-
New TGVs delayed as France opens railways to competition
Concerns grow over the future of smaller stations
-
Driving changes in France you may have missed in September 2026
Includes fuel price cap and mobile phone use
-
Hiker rescued by helicopter after snake bite in French Pyrenees
Where are France’s venomous snakes found and how can you avoid bites?
One-track plan for French rail
Little-used rail lines could be made single-track in proposals put to local authorities by SNCF in a bid to cut running costs.
Moving to a single line would reduce maintenance while having one train doing shuttle runs would need no signals.
This is one of about 50 measures put to councillors that include using bitumen-gravel instead of ballast for the track base.
It comes after parliament rejected plans to close 9,000km of small lines, most in a bad state, which make up 2% of traffic but a third of the track.