Skip to content

Talking Headways: How France Melds High-Speed Rail With Cities, Part 2

Part two of our discussion of French high-speed rail and cities covers how France approaches infrastructure projects of national significance, the challenges of building the Grand Paris Express rail expansion, and the latent opportunities of San Jose's Diridon station.
Talking Headways: How France Melds High-Speed Rail With Cities, Part 2
The plan for local transit lines connecting to the new Bordeaux Saint Jean Belcie HSR station. Map: < a href="http://www.bordeaux-euratlantique.fr/territoire-de-projets/projet-st-jean-belcier/">Bordeaux Euratlantique

In part two of our discussion of French high-speed rail and cities, guest host and German Marshall Fund fellow Eric Eidlin interviews Stephan de Fay, executive director of Bordeaux Euratlantique, the public agency overseeing the redevelopment of Bordeaux’s main train station to accommodate several new high-speed rail lines by 2020, and Etienne Tricaud, president and CEO of AREP, the French railway’s architecture office.

The conversation covers how France approaches infrastructure projects of national significance, the challenges of building the Grand Paris Express rail expansion, and the latent opportunities of San Jose’s Diridon station.

Photo of Jeff Wood
Jeff Wood is the creator of the Talking Headways podcast and editor of the newsletter The Overhead Wire.

Read More:

More from Streetsblog USA

How to Fight a Freeway 101

November 9, 2026

Monday’s Headlines Come Heavy or Not at All

November 9, 2026

The California DMV’s Culture of Obstruction

November 6, 2026

Friday’s Frugal Headlines

November 6, 2026

Opinion: I (Almost) Killed a Pedestrian With My Car

November 6, 2026
See all posts