France needs better slow trains, not just fast ones

At the end TGVof a branch railway line that winds through wooded valleys in central France, a single carriage pulls into the little town of Ussel. The station has scarcely changed since it was built in 1880. Passengers still step over the rails to cross to the platform opposite. Clumps of grass and tall weeds sprout between the tracks.To reach Ussel by railway from Paris, 480km (300 miles) away, there is no high-speed option. The journey can take nearly seven hours, with a change at Brive-la-Gaillarde. In the same amount of time, thanks to France’s superb network of high-speed trains (), it is possible to zip all the way from the capital to Marseille on the Mediterranean—and back.