Originally Posted by
Mooneyboy
They are very much near the top of a priority list. Look at the proposed restrictions being put on the Air France and KLM loan agreements from their respective country.
This is naked self-interest from a government which owns the SNCF railway and it's high speed TGVs, which whatever their attributes have lost a lot of money for the government, which in the normal way has been just written off. The overmanning and regular strikes leading to much of the loss will be recognised as having a parallel with Air France. SNCF will surely have seized their chance with the government.
Although a TGV train may run from Paris to Nice (by no means all the way on special fast lines) the service is complementary rather than a direct equal. The air services start from notably different places that just happen to be called "Paris", though are well away from it, and are generally cheaper. They don't have all that lengthy infrastructure expenditure to recover, the air is free, and parking at the airport is far easier than in central Paris. And unlike Orly I certainly wouldn't send any woman employee business traveller to go through Gare de Lyon late in the evening. Though it's not quite as bad as Gare du Nord
Watch out for these self-centred arguments coming to the UK.