In 2018 there was an uprising called the Géléjourn. The people who wore these high-vis yellow jackets were protesting against a rise in the carbon tax or motor fuel. These are people who depend on their cars to get around every day. This divide has political repercussions too. At the final round of the presidential election in 2022 people in cities that are linked to the TGV voted overwhelmingly for Emmanuel Macron. People in rural areas voted disproportionately for the nationalist far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. Better slow trains to such places may well prove more useful than more fast trains that bypass them all together.