Vive les … Well, You Know Who.
It was fashionable during the Bush years to denigrate the French, their unforgivable offense being to disagree with Dubya’s foreign policy. Congressional Republicans weren’t about to stand for that, of course, and they retaliated by changing the menus in the House and Senate dining rooms to read freedom fries instead of french fries. By golly, that sure showed ’em!
But give them their due: the French sure as hell know how to run a railroad. Their high-speed rail service, operated by the Société Nationale des Chemin de Fer Français, the French National Railway, is a model for the world. SNCF trains now routinely operate at speeds of 217 miles per hour (350 kph) and carry passengers between major cities in better time than can be done by plane. And certainly in greater comfort.
Then there’s the matter of punctuality. Several years ago, we were traveling by train in France and in reviewing our itinerary I noticed that we had a three-minute connection in Dijon. Three minutes?? In the U.S., a three hour connection between Amtrak trains is cause for real worry.
But when our train came to a stop at Dijon, the train that would take us on to Paris was standing right there across the platform. We literally had to walk about 30 feet to step into the right car.
There was a large clock mounted on a post right outside our window. We were scheduled to depart at 2:27 and at that exact moment, literally when the second hand clicked onto the “12”, our train started moving. It had taken us less than one minute to make our three-minute connection.
I mention this because a top official at SNCF, Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, has said he thinks there are several corridors between major cities in the U.S. where high-speed rail could operate efficiently and at a profit. He specifically mentions routes on the east coast and in California, Texas, the Mid-west and Florida.
Furthermore – and don’t think this isn’t galling to the tiny minds behind freedom fries – Loubinoux says SNCF would be interested in submitting a proposal to operate the system for us!
Whoa! Pass the catsup, s’il vous plait!
