A weight off the shoulders of musicians who will be traveling this summer. The SNCF will experimentally welcome double basses on board TGV trains from this Monday, July 1, and until September 8, 2024, announces in a press release the Professional Union of Producers, Festivals, Ensembles and Independent Music Broadcasters (Profedim). “This will finally allow musicians to travel peacefully and continue to practice their profession without financial constraints, while the festival season is in full swing.”rejoices the union, which participated in the consultations with the Ministry of Culture and the SNCF.
The public railway company currently bans double basses on board TGV trains, with the baggage limit set at 1.30 metres. Double bass players who break the rule are liable to a hefty fine of up to 150 euros. In 2021, a column signed by around a hundred musicians was published in the worlddenouncing a situation “ubiquitous and Kafkaesque”. A petitionsigned by nearly 50,000 people, also mentioned the“aspect absurde” of the ban, recalling that the transport of surfboards and skis was authorized.
“I was told I had to get off the train”
France Musique had collected testimonials from angry double bass players. “I was reminded of the rules, told that I had to get off the train, find another solution. I replied that I knew the rules but that I had no other solution, that I was going to great lengths to try to be as undisturbing as possible,” told us the young double bassist Élodie Peudepiece. Another eloquent testimony, from double bassist Marie-Amélie Clément: “One day, a controller on a Besançon-Paris route said to me: ‘you’re lucky that the train is direct, otherwise I’d let you off at the next station’.”
For its part, Profedim announces that it will continue “his action and his mobilization so that the experiment results in a method of transporting all musical instruments identified as ‘bulky and non-standard’ (such as theorbos, violas da gambas, harps and double basses)”. A mode of transport “respectful of the activity of music professionals and their wish – and the wish of the public – to promote ecologically virtuous modes of transport.”
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