WHY NOT DESIGNATE FIRST CLASS AS A QUIET CAR?

Stateside, Amtrak's Acela, when it runs, functions as a rolling gated community offering only business and some sort of premium seating, I suppose to justify the extra fare compared with Amtrak's Northeast Regional trains that make additional stops and offer primarily coach seats with a few business class seats at one end of a snack car, or perhaps that's to separate the people too full of themselves from, you know, plebeians.  How very European.

A French railway company has faced a backlash after offering a new child-free section in its premium carriages.

Starting this month, weekday TGV trains running to and from Paris have a new and exclusive area of first class known as Optimum, which some have accused of discriminating against passengers under 12.

SNCF, which provides the service on its main Inoui brand of express trains across France and into Germany and Luxembourg, says the new category is intended for “frequent travellers, often business travellers, who want to enjoy greater comfort”.

The state-owned organisation promises: “Exclusive comfort in a fully dedicated first-class carriage, with seating arrangements designed to preserve your privacy, for a calm journey, ideal for working or relaxing.”

The secret for a calm journey is divulged deep in the detail: “To ensure maximum comfort in the dedicated space, children are not permitted.”

The company's defense of its policy is vintage technocrat.  “Our Optimum offer occupies less than 8 per cent of the space on a TGV Inoui and only from Monday to Friday. This means that 92 per cent of the other seats are available to everyone – and 100 per cent on weekends.”  Additionally, the deluxe car is at one end of the formation (these days, that means marshalled next to the power car, no more open-platform observation with a bar attendant) precluding those plebeians, particularly the puerile plebeians out of the car.  I suspect that the Optimum seats are not configured as a quiet car, as there are probably deals to be made thereon.

These days, the European operating companies offer competing service on the same metals, and on the Paris and Lyon service, Italy's Trenitalia also offer trains, with something that sounds like a quiet car.

SNCF now faces competition with Italian state rail firm Trenitalia on the prime Paris-Lyon route. Trenitalia offers an Area de Silenzio area that “allows passengers calm, without any noise”.

Trenitalia is silent on whether children are banned from this space.

Discretion is the best part and all that, although perhaps premium fares have the effect of keeping the family groups out of the premium seats.  The article does not explain whether the Area de Silenzio is posted as a specific car, in the manner of Stateside quiet cars.