Relaunching short passenger railway lines in France: what lessons can we learn from European experiences to offer a modal alternative to the car for access to cities?
Résumé
Short railway lines in rural areas are receiving renewed attention from French public decision makers, given the decarbonisation and energy transition objectives that have been set at international, European and French level. Facing dissatisfaction of population in many downgrading cities and regions in France, blocked social elevator and deindustrialisation, can railway be a motor of recovery of confidence of the population in public policy? Experience of short railway passenger lines serving the whole country is now rare in France, and it is necessary to go back a long way in time to assess the relevance of a particular link. As part of the TELLI research project on innovative light trains run by ADEME - the French Agency for Ecological Transition - we decided to look at the success stories of short rail lines in Europe.