SNCF lists Metz to Dijon as between 3 - 6 hours depending on route. But the quickest route (on TGV) still goes through Paris, which is nonsensical for two cities almost next to one another.
An analogy with the U.S. would be like going from San Francisco to L.A. via Denver or Kansas City.
Lille→Montpellier: http://i.imgur.com/cQUUku2.png — 3h — TGV 9812: http://www.ptdb.info/europe2014/route.php?routename=9812&uri...
Metz→Dijon: http://i.imgur.com/gaUhd57.png — 5h — TGV 6824: http://www.ptdb.info/europe2014/route.php?routename=6824&uri...
That's the results from Voyages-SNCF.com. These trains are daily, and there are 3-4 more trains that take around the same time every day.
Note that TGV 9812 is actually going around Paris and does not stop in the city.
Well no, it's really 5 hours.
And I don't understand how you can say "by train it's closer to 24 hrs" as TGV is a train. If you mean intercity, well... I'm not even sure how you could take intercity-only tickets and as far as I know there are no intercity trains going from Lille to the south. It would probably be around 10 hours even as the slower speed of such a train, never 24.
So I'm checking the itinerary I received:
Take the Thalys -> Paris Nord ~ 2hr
Navigating around Paris to Gare Paris-Bercy ~ 20 min
Then actually, I can't find train service to Montpellier I just get the iDBUS
Towards Milano (stopping at Lyon-Perrache) ~ 6.5 hours
then Towards Barcelona (stopping at Monpellier) ~ 4.5 hours
That's the fastest route I can find. TGV doesn't even seem to be an option on the sites I'm checking.
I don't understand your contorted itinerary. You start by taking a 2hr Thalys instead of the regular TGV that goes from Lille to Paris in 1 hour. One of these leaves Lille every 30 minutes or so.
Then somehow you go from Paris Nord to... Bercy instead of Paris Lyon? Bercy only serves regional trains, TGVs leave from gare de Lyon. Then you look for a train that goes to Barcelona instead of one that only goes to Montpellier?
Voyages-sncf.com, Capitaine Train and Bahn.de all show the direct 9812 TGV that I have already taken a few times to go to Lyon or Montpellier. It doesn't go through Paris, stops in a few places like Charles-de-Gaulle airport and Lyon. It actually departs from Brussels, not Lille. It's moderately expensive, at 144€.
In other words, in both countries, rail spiders out from Paris or Tokyo respectively. It can be faster to go from the North of the central city to the South of the city, than between two "arms" of the system that are basically right next to one another. For example, it takes about 18 hours to go from Lille to Montpellier by train, on opposite ends of the country. While it takes about the same to go from Metz to Dijon, a 2 hour drive.
The Paris Metro Area has about 12.3 million people, or almost 1/5th of the country. Tokyo Metro has 32.5 million or about 1/4 of the country.
The U.S. on the other hand doesn't have a central capital city. There are no cities that have nearly that kind of gravity.
Despite that, New York to Miami by train takes about 19 hours. Lille to Montpellier is about half the distance of New York to Miami. That's not too bad considering the crap infrastructure the U.S. has in place.