Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
36 35;
www.sncf.com
)
. Since its inauguration in the 1980s, the pride and joy of
SNCF - and the French - is the renowned
TGV
(Train à Grande Vitesse;
www.tgv.com
)
, pronounced 'teh zheh veh', which zips passengers along at speeds
of up to 320km/h (198mph). In 2007, a specially modified TGV achieved a new
speed record for non-maglev (magnetic levitation) trains: 574.8km/h.
A train that is not a TGV is often referred to as a
corail,
a
classique
or, for intrare-
tain non-TGV services have been given peculiar names:
Corail Intercités
Medium-haul routes.
ward from Paris Gare d'Austerlitz to Clermont-Ferrand, Limoges, Cahors, Toulouse,
Montpellier, Perpignan, Marseille and Nice.
gion).
Information on train accessibility for people with disabilities can be found at
www.accessibilite.sncf.fr
(in French) and, for greater Paris,
www.infomobi.com
(in
French).
Long-distance trains sometimes split at a station - that is, each half of the train
heads off for a different destination. Check the destination panel on your car as you
board or you could wind up very, very far from wherever it was you intended to go.
ROUTES
TGV Nord, Thalys & Eurostar
Link Paris Gare du Nord with Arras, Lille, Calais,
Brussels (Bruxelles-Midi), Amsterdam, Cologne and, via the Channel Tunnel, Ash-
ford, Ebbsfleet and London St Pancras.
TGV Est Européen
Connects Paris Gare de l'Est with Reims, Nancy, Metz, Stras-
bourg, Zurich and Germany, including Frankfurt and Stuttgart. At present, the
super-high-speed track stretches only as far east as Lorraine but it's supposed to
reach Strasbourg in 2016.
TGV Sud-Est & TGV Midi-Méditerranée
Link Paris Gare de Lyon with the south-
east, including Dijon, Lyon, Geneva, the Alps, Avignon, Marseille, Nice and Mont-
pellier.
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