The “distractions of Donald Trump and Davos” proved an “opportune” moment for France’s state-owned rail operator SNCF to “slip out some news”, said Gavin Mortimer in The Spectator. “Welcome to ‘Optimum’, the new and exclusive area of the train where kids are not welcome.”

Promising a “calm journey that’s ideal for working or relaxing”, the new adults-only first-class carriage on weekday high-speed trains in and out of Paris will be out of bounds for children under 12. And to ensure “little Gallic brats” don’t disrupt the quiet, “even briefly”, the carriage will be “located at the end of the train to prevent other passengers from walking through the Optimum-dedicated area”.

‘Shocking’ and ‘sick’

If the SNCF thought this would pass under the radar, “they were mistaken”, said Mortimer in The Spectator. “In a rare moment of unity”, French MPs of all political stripes have expressed “outrage” at the child ban.

“It’s shocking,” Sarah El Haïry, France’s high commissioner for children, said on BFM. “Travelling with children is not a problem to be fixed, but a reality to be supported.” The left-wing MP François Ruffin said the ban showed French society is “sick”, while former interior minister and president of The Republicans party, Bruno Retailleau, said it was “everything France must not become”.

Referencing France’s plummeting birth rate – now at its lowest level since 1918 – the National Assembly MEP Marion Maréchal said that, for a country “in need of children”, the SNCF’s “anti-family message” was “deplorable”.

The arrival of the child-free train carriage only adds to France’s ongoing debate about adult-only spaces, said The Guardian. Last year, Laurence Rossignol, a socialist senator, called for a curb on the rising number of child-free hotels and holiday resorts. “We can’t organise society by separating children off from ourselves in the way some establishments don’t take dogs,” she said. “Children aren’t troublesome pets.

”‘Right to tantrum-free spaces’

I think the child-free carriage is a “magnificent idea”, said Fiona McIntosh in The Independent. “Imagine being able to read your book without the need for noise-cancelling headphones? Or drink your coffee, rather than wear it, because some child has kicked the back of your seat?” I don’t dislike children but, now my daughters have grown up, I think I have “earned the right to tantrum-free spaces”. And it isn’t at all surprising that the French “would come up” with this idea: their attitude to young children is far “stricter than our laissez-faire, Anglo Saxon approach”.

It’s actually quite a reasonable proposition: the Optimum carriage is only available Monday to Friday during “peak business travel” on just 8% of the SNCF’s express trains. “Surely this segregation is a win-win for everyone?” Parents don’t have the “stress of trying to contain a toddler in a carriage full of accountants tapping away on their spreadsheets”, and their kids can still go “free range in the other 92% of the train”. Having child-free spaces “is not discrimination; it’s making travel a more comfortable experience for everyone”.

“This debate is not new,” said The Independent’s Helen Coffey. Everything from adults-only zones on planes to child-free weddings sparks controversy online. While I agree that kids can be a “total vibe killer”, part of being an adult is realising that “the world doesn’t actually revolve around you” and learning to “make compromises”, including rubbing along with those you don’t like.

Sadly, hostility towards children in public places “is growing”, said Rachel Connelly in The Guardian. Quite often, I see people “tutting or muttering” when a parent arrives with a child in a restaurant or cafe. “God forbid if the baby starts to cry, as babies do.” Making public spaces “absent of children seems to speak to a fantasy of a world where the lives we live are totally detached from the lives of the people around us” – when, of course, they aren’t. Just imagine “if this fantasy were reality: our lives would be very small and boring”

Bit late to this one. Is 6 Didcot Parkway?

The Case for Transforming the British Railways into Motor Roads

That's reignited my pondering as to where, if the continued trail is successful, these could be rolled out to, especially with the rather higher than predicted milage per charge.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy0568j74e4o

Gosh !! they have cracked on with this..............they will need more than 1 extra platform at Westbury to cope with all the extra traffic from 4 lines !

Good old Beeb !!

I must try to catch the same train as him sometime......must be great to be able to pull rank in order to make sure you get home on time!  [Image from here is not available to guests]

To be fair, Mark was just making sure that the many attendees at that GWR community involvement event held in Barnstaple weren't going to be inconvenienced on their way home afterwards.

As it turned out, I wasn't. [Image from here is not available to guests]

CfN. [Image from here is not available to guests]

If you want to annoy me ... no, I won't give ideas. 

With thanks for your post, TonyK, I noted your use of 'TG' as an abbreviation. There is absolutely no problem with that - other than that it might puzzle a new reader of the Coffee Shop forum.

I have therefore added 'TG' as one of the expanded definitions in our 'Abbreviation page' - welcome to that, TaplowGreen!

(I am also defined there, lest 'CfN' be confused with the code for Clifton Down station. [Image from here is not available to guests] )

[Image from here is not available to guests]
Great Western Railway will introduce the UK’s first battery-only powered train into passenger service on Saturday (31 January).

The record-breaking Class 230 train has been used for a successful trial of fast-charge technology on the Greenford branch line over the past 22 months.

Up until now it has undergone rigorous trials, but on Saturday it will replace its diesel counterpart, starting with the 0530 departure from West Ealing to Greenford.

Last year the train set a new World Record for the furthest distance travelled by a battery-electric train on a single charge, registering 200.5 miles and beating Stadler Deutschland’s record of 139 miles set in 2021...

“Delivering the train into passenger service will enable us to gain further insight which can be fed into our own decarbonisation plans, as well as those of the wider rail industry."

+ 1 to that. Self contained. 75mph running and looks very cheerful at a sustained 75 too.

Also, when awaiting a dusty-windowed Kent coast service at London Bridge, it was not uncommon that a... characterful noise... preceeded the bustling appearance of a Hastings diesel from the Charing Cross direction, prompting a ... 'What, whaaat's that thing? Has it been on a diet?'

Mark

Why do you need French agreement to build a Swedish flatpack table in your own lounge?

**snip**
There's just something about those trains
**snip**

Weren't the Hastings DEMUs mainline, rather than suburban.  Some even had buffet cars (although these were later removed during their life)

Can CCIF be used to cover operational running costs as per your document?