Land, sea and air: let us move you
The Intelligence from The Economist
The Economist
4.5 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 26 December 2022
⏱️ ? minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In a special episode, our Paris bureau chief witnesses the political divides that become apparent as she switches from France’s famed high-speed railways to forgotten lines. Our culture editor considers the improbably prophetic nature of the film “Titanic”. And, as the last 747 rolls off the line, our correspondent reflects on how the jet reshaped the airline industry.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist. Today from London I'm your |
| 0:09.4 | host, Jason Palmer and we've got a special episode for you with the Transport Connection. |
| 0:15.5 | From the farthest reaches of France's rail network to the film Titanic and its prophecies |
| 0:23.2 | about climate change to the very last 747 jet to roll off the line. It's a lot of nautical |
| 0:29.7 | and notional miles to cover so let's start by going fast. |
| 0:50.6 | France's network of slick, speedy trains is well known but not all railway services in France are |
| 0:57.1 | equal. Our correspondent Sophie Petter has been on an odyssey discovering what the country's |
| 1:02.6 | train system tells us about its political divides. As the economist Paris Bureur Chief I spend a lot of |
| 1:09.9 | time travelling around France on trains. Luckily for me France is host to some of the best high-speed |
| 1:16.5 | railways in Europe. These trains are known as the TGV. A trip from Paris |
| 1:27.0 | to Lyon, 250 miles away takes just two hours. If you want to travel to see your family in |
| 1:33.5 | Bordeaux you can make the 310 mile journey and just over that time. |
| 1:42.1 | The TGV in France is incredibly popular. Each year the SNCF, the National Railway, |
| 1:47.9 | says that over 100 million people take it but the thing is that while the cities around France |
| 1:54.3 | are well served by the TGV, big swathes of the country are critically underserved and they are |
| 2:00.9 | left at the mercy of these old fashioned neglected railway lines. I wanted to find out what that |
| 2:07.8 | other side of French transport was like and so it was time for a journey. |
| 2:16.4 | So here I am at the Garlustellits in Paris. I have just crossed the river centre get here as |
| 2:22.3 | some was rising on a Thursday morning. I'm heading for Bourser, in the centre of France and |
| 2:29.2 | arguably the most difficult place to get to by train and when I look at the indicator board here |
| 2:35.0 | I can see that all the trains are indeed heading south and the one I'm going to be boarding |
| 2:40.8 | is going to Toulouse which is if you went all the way to Toulouse in the southwards of France |
... |
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