NickB

I was not aware that the denizens of Goussainville, Aulnay or Garges-les-Gonesse constituted such a large part of AF's clientele on CDG-BOD... .

To be a little more serious about the issue, surely you cannot design a transport policy merely around the people that live in close proximity to the airports at both ends. That would not be sustainable. I do not think that there is a god-given right of everyone to have access to an airport or mainline station to all potential destinations at no more than 15 minutes from their doorstep. Besides, if there is such a humongous demand from the 93-95 area to BOD, I think that there is a station at CDG2 that could be put to good use in providing the required direct train services to the Bordeaux area.

That said, while it seems to me that there is much to be said about thinking of replacing air services by train services below a certain distance, this is not something that can be improvised on the spot and has a large number of implications that need to be evaluated carefully and suggesting that one can simply decree this as a condition of emergency financial assistance is rather bizarre. This has the feel of symbolic gesturing by a politician amplified by journalistic theatrics that makes the whole thing rather difficult to take seriously.