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by Swizec
2897 days ago
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I traveled with the French TGV a couple times and it is absolutely astounding how amazing it is. Large comfy chairs, quiet train, you can walk around, plenty of room for activities. There's even a bar where you can hang out with fellow passengers! Plus first class tickets are like $20 more expensive than normal tickets and totally worth it. Although I almost missed it because I'm used to all the buffer time you get with airplanes. Train leaves at 10:45, you better be there at 10:40 or you're gonna miss the darn thing. |
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One of my main issue is that train ticket are really expensive. Regional train are okayish, but TGV cost often way more than any other equivalent (plane/bus/car/...) and are sometimes not faster.
The second thing is that the network is historically completely centered around Paris. That lead to some very weird situation where, to go from the north-west to the south-west, you need to go all around France. And because of this, it is again faster and cheaper to just take a plane.
Finally, there is often delay or train being canceled, which is normal because lot more problem happen on the ground and such that when you are several thousand feet in the air, but they tend to communicate about it really badly. When your train have a problem, it is often really hard to know when you will have a new train, how much delay will you have, ...
On the other end, I agree with you. The train are so much comfortable. I really enjoy traveling in train way more than with any other form of transportation. I assume they are also a bit more ecological than cars and planes. The application of the SCNF to book ticket is also very good nowadays, never had a problem with it.