France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence

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France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence
Posted by Olog-hai on Tue Sep 15 21:20:04 2020 The Local France The Paris to Nice night train is making a comeback 10 September 2020 15:32 CEST+02:00 A Paris to Nice night train service that was discontinued three years ago will be making a comeback, the French government announced on Wednesday. “We are planning to open at least one (night) line, the one from Paris to Nice. Then we will see if we can open others, depending on the results and whether it is sustainable,” Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said. A fixed date for the reopening has not yet been set, but president of the national rail company SNCF, Jean-Pierre Farandou, said the Paris-Nice and Paris-Tarbes lines would be running again by December 2021. The France Relance economic recovery plan of €100 billion unveiled last week includes a vast investment in modernizing the country’s infrastructure, with €4.7 billion dedicated to rail transport. The Paris-Nice sleeper train (once the famous Train Bleu) was discontinued in December 2017, along with other night services which had slowly decreased over the years due to their lack of profitability for SNCF. There are currently only two regional Intercité sleeper trains that cross France: the Paris-Briançon (Hautes-Alpes) and the Paris Latour de Carol (Pyrénées-Orientales). But night trains could soon become more common in France as the government wants to bolster its railway system to favor more environmentally-friendly means of transport over internal flights and car travel.
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Re: France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence
Posted by zac on Tue Sep 15 22:09:11 2020, in response to France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence, posted by Olog-hai on Tue Sep 15 21:20:04 2020. I rode a night train from Paris to Milan around 2010 and it was actually unpleasant. The train was old, the diner only had some crappy pre-made sandwiches, the departing station had no services, and there was someone on the phone half the night. It was billed as a luxury train but there was nothing luxurious about it. We got to Milan around 5am so we couldn't even leave the station as there was no place yet to go. The taxi driver tried to charge me 50euro and I told him no. I'm a NYer and don't get ripped off by taxi drivers. Anyway I wouldn't do it again. Everyone told me to just fly and it would be cheaper but I thought it would be a bit of an adventure to travel the old European way. That said, I took a train from Oslo to Flam to then get on a boat to Balestrand and then Bergen and it was spectacular. There are some cab view videos of the exact trip I did on youtube, but these are in winter and are even more spectacular.
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Re: France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence
Posted by Olog-hai on Tue Sep 15 22:19:02 2020, in response to Re: France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence, posted by zac on Tue Sep 15 22:09:11 2020. the departing station had no services What station in Paris has no services, and what kind of services do you mean? It was billed as a luxury train but there was nothing luxurious about it Specifics?
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Re: France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence
Posted by Peter Rosa on Tue Sep 15 22:30:16 2020, in response to France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence, posted by Olog-hai on Tue Sep 15 21:20:04 2020. TGV's do Paris-Nice in under six hours, so I don't really see the point to an overnight sleeper.
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Re: France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence
Posted by Henry R32 #3730 on Tue Sep 15 22:47:40 2020, in response to Re: France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence, posted by Peter Rosa on Tue Sep 15 22:30:16 2020. I don't know if the TGV schedule suffers the same blind spot, but there is a situation that made one helpful in Japan: There was an overnight sleeper between Tokyo and Osaka until a few years ago, despite the fastest variant of their Shinkansen making the trip in 2:30. It was worthwhile because the Shinkansen shuts down at night for maintenance, and the overnight train left an hour after the last Shinkansen while arriving an hour before the first Shinkansen, and if you had a sleeper you were refreshed and ready to start the day without having needed a hotel room. The line was shut down because they couldn't fill the coach seats - overnight buses ate JR's lunch.
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Re: France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence
Posted by Olog-hai on Tue Sep 15 23:36:07 2020, in response to Re: France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence, posted by Peter Rosa on Tue Sep 15 22:30:16 2020. TGV that slow? That's an average speed of 78 mph, same as Amtrak Regionals on the NEC; TGVs usually do at least 145 mph average speed, so it ought to be under three hours.
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Re: France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence
Posted by Dave on Wed Sep 16 07:25:19 2020, in response to Re: France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence, posted by zac on Tue Sep 15 22:09:11 2020. Magnificient!
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Re: France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence
Posted by zac on Wed Sep 16 10:06:07 2020, in response to Re: France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence, posted by Olog-hai on Tue Sep 15 22:19:02 2020. Paris Bercy. It is next to Gare de Lyon but not close enough to just quickly walk over. They had vending machines and a cafe but no real restaurants. The station was mostly for the auto-train. When we got there and I saw the train I recognized the coaches as being the same ones I traveled in 1986 and they were old back then. I was expecting a modern train with a few nice touches and comfy seats and sleeping arrangements. https://www.seat61.com/stations/paris-gare-de-bercy.htm
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Re: France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence
Posted by zac on Wed Sep 16 10:14:58 2020, in response to Re: France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence, posted by Olog-hai on Tue Sep 15 23:36:07 2020. Paris-Lyon TGV is 2 hours +/- a few minutes depending on run. This is a speed capture I did on the Paris-Bordeaux TGV:
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Re: France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence
Posted by kew gardens teleport on Wed Sep 16 17:00:02 2020, in response to France: SNCF reviving Paris–Nice overnight sleeper train after three years absence, posted by Olog-hai on Tue Sep 15 21:20:04 2020. SNCF has the most perverse, unhelpful rail network there is. There are surprising gaps: it would be too obvious to have a St-Malo boat train running as something vaguely express to Bordeaux and Narbonne.
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