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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.
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
 France'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.
 At 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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