France launches new high speed rail line
Since the first high-speed line Paris-Lyon was launched with massive impact on travel in France, history is now repeating itself with the new TGV East line, which opened today, slashing previous train travel times by one-third to one-half between Paris and eastern France, to cities inclduing Reims, Metz, Nancy, Colmar, Strasbourg, etc and across to Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland.
Since Rail Europe announced the availability of TGV East tickets on April 10, 60 days before service started, international travellers have also climbed on board with North American passengers buying tickets for these routes increasing by an average of 65% over the same period last year.
Tcket sales between Nancy and Strasbourg have increased by 400% and 368% between Paris and Stuttgart, with sales on other routes nearly double what they were during April-June, including Mulhouse-Paris 94%, Metz-Paris 92 and Paris-Strasbourg 84%.
Besides cutting travel times nearly in half, the launch of TGV East has also increased the frequency along routes to and within eastern France by 15-20%, plus now there are many direct trains, where previously passengers had to transfer at intermediate stations.
High-speed rail has traditionally captured the major share of combined air/rail traffic along routes where train journeys are under 3 hours with the new TGV line is expected to pick up 75% of the Paris-Strasbourg market within one year and eventually 90%.
Air France previously announced plans to discontinue flights Paris-Metz in July.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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