The government intends to tighten the rule which prohibits domestic flights in the event of an alternative of less than 2h30 by train, officially coming into force on Tuesday, said Wednesday the Minister Delegate for Transport, Clément Beaune. “I say it, we will go further, we will go further”, declared the minister on Franceinfo. The list of prohibited short domestic flights “will be reviewed twice a year to see if the rail offer improves”, he noted, noting that the text was valid for three years.
“My responsibility as Minister of Transport is precisely to improve rail connections so that more and more, this rule of 2:30 a.m. leads to the closure of airlines,” noted the Minister. “We are closing three lines, and we will continue”. “Perhaps we will also gradually tighten this 2:30 a.m. rule to bring it to around 3 a.m., for example,” he warned. Concretely, few connections would be affected by a switch to three hours. This could possibly be the case of Paris-Mulhouse (2h43 by TGV), but this airport is Franco-Swiss and also serves Basel. Paris-Limoges could be a possibility, when the railway line is renovated.
Asked about the 4-hour threshold recommended by the Citizen’s Climate Convention, he replied: “It’s possible, but we have to develop rail in parallel”, citing the purchase of additional TGVs and the construction project of a high-speed line between Bordeaux and Toulouse. The ban on short domestic flights in France in the event of an alternative, “with satisfactory service”, by train in less than 2.5 hours came into force on Tuesday, a change which had been anticipated with the end of connections between the airport from Paris-Orly and Nantes, Bordeaux and Lyon.
This ban provided for by the Climate and Resilience Law of August 22, 2021, and already applied in practice, was suspended for the duration of an in-depth investigation by the European Commission following a complaint from part of the aviation sector which considered it contrary to the principle of free service and unsuited to the fight against climate change. The links with the Parisian airport of Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle, on the other hand, are maintained, officially to allow international correspondence. However, it is still possible to buy single tickets between Roissy and Bordeaux, Lyon and Nantes.
