the times | Monday July 27 2020 2GM 33attributable to the rise of high-speed
lines in the 1980s throughout Europe,”
Vincent Kaufmann, director of the lab-
oratory of urban sociology at the École
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne,
the Swiss university, told Le Monde.
“In the big countries like Germany,
France and Italy, rail operators were ob-
sessed by speed. Traditional lines, day-
time and night-time, were abandoned.”
In 2016 the socialist-led government
— in which Mr Macron was economy
minister — announced the closure of
six of the eight night trains left on the
grounds that every passenger was sub-
sidised to the tune of €100.
The two remaining night trains link
Paris to Briançon in the Alps and Lat-
our-de-Carol in the Pyrenees. Both are
outdated and run down. SNCF, the
state operator, is understood to have
been planning to close them before Mr
Macron announced on Bastille Day
that he wanted to redevelop local lines,
freight trains and night trains.
Oui au Train de Nuit wants Mr Ma-
cron to undertake a ten-year plan to
open 15 night trains in France, and a
further 15 linking the country to its
European neighbours. It says it would
involve the purchase or renovation of
750 sleeping cars at a cost of €1.5 billion.The World at Five
What the president must
do to win the White House
In depth and online today at 5pm
thetimes.co.ukrights hero in a nation still divided
among a group that approached the
vehicle. A person inside the car then
opened fire. The victim was taken to
hospital and pronounced dead shortly
afterwards. The suspect was arrested.
The victim’s mother identified him as
Garrett Foster and told ABC that he was
pushing his black fiancée’s wheelchair
when he was shot. “They’d been partici-
pating in these protests almost
every day for the past 50
days,” Sheila Foster said.
In Oakland, Califor-
nia, a court building
was set on fire. In Lou-
isville, Kentucky, a
march by a heavily
armed black group
calling for justice afterthe fatal police shooting of Breonna
Taylor, 26, descended into chaos on
Saturday. Three of the group were
wounded by shots fired accidentally by
one of the participants.
In Denver a protester fired shots at a
driver during a march on an interstate
highway after a jeep drove at high speed
through the crowd, injuring at least one
person. Protests also took place
in Los Angeles, New York
and Richmond, Virginia.
Congress has failed to
reach agreement on
measures to answer
calls for police reform.
The biggest flash-
point remains Port-
land where peaceful
protests during the day
gave way to a pitched
battle around the court
building at night as activistspulled down protective fencing. “F***
the feds. You want war? We’ll give you
war. We will win,” a female activist in a
helmet and gas mask told The Guardian.
Federal officers have been criticised
for venturing several blocks from the
building to pursue their attackers using
tear gas and rubber bullets.
ED Mondainé, president of the Port-
land branch of the National Association
for the Advancement of Coloured
People, wrote in The Washington Post
that the focus on the Black Lives Matter
movement in the city was being diffused
by white people.
He said that the “wall of mums”, a
group of women who link arms
between the warring sides “might ease
the consciences of white women who
have previously been silent in the face
of black oppression, but it’s fair to ask:
are they really furthering the cause of
justice?”France’s love affair
with speed derailed
as sleepers return
For the past four decades France has
been at the forefront of high-speed rail
travel, developing trains that connect
Paris and other cities at up to 200mph.
Now President Macron wants the
country to slow down.
In a radical shift in priorities, his gov-
ernment is planning to bring back the
night trains that were a popular means
of travel in France before the arrival of
high-speed lines signalled their decline.
With Mr Macron keen to woo the
environmentalist movement, ministers
have pledged to renovate dilapidated
sleeping cars on the country’s last two
remaining night trains, and to open up
new lines to night-time travel.
The first two are due to come into
service in 2022. One will connect Paris
and Nice; the other involves the return
of the Palombe Bleue (Blue Wood
Pigeon) that linked the capital with
Tarbes in the Pyrenees. Both were
closed in 2017 amid funding cuts.
Railway enthusiasts have hailed it as
the resurrection of a tradition that goes
back to the Orient Express, which
linked Paris to Venice in 1883 and to
Constantinople in 1919. Ecologists also
welcomed the announcement.
Charles Henri-Paquette, for the Oui
au Train de Nuit campaign, said: “What
better way is there to travel long distan-
ces with a small carbon footprint and
without wasting too much time?”
In the postwar years France champi-
oned night-time rail travel, with 550
stations served by night trains. The
compartments contained four bunk
beds in first class and six in second.
The downsides were snoring neigh-
bours, wakeful children and valuables
that had disappeared in the morning.
There were happier tales, though, of
midnight parties, friendships and the
occasional amorous adventure.
The launch of the Trains à Grande
Vitesse in France in 1981 marked the
beginning of the end for the service.
“The decline of night trains is mainlyFrance
Adam Sage ParisMICHAEL M. SANTIAGO/GETTY IMAGES; BETTMANN ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGEShe was beaten during a civil rights protest 55 years ago. Above: Mr Lewis, left, with Martin Luther King, centre, in the 1960sFailed asylum seeker says
he started cathedral blaze
A Rwandan man facing expulsion from
France has admitted starting a fire that
damaged a 15th-century cathedral.
The altar server, 39, was said by his
lawyer to be full of remorse after con-
fessing that he caused the blaze at
Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul Cathedral in
Nantes on July 18. An organ, stained
glass windows and a painting by
Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin, the French
master, were destroyed.
The offender, named only as Emma-
nuel in the media, was a volunteer at the
cathedral, assisting and locking up at
night. He was arrested last weekend but
released after denying involvement.
He was re-arrested on Saturday
when forensic experts became con-
vinced that an arsonist had caused theblaze after traces of fuel were found.
Quentin Chabert, his lawyer, said that
he confessed when an investigating
magistrate told him that detectives had
CCTV footage showing him leaving
after flames were seen.
“There is a sort of relief for him,”
Mr Chabert said. “He is someone who is
frightened. He is being eaten up by
remorse. His repentance is sincere.”
His client has been charged with
committing “destruction through fire”,
punishable with ten years in prison.
The immigrant is said to have applied
for asylum after arriving in 2012. His
claim and appeals were rejected and he
was given until March to leave.
Michel Bourcier, the cathedral
organist, said: “It hurts my heart. He is
a Christian, he is our brother, so we
must be attentive to him.”Adam SageParisPortbouBriançonToulouse AlbiLatour-de-Carol202019812010French night train routes
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Louisville, Kentuckys almost
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