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Eurostar connects at Lille to French TGV services



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High speed through France: Eurostar and the TGV network  


 Since the autumn of 2007, the opening of the new London terminal for Eurostar at St Pancras has brought the journey time from London to Paris down to just 2 hours and 15 minutes, city centre to city centre. And for anyone boarding the Eurostar at Ebbsfleet, the new station in south east London, the trip is even faster, from just 2 hours and 5 minutes.
     In terms of speed and convenience, Eurostar has shown that on journeys of 200 miles or so, the train is far more convenient than the plane.
    The opening of a new high-speed rail line into London was a novelty for Londoners in 2007; but Parisians were not particularly impressed; after all, France has been steadily expanding its high-speed rail network for over a quarter of a century! The first French TGV lines were on the drawing board in the early 1970s, and the first long-distance route, from Paris to Lyons, opened way back in 1981!
     But if a lot of people already know that the best way to go from London to Paris for a day's shopping or a weekend break, is to take the Eurostar, far less people realise that the extent of the French high-speed rail network means that  taking the train is rapid option for reaching a large number of destinations in provincial France.Map of France's TGV lines
   
Connecting to provincial cities:
The map opposite shows the extent of France's high-speed rail network in 2008. At present, the network consists of some 1700 km (over 1000 miles) of dedicated high-speed track, comprising four routes radiating out from Paris. However, an "interconnection" route round the south and west of Paris allows high-speed connections between the routes, notably allowing north-south TGVs to avoid the centre of Paris.
   Note that TGV services operate to all the cities indicated on the map, and to many others too, since these high speed trains can also run - at reduced speed - on the traditional rail network.
  This makes the TGV station at Lille Europe a very handy hub for passengers coming by Eurostar from the UK or Belgium and Holland. There are direct TGV connections from Lille to a large number of French towns and cities, including Bordeaux, Rennes, Nantes, Dijon, Strasbiourg, Besançon,  Avignon, Aix en Provence, Marseilles, Montpellier, Perpignan or Nice. By changing at Lille, travellers do not need to change stations or cross Paris; Eurostars and French TGVs share the same platforms at Lille Europe station.

The alternative to changing at Lille is to take Eurostar to Paris, and then travel beyond Paris from the appropriate mainline terminus.; but this will normally involve changing terminus at Paris: see below.

Airport connections:
Thanks to intelligent forward thinking, planners of the French TGV network had the sense to connect it directly, when possible, to major airports. Thus, there is a major TGV station right underneath Terminal 2 at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport; and there is a TGV station in the middle of the Lyon Saint Exupery airport.

Click here to check train timetables and book tickets.

Paris rail termini:
Like many capital cities, Paris suffers from having no central railway hub, but a number of mainline termini. Here are the main destinations served from each of the principal termini: TGV services depart from the Gare du Nord, Gare de l'Est, gare de Lyon and Gare Montparnasse.
Gare du Nord: North east France, London (Eurostar), Brussels, Amsterdam (Thalys) , Lille, Valenciennes, Calais.
Gare de l'Est: Nancy, Metz, Strasbourg, Mulhouse, Germany, Luxembourg.
Gare de Lyon: Lyon, Dijon, Besançon, Geneva, Clermont-Ferrand, Marseille, Nice, Montpellier, Perpignan; Italy and the east of Spain.
Gare d'Austerlitz:  Non-TGV services to  Tours, Poitiers, Limoges, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Biarritz, western Spain.
Gare Montparnasse: All western TGVs, Brest, Rennes, Nantes
Gare St. Lazare Caen, Cherbourg, Rouen, Le Havre


French T.G.V. ready to departFrance's impressive railways

     On main routes not served by TGVs, such as Paris-Clermont-Ferrand or Paris-Limoges-Toulouse, very comfortable express trains run at speeds that can reach 200 km/hr on some stretches. Such trains, referred to in the timetables as "corail" trains - or on the fastest lines, "Corail TEOZ" , run on all intercity routes.

     French railways have a reputation for punctuality, though delays seem slightly more common these days than in the past. Most trains however run on time, and delays of over ten minutes are unusual. This is doubtless one of the reasons why the French are regular rail travellers. If a mainline train (TGV or Corail) is over 30 minutes late at arrival, on a journey of over 200 km., demand a late-arrival form when you reach your destination ; in some stations, staff will hand them out automatically. Fill this in and send it off with your ticket in the business-reply envelope provided, and you should receive a voucher worth 30% of the cost of your ticket. 2007 saw the opening of a considerable part of the latest dedicated high-speed line, the "TGV de l'Est"  linking Paris to Strasbourg, via Nancy and Metz.
     TERAt peak periods, thousands of extra trains may be run to cope with very heavy demand.
     It's not just on main lines, however, that rail travel in France can be a great way to travel. More and more branch lines and feeder services are now operated with state-of-the art and very comfortable new railcars that resemble miniature TGV's. With massive picture windows along the sides, the experience of travelling along some of France's rural rail routes is  rather like that of riding a scenic railway; and regional councils, that are now in charge of running local rail services, seem to  be competing with each other, particularly in tourist areas, to boost their image by investing in these very impressive new railcars.
       France also offers plenty of scope for rail tourism on its various scenic railways.
     There are or course other less comfortable rides to be had on French railways. Many suburban routes and local services on main lines are still operated using old and sometimes noisy and uncomfortable stock - but even on such routes, this is by no means always the case.

The cost of rail travel in France:    
Finally, there's the question of
cost. As a nationalised system, the French railways run a clear and coherent ticketing system, and generally speaking rail travel is relatively cheap - about 10p a mile (1 Euro per 10 km) for a standard second class fare. This is more than the cost of rail travel in Spain or Italy, but far cheaper than standard rates in the UK. Lots of discounts can be obtained: two people travelling on a return trip together; over 60's; under 26's; "escapades", regular travellers.. Discounts generally vary between 25% and 50%.

ID-TGV - the low-cost TGV service.
     To compete with low-cost airlines, some TGVs offer major reductions if tickets are purchased online.  ID-TGV services (sometimes complete trains, at other times a quota of seats in a standard service) now operate from Paris to about 20 destinations; for example, a first class ticket from Paris to Lyon can be had for 24 Euros on certain off-peak trains, compared to 55 €uros or 112 €uros for a normal first class ticket on the same train . However, don't pay much attention to the sites that say "Paris-Marseille" or "Paris-Montpellier" for just 19 €: these very low prices are indeed available, but only on about one train a month, if that!  
Click here to check ID-TGV prices and buy tickets on line at Rail Europe.  

Other new ideas include an overnight TGV from Paris to Biarritz, which comes complete with a clubbing car, for those who can't sleep on a moving train; other destinations are being added .....


     Tickets online
Other tickets can also be ordered online - and even printed out on your own computer like low-cost airline reservation forms; but be warned. If you print out your own ticket, note that you cannot get it reimbursed if you have to cancel your journey or even put it off. Like a low-cost airline ticket, it is non transferable, non refundable and unchangeable.
Check out the  Rail Europe site to check offers and book tickets and further details.
Pictures: above left, a TGV at Lyons. Above right, a modern branch line railcar.


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