TGV's
Posted: 04 Apr 2007, 08:40
FRANCE is rightfully proud of its fast, comfortable and efficient train service.
The country's first electrically powered TGV train was launched with great fanfare in 1981 and the TGV network now connects cities across France, allowing passengers to travel from Paris to the Mediterranean port of Marseilles in under three hours.
Importantly, TGVs run on their own track and do not have to compete with slower-moving trains - unlike in Britain.
France also benefits from the fact that much of its rail infrastructure was destroyed in the Second World War. The UK has struggled with an updated, essentially Victorian network.
Nevertheless, French public investment in trains has vastly outstripped that in Britain.
The TGV trains daily reach speeds of 198mph over some 1,000 miles of track. The latest line - which will start commercial trips on 10 June - reduces travel time from Paris to the eastern city of Strasbourg from four hours to two hours and 20 minutes.
One of the biggest rail projects in Europe, it took five years to complete, mobilised some 10,000 workers and required 78,000 tonnes of steel - enough to build eight Eiffel Towers.
Japan's Shinkansen "bullet train" and the Inter-City Express (ICE) of the German company Siemens are the other major players in a global fast-train market that has been boosted recently by environmental concerns about the impact of air transport. Bombardier of Canada and Talgo of Spain are also manufacturers.
Alstom is preparing a new generation of TGVs - also capable of 360kph - to go into service from 2012.
The country's first electrically powered TGV train was launched with great fanfare in 1981 and the TGV network now connects cities across France, allowing passengers to travel from Paris to the Mediterranean port of Marseilles in under three hours.
Importantly, TGVs run on their own track and do not have to compete with slower-moving trains - unlike in Britain.
France also benefits from the fact that much of its rail infrastructure was destroyed in the Second World War. The UK has struggled with an updated, essentially Victorian network.
Nevertheless, French public investment in trains has vastly outstripped that in Britain.
The TGV trains daily reach speeds of 198mph over some 1,000 miles of track. The latest line - which will start commercial trips on 10 June - reduces travel time from Paris to the eastern city of Strasbourg from four hours to two hours and 20 minutes.
One of the biggest rail projects in Europe, it took five years to complete, mobilised some 10,000 workers and required 78,000 tonnes of steel - enough to build eight Eiffel Towers.
Japan's Shinkansen "bullet train" and the Inter-City Express (ICE) of the German company Siemens are the other major players in a global fast-train market that has been boosted recently by environmental concerns about the impact of air transport. Bombardier of Canada and Talgo of Spain are also manufacturers.
Alstom is preparing a new generation of TGVs - also capable of 360kph - to go into service from 2012.