Railway

[Kate]

https://anglophone-direct.com/rail-trav ... in-france/

[rhys]

They need to think much more rigorously about closing lines just because they are not much used.
For a start : the infrastructure of rails and stations is already there so it's just a matter of keeping them going ~is it really that expensive to do so ?

But more radically : the fact of the small lines existing CAN be a reason for people taking a much longer journey : eg I often point out to people who are visiting Argelès from England that the train is overlooked, compared to Ryanair et al - but it is possible to set off from London at breakfast time and get to Argelès in plenty of time for dinner ( with just a change of platform at Lille in summer months ~no need for the nightmare change of stations on the Paris metro ).

And it's a much more relaxed journey than one involving faffing around at airports.
NOW ~ if there were no train from Perpignan to complete the journey it might make more sense after all to fly to Perpignan rather than get the train all the way down the country.............Have they thought about that ??

[Lanark Lass]

Rhys,

The Lille interchange doesn't exist anymore,unfortunately. you have to go into Paris and taxi or metro between stations.

[martyn94]

They need to think much more rigorously about closing lines just because they are not much used.
For a start : the infrastructure of rails and stations is already there so it's just a matter of keeping them going ~is it really that expensive to do so ?

But more radically : the fact of the small lines existing CAN be a reason for people taking a much longer journey : eg I often point out to people who are visiting Argelès from England that the train is overlooked, compared to Ryanair et al - but it is possible to set off from London at breakfast time and get to Argelès in plenty of time for dinner ( with just a change of platform at Lille in summer months ~no need for the nightmare change of stations on the Paris metro ).

And it's a much more relaxed journey than one involving faffing around at airports.
NOW ~ if there were no train from Perpignan to complete the journey it might make more sense after all to fly to Perpignan rather than get the train all the way down the country.............Have they thought about that ??

The short answer is that of course they have thought about that. But you only have to change trains, at this time of year, to see how little extra traffic the petites lignes generate for the TGV. It suits me very well, as do similar lines elsewhere. But there are many millions of French taxpayers on the SMIC paying tax to subsidize trains that they don’t have access to, or wouldn’t use even if they could. I don’t see why they should pay to give plump old geezers like me a more relaxed journey.

[SteveB]

[quote="Lanark Lass"]Rhys,

The Lille interchange doesn't exist anymore,unfortunately. you have to go into Paris and taxi or metro between stations.[/quote]

Actually you can still go via Lille, but have to change again at Montpellier or Valence to get to Perpignan. Also the connection in Paris is reasonably straightforward once you get used to it - 2 stops on the RER, much quicker than either the Metro or taxi.

[sue and paul]

From Montpellier you can get the train à €1 to all stops to Cerbere. You have to book 21 days in advance on dedicated website

[martyn94]

Rhys,

The Lille interchange doesn't exist anymore,unfortunately. you have to go into Paris and taxi or metro between stations.

Actually you can still go via Lille, but have to change again at Montpellier or Valence to get to Perpignan. Also the connection in Paris is reasonably straightforward once you get used to it - 2 stops on the RER, much quicker than either the Metro or taxi.

If you do your research on voyages-sncf, you will often be offered a change at Montpellier (going to Port-Vendres in my case) even coming from Paris: sometimes because the TGV terminates at Montpellier, but usually because you’d be getting the same TER to PV wherever you changed. You are just swapping a short connection at Montpellier, and a slightly lower fare, for a longer wait at Perpignan. A couple of times my TGV has been late at Montpellier (usually someone throwing themselves under the train) so that I would have missed my connection there. So I stayed on the TGV to make my connection at Perpignan: the onboard staff on the TGV made no problems.

[rhys]

Rhys,

The Lille interchange doesn't exist anymore,unfortunately. you have to go into Paris and taxi or metro between stations.

Is that the case even in high summer ? It was a seasonal thing when I last used it, admittedly some years ago.