By the time you read this, the TGV link between Perpignan and the new temporary station at Figueres-Vilafant will have been in scheduled operation since 19 December (Or at least I hope so!).
Two trains are time-tabled daily in each direction with a journey time of 23 minutes: southbound from Perpignan to Figueres-Vilafant at 12.24 and 20.25; northbound from Figueres-Vilafant at 11.06 and 15.02. The link is 44.4 kilometres long -- 19.8 km in Spain and 24.6 km in France -- and the maximum permissible speed is 160 kilometres per hour.
Paris-Perpignan-Barcelona
The new link isn’t simply a high-speed each-way dash between Perpignan and Figueres. The train is flagged as a new daytime service between Paris and Barcelona.
For a while yet, however, you will not be able to sit in the same TGV train all the way between the two capital cities. For another year and more you will have to change at Figueres-Vilafant and get onto a conventional RENFE connecting service to Barcelona. However, the journey time between the two cities will be reduced to 7 hours and 25 minutes.
France, Perpignan : A technician watches control screens durin a visit the construction site of the new high-speed TGV train station in Perpignan, southern France
Figueres-Barcelona
The latest information from the director of Spanish railways, Teofilio Serrano, is that the TGV continuation from Figueres to Barcelona via Girona is expected to be in operation in early 2013 -- the latest of several postponements.
You can read the expatica story to date of this grand project, including the awesome construction of the 8.3-kilometre trans-frontier tunnel under the Albères mountains in previous Lives and Livelihoods: Languedoc-Roussillon 6, Will I live long enough, and A small great revolution.
A historic moment for techies: no gauge break!
As many seasoned rail travellers know, the track gauge on Spain’s conventional lines is wider (1668-m) than those of most of the rest of Europe (1435-m). Passengers crossing the border hitherto either had to change trains at the Spanish border stations (Irun or Portbou), or travel on trains with variable-gauge systems.
The dear old Talgo is one such and has been running every day since 1968 from Montpellier to Barcelona. You can hear the system clanking away beneath your feet in the gauge-change shed at Portbou. Such innocent fun!
For the first time ever, the new link between Perpignan and Figueres will allow trains to speed across the frontier without break of gauge -- this because all high-speed lines in Spain are laid to the standard European gauge.
Will I live long enough?
I asked myself this question in these columns about two years ago. Now, at age 70, will I be able to travel high speed all the way from Paris to Barcelona?
Well we’re getting closer, but the outlook doesn’t look too good. Paris (and Brussels and Lille) to Nîmes has long been operating, and funding for the projected “bypass routes” as far as Montpellier is now assured. The mooted completion date is 2016 –- though don’t hold your breath.
This leaves the thorny question of the 129 kilometres between Montpellier and Perpignan. The latest news I have read is that funding for this section “doesn’t form part of the state’s priorities”.
Nevertheless, the Languedoc-Roussillon’s Conseil Régional isn’t giving up without a fight. It has committed itself to contributing more than EUR 10.5 million “in order that the Montpellier-Perpignan section might see the light of day” by 2020.
We shall see. My father made 90, so if I am still healthy enough in my 80s I just might take the TGV all the way from Paris to Barcelona.
France, Montpellier : Christian Bourquin (DVG) stands in front of Georges Frêche's portrait, soon after his election to the presidency of Languedoc-Roussillon, on 10 November 2010 in Montpellier
Georges Frêche
I have very few political heroes, but one of them is Georges Frêche. At age 72 he died of a heart attack at his desk on 24 October, after what must have been an exhausting official trip to Shanghai.
In spite of being thrown out of the Socialist party, he had been resoundingly re-elected only seven months earlier as president of the Languedoc-Roussillon’s Conseil Régional. You can read my portrait of him here.
Although extremely gaff prone, his life was a triumph of deeds over dogma. He was a charismatic visionary whose achievements for the région since his first election as president in 2004 included:
- The building of five lycées, with three more planned.
- Free school books.
- The renovation of the TER regional rail network
- Decisive action to develop Montpellier University as a “pole of international excellence”.
- Delivering financial aid to launch the TGV section Nîmes-Montpellier.
- The success of the “Sud de France” identity brand for wine and other regional products.
- Setting up promotional Houses of the Languedoc-Roussillon/Sud de France in London, Shanghai, Milan and New York.
Christian Bourquin – a more tarnished record
Frêche’s anointed successor is Christian Bourquin, duly elected as the région’s new president on 11 November. A through-and-through Catalan born in St Féliu d’Amont, Bourquin was president of the P.-O.’s conseil général from March 1998 until his recent promotion.
Also thrown out of the Socialist party (for supporting Frêche), his high-achieving career is more tarnished by judicial prosecutions. In November this year he was fined EUR 5,000, after umpteen appeals, for “minoration des comptes de campagne” in 2001. This roughly means fiddling his election expenses to make them look less than they were.
Additionally, on 1 December this year he was recalled to Perpignan’s criminal court for “favouritism in awarding a public contract” going back to 1999. The outcome is yet to be decided.
France, Perpignan : People work at the construction site of the new high-speed TGV train station in Perpignan, southern France, on 17 February 2009
Smelly socks
Finally, spare a thought for poor Georges Garcia. He was found stuffing his socks and shoes with voting papers - in the polling station for which he was responsible - in Perpignan’s municipal elections of March 2008. He is still waiting to learn his fate at the hands of the judiciary.
You can read the entire smelly socks saga in Lives and Livelihoods: Roussillion 7, Roussillion 15, Healthy Democracy or Banana Republic and Smelly socks saga closes.
Au Revoir
In saying farewell to my expatica readers over the last 4 years, may I thank you for your interest and support? According to a previous editor, my blog “was one of the three most read between January 2009 and now [14 April 2010]”.
Quite an honour! Joyeux Noël et Bonne Année à toutes et à tous!
Basil Howitt / Expatica
References: Various articles in L’Indépendant, www.laclau.net and Wikipedia.
© Basil Howitt 2010
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In his 50th and final article in this series, Basil Howitt welcomes the inauguration, at last, of the trans-frontier TGV link between Perpignan and Figueres. He also ties up a few loose ends left dangling from one or two of his earlier stories.
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