First article is 6 months old news but significant:
Announcing the plan on Friday, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne stressed that rail must be the “backbone” of the government’s transport policy.
www.brusselstimes.com
I too heard of stories from uncles and grandparents about traveling across Europe and further, by night train even. Imagine that, the ability to sleep in a train and wake… miss everything along the way. Only thing I can compare based on experience is europe vs australia and the main difference then is the price of a ticket. Sure we got some high speed trains, very popular, but either book months in advanced or pay stupid high rates (very roughly a 1$ per mile). On a national level it differs a lot, but the combination of effective and affordable is rare. The investment in France is just an example and even if half the plans become reality it’s going to change Europe a lot.
I can fly to a spanish costa and back (~1000miles) for barely more than the cost of a train ticket that gets me to Amsterdam airport less than 80miles away… Train ticket Amsterdam - Vienna on a short notice costs about the same as flying from Amsterdam to the Big Apple… sumthin aint right.
Flying in Europe half as expensive as rail, report finds:
In regards to the last line:
”It also calls for European governments to introduce climate tickets - simple long-term tickets that are valid on all means of public transport in a country or region.”
Austria offers such a klimaticket, roughly 1200usd per year, unless you get a tattoo: