New Aquitaine by Train: A 7-Day Car-Free Itinerary
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Published on 7/3/27
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Two major French cities, two of the top 10 metropolitan areas, just 430 km as the crow flies... And yet, none direct train without going through the Paris area.
Today, to travel from Lyon to Bordeaux or from Bordeaux to Lyon by train, you have to take a huge detour through Paris. Result: the distance goes from about 400 km to nearly 1,000 km, with travel times skyrocketing and prices that can climb to several hundred euros during the summer.
And what's the most absurd thing about all this? The rails are there, since this connection once existed. So how did we end up with such a paradox? As we’ll see, the story of the Bordeaux-Lyon route isn’t just one of an anomaly. It’s a symptom of a gradual transformation of our transportation system—and of our political and economic choices.
And if you'd rather immerse yourself in this investigation, you can watch our video analysis or listen to the audio version at Want a hit? (the podcast that will get you hooked on trains):
To understand why Bordeaux and Lyon are no longer connected by a direct train, we must first look at Where does the line go? : It runs mostly through the Massif Central, a vast region of plateaus and low mountain ranges located in the heart of France.
The Massif Central covers an area of approximately 15% of France's land area and faces major mobility challenges. Yet it is also one of the regions most adversely affected by the decline of rail service. Why? Its terrain is rugged, with steep slopes, numerous curves, and structures that are sometimes over a century old. In short, building and maintaining infrastructure here is expensive.
For a long time, that didn’t stop France from embarking on this venture. Because rail is an essential public service for regional development, and above all, because before the war and between the two world wars, it was the primary means of transportation serving the country.
But after the war, a new factor changed the situation: the car. It became more widely accessible, the government invested heavily in the road network, and air travel also began to expand for long-distance travel.
With all that going on, trains quickly take a back seat. Some lines are seen as “less useful” and are gradually being phased out. We saw this particularly in the case of the Ardèche, which is currently the only department without a passenger train station—a topic we explored in another video.
Article
Why is Ardèche the only department without a passenger station?
Another key factor is the very structure of the French rail network. As early as 1842, it was organized according to the Legrand Star : to quickly connect the capital to major cities.
The result: a very Paris-centric. While this may be practical for certain economic needs, it is disastrous for interregional connections, since cross-regional lines become less politically visible, see fewer passengers, and are therefore more vulnerable. And when financial priorities take precedence, these are the first to be cut.
In the late 2000s, the government launched a review of the rail system INTERCITY (the “regional balance trains”). In this context, the Bordeaux–Lyon route has been identified as one of the most loss-making and least profitable on the network.
The verdict is final: closures are coming one after another, and these lines will never reopen. Today, the only reminder of the Bordeaux-Lyon line is a set of abandoned tracks and a highway that follows the route of the old line almost exactly.
First obstacle: the budget priorities. A line that is no longer in service is immediately removed from the list of priorities.
As the Bordeaux-Lyon rail line comes to a halt, the government is facing several urgent challenges: an aging network, massive rail debt, and the need to upgrade the busiest routes to prevent incidents and widespread delays.
In this context, reopening an abandoned cross-regional line that runs through sparsely populated areas is not seen as a project for the future but as an additional cost in a system that is already under strain.
And as Jean-Pierre Farandou explained in a episode of our podcast : The network is very old, and it is aging at an accelerating rate (with an average age of about 30 years, but with rails over 100 years old and overhead wires over 70 years old).
In 2018, the government tasked the Infrastructure Policy Council with prioritizing major transportation projects. In this context, the Bordeaux-Lyon link through the Massif Central was not designated as a priority. From that point on, it effectively disappeared from the political debate.
An institutional headache: “Who’s going to pay?”
Second obstacle: the fragmented financing. The line runs through several regions, but does not fall entirely within any one of them.
Result: No one has full authority to decide on a follow-up on their own.
The third obstacle, which is more subtle: the availability of alternative routes. Even though there is no direct route and the solution is far from ideal, it is still possible to travel between Bordeaux and Lyon by train. And if there is an alternative, the political pressure to reopen a cross-country line will disappear...
Finally, as the years go by without a train, habits change. Cars are becoming the norm, connections disappear, and potential passengers fall off the radar: since they no longer take the train, they are no longer counted. And this apparent decline in demand becomes an argument to justify the lack of service.
Since the gradual phasing out of the rail service, complaints and local protests have been on the rise: elected officials, passenger associations, and citizen groups are denouncing the lack of rail connectivity in Limousin, Auvergne, and, more broadly, in central France.
For departments such as Creuse, Allier, Corrèze, Haute-Vienne, and Puy-de-Dôme, the challenges are very real (commute times skyrocketing, reliance on cars, young people leaving more readily, businesses hesitant to set up shop, a sense of being sidelined…).
It is in this context that one actor is trying something different: Railcoop. The idea is simple: if neither the government nor the major operators revive the abandoned lines, then we must try a different approach, relying on the regions, local governments, and citizens. And inevitably, the Bordeaux-Lyon route becomes a key project.
Article
Railcoop: Why the Bordeaux-Lyon Train Never Got Off the Ground
Between 2019 and 2023, Railcoop brought together nearly 15,000 members and raises more than 10 million euros equity capital! But reality soon caught up with the project: to run a train, you need train paths, rolling stock, and funding for electricity, maintenance, and staff… And above all pay rail tolls billed by SNCF Réseau.
On a conventional line, the track access charge is approximately €8 per kilometer per train in France, compared to €2.77 in Italy and €1.45 in Sweden. So over 500 km (roughly the distance of a direct route from Bordeaux to Lyon), the bill comes to about €4,000 just for the right to use the tracks. The business model wasn’t sustainable, and in 2024, Railcoop went into bankruptcy…
Following the failure of Railcoop, a new project has emerged. In 2024, the SNCF announced the launch of a direct Bordeaux-Lyon route scheduled for 2027, to be operated by OUIGO.
A direct train with no transfers and at a low price, with an estimated travel time of around five o'clock !
An announcement that sounds like excellent news for the revival of the Bordeaux-Lyon route. Yes, but here’s the thing: this train will not pass through Limousin, Auvergne, or the Massif Central. The chosen route uses the existing high-speed lines: the train heads north toward the Paris region, passing through Massy, then heads back down toward Tours, Poitiers, Angoulême, and Bordeaux.
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© OUIGO
On the one hand, this is clearly a positive development: travel between these two major cities will finally be simplified (by eliminating the need for transfers), and could encourage travelers to choose public transportation over driving or flying.
On the other hand, for the regions of the Massif Central, this is a harsh reality: Bordeaux and Lyon will be better connected—but without them. Mid-sized cities are no longer potential stops along the way; they are areas that are bypassed. And inevitably, a question arises: if a direct connection exists (even via a detour), who will still finance a cross-country route through the heart of the country?
Ultimately, this story goes far beyond the issue of a simple train ride. We are faced with two visions of rail travel that coexist without ever truly converging:
One thing is certain: the Bordeaux-Lyon project has become a symbol of the trade-offs between economic efficiency, regional equity, and the climate transition. Stay tuned…
Issue du monde de la communication et des médias, Sophie est Responsable éditoriale chez HOURRAIL ! depuis août 2024. Elle est notamment derrière le contenu éditorial du site ainsi que La Locomissive (de l'inspiration voyage bas carbone et des bons plans, un jeudi sur deux, gratuitement dans ta boîte mail !).
Convaincue que les changements d’habitude passent par la transformation de nos imaginaires, elle s’attache à montrer qu’il est possible de voyager autrement, de manière plus consciente, plus lente et plus joyeuse. Son objectif : rendre le slow travel accessible à toutes et tous, à travers des astuces, des décryptages et surtout, de nouveaux récits.
