3 ms·
What is often forgotten in this kind of story is that building direct lines between big cities tends to asphyxiate whatever sits in between. Ruffec is about 2/
by bambax 5y ago
What is often forgotten in this kind of story is that building direct lines between big cities tends to asphyxiate whatever sits in between.
Ruffec is about 2/3rds of the way between Paris and Bordeaux. The TGV that goes from Paris to Bordeaux used to have a stop in Ruffec. Not any more, because they had to build a completely new line for the last leg of the trip, that goes through the countryside.
In fact there are now ZERO direct trains from Paris to Ruffec; to get there you need to change trains at Poitiers, which can be complicated if you're old or you have lots of luggage. The train from Poitiers to Ruffec is a regional one that stops everywhere. Going from Paris to Ruffec used to take less than 2 hours and now takes at least 3.
So high speed train isn't about helping transform urbanites into country people; it's about moving urbanites around.
- cromka 5y ago> So high speed train isn't about helping transform urbanites into country people; it's about moving urbanites around. Brilliant observation.
- BeFlatXIII 5y agoThe flip side of the coin is that a high-speed system that has stops at all the struggling towns along the way ceases to be high-speed, no matter the maximum track velocity.
- bambax 5y agoActually, no. You can have trains that stop some stations, some at others, and yet some more that are direct. It used to work quite well. Now it's not possible anymore because the new line avoids the towns.
- mc32 5y agoThe NYC subway has the concept of local and express trains. They use the same right of way with much of it four-track. So you can provide a slow train that makes every stop and the express which only stops at major stations.
- deetsb 5y agoI don’t mean to be vulgar, but the net effect is one group of people (those in Bordeaux or those in Ruffec) had to pay the price of a longer commute to Paris. In the prior this advantaged those in Ruffec over those in Bordeaux. Why was that any more fair than this? And, aren’t more people being serviced by this (noting Ruffec’s population is far smaller than that of Bordeaux). As these are situations of symmetry you have to pick a side to bear it?