Press Release: Rail Europe
May 7, 2001
NEW YORK, NY -- France's newest $3.5 billion high-speed (186 mph) rail line, TGV* Mediterranee, will carry 23 million
passengers annually, attracting some 6 million away from air and road transportation by 2003. This will reduce
congestion on traffic corridors in the south of France and bring significant environmental benefits as well, according
to Louis Gallois, President of the French National Railroads (SNCF), who spoke today at a press conference celebrating
20 years of high-speed European rail travel and the June 10 launch of the new line.
Faster travel times, more frequent service
The new TGV Med line, an extension of Europe's first high-speed line between Paris and Lyon and the most advanced
high-speed line in the world, will reduce travel times between 140 cities along its route by an hour or more. This
will make the Paris-Avignon trip 2 hours 38 min compared to the previous 3 hours 30 min, Paris-Marseille 3 hours,
down from 4 hours 20 min, Paris-Nice 5 hours 36 minutes, 1 hour shorter than before. France's second and third
largest cities, Marseille and Lyon, will now be only 1.5 hour apart, city-center to city-center. The frequency
of service to and within southern France will increase 20-200% depending on the route, and the hours of service
have been extended both earlier in the day and later into the night, making possible easy daytrips between cities
separated by 300-500 miles.
International rail connections from the south of France with the Eurostar Chunnel train, Thalys and TGV trains
to Belgium, Netherlands, UK, Switzerland and Germany will also be faster. After June 10, a total of 130 TGVs a
day will link northern Europe with southern France.
When construction is complete on tunnels through the Alps and the Pyrennes in the coming years, more high-speed
track will be added to cut the time it takes to reach Italy and Spain by rail. TGV Med thus puts southern France
at the center of a revitalized East-West corridor in the northwest Mediterranean, Gallois said.
New equipment, stations and environmental sensitivity
All 168 trainsets on the TGV Med line will be new or completely refurbished and capable of a commercial operating
speed of 186 mph. Three new stations have been built in Aix-en-Provence, Avignon and Valence, and the six existing
stations on the line have been renovated, including Paris' Gare de Lyon and Marseille's Saint-Charles.
The 12-year project set a new standard in environmentally-responsible and aesthetically extraordinary transportation
construction, devoting 20% of the budget to environmental measures, and winning over the support of a local population
in southern France that was initially resistant. More than 2,000 public information meetings were held, and the
entire project was decentralized to allow the participation of local officials, experts and citizens. Of the 480
civil engineering structures, seven have been designated ``monuments of art'' by the French government.
TGVs carry 67% of Europe's high-speed passengers
France has been the pioneer and continues to be the world leader in the development of high-speed rail, with 932
miles (1,500 km) of high-speed track -- the most extensive network of any European nation -- in addition to 1,864
miles (3,000 km) of conventional track**. France's TGVs carry 67% of all high-speed passenger traffic in Europe.
Of the 200 stations served by high-speed European trains, only 40 are outside of France. With TGV stations at both
Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport and Lyon's Saint-Exupery airport, passengers can move directly to the train from
the airport, without going into the gateway city.
In the 20 years since the launch of the first high-speed line (Paris- Lyon), TGVs have carried 700 million passengers,
80 million in 2000 alone, and 65% of all passenger rail traffic in France. And the TGV's safety record is unblemished
- not one fatality in 20 years.
The French also hold the world speed record for rail -- 320 mph -- set on a test run in 1990. While TGVs can travel
at 186 mph on dedicated high-speed track, these trains operate at 124 mph (200km/hr) on conventional track.
Evolution of the high-speed network
TGV Med is an important link in France's 20-year old high-speed network, but many more projects are planned within
France and beyond (see High-Speed Backgrounder in kit), including:
-- TGV East - under construction now, going into service in 2006 serving
11.5 million passengers annually, reducing the current 4 hr Paris-
Strassbourg trip to 2 hrs 19 min.
-- Eurostar high-speed track in UK -- under construction now, going into
service in two stages (2003 and 2007), eventually cutting 40 minutes
off the current London-Paris time of 3 hours.
