Umm...per the article, what they're banning are individual short-haul tickets on those routes, where high speed trains do the segment in a time competitive with the flight. France, like the US, often has flights that start in outlying towns, stop in the hub, then proceed on the longer trip. Through tickets on those flights are not banned. It's not very clear, but connecting flights for longer runs may also not be banned. What IS banned is buying a ticket between Paris to Lyon (one of the 5 routes) - take the train for that trip.

If the airlines still need those short legs to make a longer flight work, they'll keep flying them. The target is really the commuter airlines. I've noted before that if CAHSR does it right, they can eat United Express' lunch for Fresno-SFO or even, possibly, Bakersfield-SFO. SJC is close enough to Diridon that a good, short shuttle would make it an decent alternative, too. Unfortunately, there is and will be no good connection between LAUS and LAX for something similar at the south end (if HSR ever gets there); spending an hour or more on light rail (with many stops and multiple transfers) between LAUS and a remote station at LAX that you have to take a shuttle to the terminals from is NOT a good connection; the Flyaway bus may still be a good alternative unless Metro forces them out of business once light rail starts running, and United Express will still have plenty of business on the LAX runs.