STRENGTH OF THE POUND, or the very weak Euro

I have used them. Apart from intercity services they are awful. The frequency of services is much like France. Many small towns refuse to allow rail services after 2000 because they still observe the traditional German 'quiet hours' until 0500. As my older grandson says, those are the towns that lose their young people because there is nothing for them, no clubs but always church, no transport and not enough local jobs. There are also more of them that people imagine in 'modern' Germany.

I am not sure what you take but can I have some.

Haven't you got this pot of paint yet?

The wonderful french network where you can wait 5 hours to get a train from Perigueux to Bordeaux all of 85 miles away. Where in winter the trains down past Perpignan are rarer than hens teeth. I am not in favour of privatised railways at all but when I lived in the UK I could get a train home from London at 01.30 and if I wished one back into London at 03.30 Only trains running in France at these hours are overnighters and freight! And Brian not sure where you get the info that DB rolling stock is ramshackle. Just wait and my prophecy will come I have had enough time working on the railways to be fully aware on DB intentions.

I'll agree with that. In Germany the local councils would need to give permissions for companies to run through them. Where my son's wife comes from they still place limits on how many trains can go through their Kreis which is a pain because they are between two cities and that has thrust the road traffic through the limit of tolerance. Not the Bundesland nor any other authority has the authority to change it because the constitution does not allow it. So the UK model can never really happen under such conditions. Mind you, they cut back trains and closed so much (by their definition) underused branch lines... In France the government makes a lot of money from the trains, even though not repaying the debts or opening the market. They can afford the penalties.

Dennis you must try and keep with the times,the hollande government are planing to close a lot more railway lines then beecham ever did.

Brian i need to re-word my post, i should have written the british model of privately owned train operating companies is the future not who owns the infrastructure.

Both germany and france have held back all competition for many years but finely they are having to open up their networks to outside train operating companies the result's are that DB have not been able to win any of the recently offered franchises for the routes that have become available.

In the meantime france just keeps on paying the financial penalties that brussels keeps giving them for not opening up their routes to outside competition.

There is no railway system that is profitable, the British tax payer is still subsidising the private railways, home counties commuters still being subsidised by the rest of UK they are screaming about the costs going up. Under one umbrella the system was a lot more efficient, now we have a totally disjointed system with horrendous fares, Beecham has a lot to answer for.

Michael, what about the UK population getting their share of the loot from the sale of utilities, transport systems and the cut price deal on the post office? The amount of public money, i.e. from taxpayers, used to carry out those sales is breathtaking. The total bill is far more than €44bn in the UK, now stretching back to about 1980 and then really accelerated from 1997 until the present. If France is bad then seriously look at the UK.

DB is a hard one to privatise because of the structure of German public ownership, which why so little has been privatised thus far: for instance, the states and cities own a vast amount of housing which is why Germany has the highest proportion of accommodation at protected rents and even more difficulty getting people out of it. Public ownership actually means that it has to be done through public representation, that is to say by councillors and not their civil servants, but for which they need public support. Magnify that in proportion to any attempt to sell of DB! It may (not always) run on time but the rolling stock is ramshackle except on a few prestigious routes, nothing like as good as the French network. I avoid DB like the plague.

Dont think so Dave DB are going to be history before then, the state run nationalised railways of europe are just not affordable any more, the british model of private owned railways is the future.

Also Dennis ask the french government when SNCF are going to repay the 44 billion euros it owes the french tax payer, correct from july 2014 it could be more now after all the strikes.

" ask the French about their railway system"

Ask them in another 10 to 20 years from now when it is being run by DeutscheBahn

Perhaps with a little magic we all can go back 30 years...... as we live

in France lost in time...and,perhaps forever young and carefree

like the French.

No sense of humour.....just dreaming and that feels as good as laughing.

Not only that, then he had to wait for it to dry! French paint, hah!

Ah that' why Vincent Van Gogh left France and went back to Holland, he got fed up waiting for his paint!

The bloody French!!!!!!

Correct me if I am wrong but when old Maggie Thatcher sold of the family silver i.e. the public utilities, was it not the French that bought large amounts of the swagger!! Water companies, Electricity companies, etc.

How are the private railway companies doing in the UK? Trains any faster? Are the fares much cheaper now that they are run by private companies? ask the French about their railway system.

The motorways are better in the UK???? Don't think so.

How is the ship building industry in the UK? French are building some nice ships.

British space rockets don't seem to be working at the moment, french doing very well.

But at least the French have control over their own nuclear weapons, unlike the British who would have to get permission from the USA to use the American missiles on the Polaris submarines.

Here's hoping the French expertise helps the British out with their next generation reactors.

Yes, the UK is 30 years ahead of the French.

Plus the biggest power supplier in the world EdF which is of course because everybody else must be 40 years behind!

Yes they are really thirty years behind the UK. They have a fully functioning High speed train system (TGV) and another being constructed (LGV), a more or less completed autoroute system, the only heavy lifting satellite launcher, Ariane and its derivatives,in Western Europe, a major stake in aircraft manufacture Airbus and Dassault, a functioning proper aircraft carrier with real aircraft unlike the two imaginary carriers the Brits have complete with imaginary aircraft even after the ships are launched. They still have a shipbuilding industry.Their nuclear power industry will be building and running the stations to keep the lights on in "modern" UK.

You only think 30 yrs behind!

all in all it has been a nice discussion.

to my eyes, france seems to be about 30 years behind the Uk in development on all fronts.

the pound and the dollar are level pegging but the poor old Euro is taking a hammering.