Happy Birthday TGV - Celebrating 25 Years of High Speed Trains in France

Today to the day 25 years ago was the day that the firt high speed rail line in France - the TGV Sud-Est line - was opened for commercial service. On that day - September 27, 1981 - the first section of the high speed line from St Florentin to Sathonay (north of Lyon) was inaugurated and starting with that day, 13 daily trips were offered on the Paris - Lyon line with a running time of 2h 40min. Two years later, the northern section of the line was also opened and running time dropped to 2 hours with a maximum speed of 270 km/h.

Since then, the venture seems to have been a complete success, and year after year, additional lines were opened, frequencies increased and additional destinations were served. The September 2006 issue of the French rail magazine Rail Passion has a nice overview of these developments, with a focus on the TGV Sud-Est network.

The TGV network has grown all over France now and almost all the regions and neighboring countries are served now:
- TGV Sud-Est serves the southeastern part of the country (Lyon, Marseilles, Montpellier, Nice, Grenoble, etc.) and connects Paris to Switzerland and Italy (a link to Spain will be added in the near future)
- TGV Atlantique connects the southwestern (Tours, Poitiers, Bordeaux, Toulouse, etc.) and western (Le Mans, Rennes, Nantes, Brest, etc.) parts of the country
- TGV Nord-Europe links Paris and the northern/northeastern part of France (Lille) and also reaches Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, plus - through the Channel tunnel - London
- and finally, as of the end of next year, the new TGV Est-Europeen will provide the long-awaited link between the capital and the eastern regions of Strasburg, Metz and Nancy, plus southern Germany and improved service to parts of Switzerland

Granted, France was not the first country to have truly high speed rail service (that honor goes to Japan’s Shinkansen), but it’s success has undoubtedly contributed to the revival of passenger rail and the proliferation of high speed rail lines all over Europe and in other parts of the world. Hopefully, one day this enthusiasm will finally reach California as well …

Posted in: Uncategorized | September 27, 2006 12:01 am