olivier in france

what drives me crazy in all those theories is that everybody is throwing nuclear energy away... a strong and almost unlimited energy if we find technologies to make it safer and cleaner (which IMO do not seem so un-doable)... when i hear Japan or Germany stopping all nuclear projects and planning a complete stop of their nuclear activities i wonder what they are really thinking about!!

sorry!! the 1st, 2nd 3rd, 4th... rule in english is about the only case where english is more complicated than french!

the 21th being a friday i just hope they schedule the Bills for the thursday night game, we could all hope to go in Hell 14-0!!

is that really hard to look good when you have to govern an oil rich land like that one? Last time i've checked Alberta, Norway, Qatar and Bahrein had no deficit issues either...

i like that cartoon. what is written is french can be translated : "Referendum: Do you want to sink the boat, yes or no"

too bad i was too young and not living in Paris in those times!!

Reading the two topics from all of you about the Greece referendum and the "Charlie Hebdo" fire, makes me think i should come here more often. As just Bills fans interested in politics you're having much more interesting debates on topics you are not supposed to really know than 99% of the "specialists" and journalists we have in the european media... Keep going guys!!

sorry but Carla... frankly, really my style...

well the last time i've checked the Vikings were not playing on a Wal Mart parking... Building stadiums is something building stadiums that are "obsolete" 20 years later is something else... especially when those "obsolete" stadiums (it's not the case in the Vikings case i agree) are places that have a real soul and are filled with history... (i'm not a Yankee fan but frankly what's the goal of destroying the old yankees stadium to build an new aseptised replica?). I hate most "new stadiums" either in the US or in Europe.

sheeeezzz you're expensive Darin!! Do you invoice TBD the 390 dollars/day it should pay you for the PPP board animation?!!

the most frightening part is that the situation is even worse outside the USA. I'll not be surprised the day a mob actually lynch a guy because he's rich here in France.

OK generating revenue if you want to play the technical financial god!! A TGV is a TGV ... at the end it's a small part of the SNCF business the only real TGV lines are the Paris-Lyon, Paris Marseille, Paris Montpellier, Paris Tours, Paris Bordeaux, Paris Lille, Paris Nantes and Paris Strasbourg lines while the division of the SNCF (just one out of 4 or 5 divisions, and the only one winning money most of the years) that includes those TGV lines has dozens of classic long distance lines (about all province to province connections) and the international lines (we all know the Chunnel will never be profitable)... so it's true about 80% of the SNCF business loses money. It's a little like Europe ... Europe loses tons of money. Germany wins some. Germany tries to save the whole Europe... and probably will fail to do it.

i wrote about that in post number 70 of that thread... "it does not cover all the losses of the rest of the train network but without them it'd be catastrophic" the TGV lines generate money but not enough to make the whole SNCF profitable .... Thanks for finally agreeing with me about something! BTW the "voyages" division of the SNCF includes more than the TGV, you'll find there the "national lines" like "corail" trains (i think they are called Lunea and Theoz trains now) , classical long distance trains that are losing tons and tons of money.

ok GG i don't know what to say... other than: THE TGV OPERATION IS PROFITABLE ALL COSTS INVOLVED COUNTED FROM INFRASTRUCTURES TO TRACKS TO TRAINS TO EVERYTHING ELSE!!! Do you have an issue with english? do i have to write it in french? The rest of the SNCF business is basically living on TGV money for 20 years. If i use your parents and child metaphor, the parents are in a retirement house and the child is paying the bill! as we say nobody is more deaf than the want who does not want to hear!!

what exactly do i ignore when i say TGV lines are profitable including the tracks? Since TGV has been launched they have built maybe 5 or 6 special TGV stations while using other stations that are sometimes built for 2 centuries ... And building those stations are really nothing compared to the cost of the tracks... with the Tour de France in July in the middle of the vacations of millions of frenchmen, they don't really need to make promotions to fill TGVs at that time of the year! Not only GAAPs! It's the first sentence they learn in all french schools of journalism and politics!

i don't ignore them! the local operations are on different tracks using different trains they are just run by the same company that's all!

Not really the TGV is profitable including its tracks... But the SNCF is a public owned giant mess that has no clue how to manage the 90% of its trains that are not TGVs. the SNCF is using about 18 000 miles of tracks with only 1 200 miles of those tracks used by TGV

oh yes!!! thanks god we have the TGVs ... it does not cover all the losses of the rest of the train network but without them it'd be catastrophic! No and i don't plan to do! the only place in the entire USA i don't want to go ... ever!! The paris to marseille line is profitable. Not the more profitable but very profitable. The giant money maker is the Paris-Lyon line (the first half of the paris marseille line), the first one built and one that fill dozens of trains everyday. I don't know if the new paris-strasbourg line makes any money. the Paris-Bordeaux and the other western lines (Le Mans, Tours, nantes... ) are good business. The London, Koln, Brussels lines are gettin better and better and are big gainers too. I have used a lot the Paris to Lyon and Paris to Valence lines when i lived in Paris and the trains are full most of the time.

that's where it gets very cultural... in Europe smugs take planes!

Who knows? Has anybody made any serious independant study on the NE corridor line?

well are they really worse than the people in planes?

I know Chef i'm a frequent flyer too... The thing with LA is that there is no real center so there's a good chance your final destination is not too far from the airport... and the SF airport is quite well situated. on the NE corridor i'm pretty sure lot of frequent travelers d' love to have a train bringing them from a train station right in the financial district to the center of DC or downtown Boston in less than 2 hours ... that's what it takes them today just to go to RFK! BTW Chef... air transportation is not going to get cheaper... no way "green energy" can ever make planes fly. In the long term electric high speed trains 'd have a big cost advantage for mid-range travel. and i'm not at all a "green" wacko. That's just logical forecasting.

you know the money the SNCF (the french amtrak) makes with the high speed trains (lines that are making tons of money) help subsidize the local classic commuter lines ...

i can understand the "we have other priorities" argument but when you build infrastructures i don't think the "we are broke" argument is really in the balance. if you're really broke, cut expenses without any long term benefits and i'm sure like us in France you have tons of that kind of expenses in the federal budget! investment on infrastructures give work to a lot of people, help consumption and have long term benefits. if there's a place NOT to cut expenses it's there! Roads or railways, whatever.

why 4 tracks? there is currently about 1200 miles of high speed train lines (2 tracks) in France (the double is planned for 2030), 1400 miles in Spain, i don't know the figures for the rest of Europe. You just need about 550 miles to make the SF-San Diego line and 500 miles for Boston-DC the two places where i so no reason why it 'd not work. Don't worry each line built in Europe has to deal with dozens of trials, protests and issues. At the end they find a way!