High Speed Rail Lines Connecting Italy with Southern France?

In France, unfortunately, as far as high-speed train links are concerned, it's All Railroads lead to Paris. With this hub and spoke approach, it's very difficult when you want to travel between spokes, as you do. The only other alternative might be to fly...a discount airline flight to Barcelona, then a train to Narbonne and into Carcassonne. Air Europa, Clickair, and Vueling all fly this route....Ryanair flies to "Girona,"but you may be hard pressed to get a rail connection from there without coming into Barcelona first. Check with bahn.de, the German rail website, for connections from Barcelona to Carcassonne.

Tonya, I doubt you could drive from Genoa to Carcasonne in 4-1/2 hours. Europe is not flat and the roads are not all great.

The French TGV's are pretty fast when on the TGV tracks. These begin in Marseille and don't go to Carcassonne.

I'm looking at the run on www.bahn.de. I see 15+ hrs and 5 train changes. All but one train is a high-speed train. There's a couple of hours in there for changing trains.

hmmm....13.5 hours train travel time to cover 735 miles? 55 mph average travel is hardly high speed! Rome-Milan is about 105 mph, Milan-Nice 45 mph, Nice-Marseilles 55 mph, and Marseilles-Carcassonne 65 mph. Now, Paris-Lyon or Brussels-Paris at 150 mph...THAT's high speed!

Tonya, I don't know if this helps, but there is an international airport in Tolouse, near Carcassonne.

"""""hmmm....13.5 hours train travel time to cover 735 miles? 55 mph average travel is hardly high speed!""""""

Exactly what I was thinking! I don't know what we're going to do. I don't like the idea of spending an entire day on a train... and I don't know that we have enough time for multiple stops in between. When initially planning this, I just assumed the trains were fast and it wouldn't take very long to cover the distance. I mean, you could drive that if there were a highway connecting the two in much less time. I realize that there may not be such a highway, but still. I expect the trains to be faster than that!

Flying really isn't something I want to do either. There doesn't seem to be any flights to any town near Carcassonne (Carcassonne has an airport, but only flights from limited places). Some flights go to Barcelona, but then it's still more than 5 hours by train to Carcassonne, and that just seems to defeat the purpose.

Thank you all for your responses.

Yeah, I checked Toulouse too. Most of the flights from Rome to Carcassonne (or any other airport that's close, like Toulouse or Lyon), you have to transfer through Belgium or London or Paris, and at that point the time the flight takes winds up being just about as long as the train ride.

The closest I can get with a direct flight seems to be Nice or Barcelona, and at that point, it's still another 5+ hours by train. When you consider having to be at the airport early and deal with security and baggage and all that, it seems no better than the train.

Tonya,

For much of your route the terrain makes it impossible for high speed trains to operate at high speeds. For example, regional trains running between Nice and Marseille make the trip just as fast as TGVs. The TGVs can't operate at full speed until they turn north going toward Paris.

I have two suggestions for you to consider:

1. Travel Rome-Milan-Dijon-Montpellier-Carcassone by train, leaving Rome at 18:30 and arriving at Carcassonne at 12:20. The Milan-Dijon leg (23:35-05:36) is a night train with sleeping accommodations.

2. Fly easyJet from Rome Ciampino to Paris Orly, leaving at 08:55 and arriving at 10:55 (schedule is a bit later on Sundays). Travel by train to Carcassonne. If you wish to take a walk in Paris and have lunch, you can easily do so. You will have your choice of several afternoon departure times for Paris to Carcassonne.

"""""1. Travel Rome-Milan-Dijon-Montpellier-Carcassone by train, leaving Rome at 18:30 and arriving at Carcassonne at 12:20. The Milan-Dijon leg (23:35-05:36) is a night train with sleeping accommodations."""""

That could be a good idea for us.

I didn't realize the terrain made it difficult for the high speed trains. In that case, if we have to stop at more than one place, can anyone suggest any towns that are on the train line between Milan and Carcassonne that would be good to stop at?