Where France’s public transport system fails

France’s transport network is generally impressive, with thousands of flights, trains, buses and trains operating on a daily basis - but outside major cities there are wastelands

Published: 20 October 2023 17:33 CEST

Where France's public transport system fails

A rural train in southwest France. (Photo by ERIC CABANIS / AFP)

In 2019, some 150 airports were operational in France. Some are huge – in 2022, Paris Charles de Gaulle saw nearly 57.5 million passengers land or take off from French soil, while Nice welcomed 12 million and Toulouse more than 7 million.

Of the rest, some 41 airports served between 10,000 and 3 million commercial passengers; others, such as Troyes, received a grand total of 96, according to France Inter.

Meanwhile, there are some 12,000km of motorway according to roads watchdog Bison Futé, of which more than 9,000km are toll roads operated by private companies under contracts with the State.

About 200 cities and larger towns in France are connected to the high-speed rail network – and there are also 15 ferry ports dotted along the coast, which welcome millions of travellers per year.

Larger urban areas also boast reasonable local public transport services, with some French towns even falling in love with trams all over again.

Others, meanwhile, offer at least part-time free bus travel on in-town routes. The idea is to ease local congestion on the roads by increasing the number of journeys made by bus, and to reduce the environmental impact caused by cars.

However, France is a patchwork nation of contrasts. And the same can be said of its local, regional and national transport networks.

It’s most visible outside urban conurbations. It turns out there’s a reason why those picturesque and quaint villages in La France Profonde often come with the added ‘sleepy’ adjective.

The lack of public transport infrastructure in rural areas was a key early complaint of the ‘Yellow Vests’ movement in late 2018 and the early months of 2019.

Despite promises at the time, the situation does not seem to have improved much outside urban areas, with residents who live rural areas – one in three French people live in smaller communes – having little option but to use a car.

That’s because there are very limited train or bus services that would provide them with an alternative form of transport, according to a report by the Autorité de la Qualité de Service dans les Transports (AQST) – while those that do operate are increasingly running late, and running slow.

It also noted in its most recent report that more local TER trains were being cancelled than ever before.

Basically, and this will come as no surprise to anyone who lives in rural parts of the country, public transport systems outside French towns and cities is virtually non-existent.

The Association des Maires Ruraux de France (AMRF), which brings together almost 10,000 mayors representing municipalities with less than 3,500 inhabitants throughout France, said that only 19 percent of France’s rural residents believe they can opt to travel using a range of transport options in their daily lives, compared to 60 percent of residents in towns of more than 100,000 people.

And, even if they are aware of locally available public transport options, 60 percent still opt to use their car, for convenience. Another study found that 70 percent of all daily travel in rural France is made in private cars, while a further 22 percent are on foot. Only 9 percent of all daily travel needs are met by public transport outside urban areas.

In June, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne launched a three-year €90 million France Ruralités scheme which includes, among 40 measures, plans to cut the over-reliance on private cars among residents in areas where public transport provision remains low.

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The far-right Rassemblement National (RN) is currently far ahead in opinion polls for the June 9th elections in France, with Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Renaissance party in a battle for second place with the Socialists.

The debate between Attal, 35, and Bardella, 28, who leads the RN’s list in the EU elections, will be the first head-to-head clash between the two leading figures in a new French political generation.

Polls have been making increasingly uncomfortable reading for Macron, who has had to fly to the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia to try to calm the violent unrest there.

Coming third would be a disaster for the president, who portrays himself as a champion of European democracy and bulwark against the far right.

The head of Macron’s party list for the elections, the little known Valérie Heyer, has failed to make an impact and was widely seen as losing a debate with Bardella earlier this month.

According to a Toluna-Harris Interactive study for French media, the presidential camp is stuck at just 15 percent of the vote and in a dogfight for second place with the Socialists – who are on 14.5 percent – led by former commentator Raphael Glucksmann.

The RN, by contrast, is soaring ahead on 31.5 percent.

The RN’s figurehead Marine Le Pen, who has waged three unsuccessful presidential campaigns, has sought to bring the RN into the political mainstream as she eyes another tilt at the presidency in 2027.

“There is a very clear signal that must be sent to Emmanuel Macron. He must suffer the worst possible defeat to bring him back to earth,” Le Pen told CNews and Europe 1 this week.

Bardella, who took over the party leadership from his mentor, is key to Le Pen’s strategy, a gifted communicator of immigrant origin with an expanding following on TikTok.

Attal, also one of the best debaters in Macron’s government, is expected to seek to portray Bardella as an extremist, complacent over the threat posed by Russia and who has little interest in Europe.

Apparently aware of the danger, Bardella on Tuesday said the RN will no longer sit in the EU parliament with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) faction, indicating it had lost patience with the controversies surrounding its German allies.

The head of the AfD’s list in the polls, Maximilian Krah, had said in a weekend interview that someone who had been a member of the SS in Nazi Germany was “not automatically a criminal”.

Bardella is “putting his credibility and the future of his movement on the line in the debate”, said the Le Monde daily, adding that a strong performance could see some RN supporters regard him as a stronger candidate in 2027 than Le Pen.

You can find a more detailed profile of Attal HERE and a look at Bardella HERE