In 1981 the first French TGV line came into service. For the first time in history European trains reached the speed of 260 lm/h. The largest part of the TGV line ( better knows as LGV = Ligne a Grande Vitesse) was still under construction. In 1984 the line was finelly completed ans the speed was buils up to 270 km/h. Now in 2003 you can travel from Calais to Marseille without using conventional rail lines. The journey time between these two city's is kept below four hours.
The lines:
There are several High speed lines. LN means Ligne Nouvelle.
LN 1 Paris Sud-Est From Paris to Montbard and Lyon
LN 2 Atlantique From Paris to Tours and Le Mans
LN 3 Nord Europe From Paris to Lille, Calais, Brussels and the Channel tunnel.
LN 4 Jonction Line east of Paris witch allows trains to travel from the LGV Nord to the LGV Atlantique end PSE
LN 5 Mediterranee From Valence TGV to Avignon TGV, Marseille and Nimes.
LN 6 Est From Paris to Metz, Nancy and Strasbourg.
LN 1b Rhone Alps From Lyon to Valence TGV. (extention of the PSE line)
CTRL section 1 From UK Eurotunnel portal to Singlewell.
Lines wich are in study:
LGV Sud European From Montpellier to Barcelona.
LGV Aquitaine From Tours to Bordeaux
LGV Rhin - Rhone From Mullhouse to Macon TGV
LGV Bretagne From Le Mans to Brest
Zuiderzelijn From Amsterdam to Groningen
HSL-Oost section2 From Utrecht to Arnhem and Köln.
On the right you can see the TGV lines map.
Lines under construction:
LGV Est From Paris to Metz, Nancy and Strasbourg. Completion in 2007 / 2008
LGV Turin. From Lyon to Turin. Completion after 2015.
CTRL section 2 From Singlewell to Ebsfleet, Stratford international and London St. Pancras. Completion in 2007
HSL-Zuid section 1 From Antwerp to Rotterdam. Completion in 2006
HSL-Zuid section 2 From Rotterdam to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Completion in 2007
HSL-Oost section 1 From Amsterdam to Utrecht. (from 2 to 4 tracks with a maximum speed of 200 km/h) Competion in 2005
