France’s Once-Vaunted Trains Are Macron’s Biggest Challenge Yet

By Ania Nussbaum and Mark Deen, Bloomberg Quint; March 5, 2018

(Bloomberg) — The long, empty platform of the TGV station in eastern France offers a vista of rapeseed fields stretching out as far as the eye can see. Not a sound troubles the pastoral scene on a cold, gray February morning. Then a train from Paris pulls in with a whoosh. About 30 people disembark and head to the parking lot. In five minutes, the platform is empty again.

This happens 13 times a day at most, meaning that this stop in the Meuse region is used barely 90 minutes a day. Most passengers take the high-speed trains on to Strasbourg in Alsace, and beyond. Fewer passengers get on and off at these platforms each year than the Paris Metro carries in an hour.

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