-- Thalys high-speed tracks -- currently high-speed track is only between
Paris and Brussels, with more being built to Amsterdam and to Cologne,
which will cut travel times Paris-Amsterdam and Paris-Cologne by
approximately 1 hour.
-- TGV Rhine-Rhone -- connecting Dijon to Mulhouse and Lyon; in the study
phase.
-- TGV Atlantic/Acquitaine -- extending current high-speed line that ends
at Tours to Bordeaux; in study phase.
-- TGV Brittany/Loire Valley -- extending current high-speed line ending
at Le Mans to Rennes and towards Angers; in study phase.
-- TGV Mediterranean -- extending from Nimes to Montpellier, Narbonne,
Perpignan and through the Pyrennes to Barcelona, from there it will
connect with Spain's high-speed Barcelona-Madrid line (currently under
construction); accord signed between Spain and France.
-- TGV Lyon-Turin -- with a tunnel through the Alps, accord signed between
France and Italy
Environmental and social benefits
While the technical and commercial aspects of French TGV's success are well known, equally important are the environmental
and socio-economic benefits of high-speed rail. High-speed rail consumes less land area, offers greater safety,
creates less air pollution, burns no fossil fuel, generates very little greenhouse gases, and is far more energy-efficient
than other forms of transportation. [See Transportation Insights on Environmental and Social Costs of Transport
in press kit.]
Trains are two to three times more energy efficient than road transportation. For every market share point in passenger
traffic that rail wins away from the road, the equivalent of approximately 37,000 tons of oil are saved. When that
increase in rail traffic is won at the expense of air, the savings are 60,000 tons. Less oil burned means less
carbon dioxide generated, which helps reduce the greenhouse effect. It is estimated that in a full year of operation,
TGV Med will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by half a million tons, as a result of travelers who switch from air
and road transportation to rail.
When TGV Med goes into service, it will not only attract passengers from both air travel and cars, it will also
boost the frequency of conventional (non-high speed) rail service, which is expected to increase rail's share of
freight, cutting back on the number of trucks on the overcrowded highways of southern France.
Relieving congestion at airports and on highways and reducing accidents are among the socio-economic benefits of
high-speed rail. Comparing fatalities by modes of transportation, between 1981 and 1995 France lost 132,000 people
to road accidents, 182 to air and 160 to rail accidents, none of which were on TGVs. Factoring in the number and
length of trips by each mode the ration of deaths per million passenger-kilometers are calculated: 15 on the road,
0.25 in airplanes, 0.18 by rail -- approximately 75 times fewer rail and air fatalities compared to those on the
highway. In conclusion
High-speed trains, and trains generally, offer important benefits to travelers, citizens and their governments
alike. While Europeans have their own set of challenges in extending our network of high-speed rail, advocates
of rail in the United States have even more difficult challenges in terms of Americans' predisposition to think
only of automobiles and air transportation, rather than rail. But with rising gasoline prices and concerns about
overcrowded airports and delayed flights, the success story of European high- speed rail might spur the adoption
of this important transportation technology in the US.
SNCF worldwide expertise
SNCF's consulting and operational services cover all of Europe, as reflected in its many joint ventures (such as
Eurostar and Thalys), as well as operations in North America with Rail Europe and EuroVacations.com. Other ventures
reflect the Group's multimodal operations serving major urban centers in France, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Greece
and England. SNCF's freight subsidiaries are involved in transportation via road, sea and air all over the world.
In addition. SNCF has expanded its consulting, engineering and marketing expertise as a service provider in infrastructure
management. [See SNCF Backgrounder.]
For information on European rail or to book tickets on TGV Med or other trains throughout Europe, contact Rail
Europe, SNCF's North American subsidiary, at 1-888-382-7245 or consult the company's Web site at http://www.raileurope.com.
* TGV:Train a Grande Vitesse ("High-speed train")
** to travel at high-speed, over 150mph, requires both high-speed train
equipment and special high-speed track built with minimal curves and
no crossings.
SOURCE: Rail Europe