Off the rails: PSG defends use of flights rather than trains

PARIS (AP) — Paris Saint-Germain has defended its use of chartered flights rather than more ecological trains after an executive for France’s high-speed rail network called out the club for flying its players on a short-haul to Nantes this past weekend. The director of the French rail company’s TGV-Intercity service noted that the network’s high-speed trains can travel the roughly 380 kilometers (240 miles) from Paris to the western city in just under two hours. He retweeted video of PSG players aboard a short-haul flight for an away match on Saturday night. In response, PSG said there weren’t late-night TGV trains it could have taken back to Paris after the Ligue 1 match. The polemic comes amid an energy-saving drive in France.