A bleak future for Eco-friendly walking tours in France? - Natural Choices
When we think about rail in France the first thing that pops into our minds is the wonderful TGV zipping through the countryside at highspeed. Indeed the TGV where it is in place is superb, and I am always pleased to see the First Class section packed with pensioners use their railcards to visit family and friends. Howevere since the partial privatisation of SNCF the limited investment in the rail service has been concentrated on the major commuter lines. More and more of the RER (Regional services) and smaller lines have seen their services cut back, or smaller lines closed down. Even major lines, such as the ectension from Orange through to the Pyrenees to link up with the huge investment Spain is putting in place to its high speed network is looking more and more like a pipe dream.
Train travel is one of the joys of France, the smaller lines picking their way through the countrysude linking up market downs such as Lezignan with Perpignan, Montpellier, Toulouse and beyond could rapidly become a thing of the past. In my mind their should be more to the ethos behind a social trasnport system than shareholder value.
