Fixing France's regional transit: an Introduction.

French Regional transit have gone through something of a crisis in recent years: closures, slowdowns and low ridership, as well as criticism from the Cour des Comptes, France’s public spending watchdog.

France, of course, is known for its high speed rail, which transports 110 million passengers a year at a blistering 320km/h. But its regional “TER” networks, with the exception of the Paris region, have not known a similar success. The combined daily ridership of all of France’s Regional networks (excluding paris) is a mere 800 000 passengers per day: lower than that of the Paris region alone, and from the available statistics, lower than that of other countries’ regional networks.

This series will evaluate the issues with French Regional Transit, focussing on rail, and propose solutions to address these issues, and explain why now is a better time than ever to act:

The next article will discuss the political, economic, ecological and social reasons why now is the time to make this change, covering the climate crisis, young people’s disenchantment with cars, and the rise of teleworking and the risk of a post-pandemic urban exodus.

Further articles will go on to explore what the issues are and how we can fix them.

Thanks for reading!