immigrants, don't have them in quite such large numbers.  When they ask to see a more French city, there are several easily available options, e.g. Strasbourg (1h46m), Bordeaux (discussed above) etc.

One day, I hope people will realise the value of great journey times and their contribution to making France great.

The Bordeaux-Toulouse/French border line

Another article about high-speed rail.  Yes, I know, there are things with more gravity that have happened to me recently (marriage and motherhood), which I will address in time.  However, writing is not always about priorities, but where the creative inspiration lies at the time.  There are plenty of stories to tell about the wedding, the honeymoon, pregnancy, childbirth etc, but they will be covered in due course.

Some readers may be aware that the project to build a y-shaped high-speed railway system between Bordeaux, Toulouse and the French border, or GPSO (Grand Projet Ferroviaire du Sud-Ouest) for short, is advancing, albeit slowly.  François Hollande's government has unfortunately pushed the construction of new lines back significantly.  Nicolas Sarkozy's government, in spite of being relatively right wing (it seems to be unusual for right-wing governments to favour high-speed rail), advanced several projects very substantially.  Nicolas Sarkozy did various things to try and get the economy back on track, which have unfortunately died a death, though to François Hollande's credit, he is belatedly pursuing labour market reforms that Nicolas Sarkozy would no doubt have favoured, resulting in strikes everywhere.

I would personally welcome the flexibility.  I don't plan to work more than 35 hours a week on a regular basis, but if it is a week with lots of fashion shows taking place, then obviously, my magazine's working requirements will be different in comparison to quiet times.  It is no good if a fashion show requires 40 hours of labour in a week and I have to send two people to cover it because one person has maxed out at 35 hours.  Obviously, when one person returns to the office, there is a large amount of work to catch up on, but it is an annoyance that I have to put two workers in a situation where they are rushing to catch up on their return.  I would rather than send one person to a fashion show to work 40 hours and allowing a day-off-in-lieu (a lovely French expression that many English speakers mispronounce) when he or she has caught up.  Apart from anything else, having to send two people to do one person's work is not an efficient use of my working resources.

Anyway, I'll stop this diatribe now, as I risk destroying Zoë Williams' image of French women never ranting, but lighting up another Gauloise and saying "bof" (I have never smoked, by the way).  MDR!  Back to the GPSO!  So what does the GPSO mean for me personally in Marseille?  It means that there are several cities in south-western France that I will be able to reach much more easily.

The benefits for reaching Bordeaux more quickly will be realised with the first phase in 2024.  I love Bordeaux, given its position in the French wine industry.  A Frenchwoman always loves a glass or two of wine: - there is the question of whether Islam (a religion prohibiting alcohol) compromises one's French credentials (reformed Christianity doesn't, particularly given the labours of John Calvin in places like Strasbourg), but that is another story.  Bordeaux itself is a lovely town that is very easy to get around given its tram system.  There are various sights, including the Place de la Bourse (Stock Exchange Square), the river Garonne, Saint André Cathedral (though I admit its beauty is more architectural than spiritual), the Porte Cailhau, the Column of the Girondins etc.  Europe's largest sand dune is not too far from Bordeaux.

The benefits for reaching cities in the far south-west and northeastern Spain will be realised with the opening of the line in two phases in 2027 and 2032.  The main city I like in that part of the country is Biarritz, a ritzy-glitzy seaside resort (okay, well admittedly not as glamorous as Monaco, which is closer to me).  The city is known for its casinos (I'm not into gambling, but the glamour of these places is still nice) and surfing culture.  There is also the Hôtel du Palais, which  has extensive links with various thrones past and present.  The square in front of Sainte Eugénie church is also pretty.

Toulouse is another city I love to visit, though journey times from Marseille will not improve with the GPSO.  However, it is worth a mention.  I have read that the route between Paris-Orly and Toulouse-Blagnac airports is the busiest in the whole of Europe.  A search on http://www.bahn.de showed the fastest Paris-Toulouse journey to be 5h31m: - not competitive with air travel.  However, LGV Sud-Europe Atlantique (Tours-Bordeaux, due to open next year) will reduce the journey time.  When the Bordeaux-Toulouse comes into service, the journey time is expected to go down to 3h10m (which could admittedly be lower still with a proper bypass of Bordeaux, which does not yet appear to exist in the plans, bof).  Bilal says 3 hours is a target the railway industry often uses in terms of deciding which links to pursue to make journeys competitive with air travel.  In any case though, France has been generally a lot more enthusiastic about building bypasses when inner-city stations are served.  Germany virtually never builds them (the one exception I can think of being Cobourg on the not-yet-opened Erfurt-Nuremberg line), the result being that it takes ages to get anywhere by train in Germany.  Admittedly, it is harder in Germany, since it has lots of cities throughout the country that are in the way when you build a new line.  However, Spain has a similar settlement pattern to France, yet there are no full-speed bypasses where inner-city stations are served, with the exception of those on the Madrid-Barcelona high-speed line.  Therefore, Spain's journey times, though good, could be better.

Shame the benefits of this will not be realised until our recently-born baby is on the verge of adulthood, bof.  Maybe someone like Nicolas Sarkozy will come to power and reinvigorate high-speed line construction and the economy.  We can only hope.