In its priority projects for 2024, the SNCF group has announced its intention to commit €11.7 billion in investment, part of which will be devoted to railway renovation and modernisation. Among these projects, SNCF Réseaux will be installing a new signalling on the Paris-Lyon high-speed line which will bring high-speed trains to a halt from 9 to 12 November. All services on the South-East route to international destinations will be radically altered during this period, not only for SNCF, but also for its competitors, Trenitalia and the Renfe. If the chosen period includes the 11 November bridge, commuters such as business travellers or participants in a seminar or training course around these dates will have to take these major changes into account.
In practical terms, the LGV will be shut down from 11pm on Friday 8 November to 4am on Wednesday 13 November. SNCF Voyageurs has announced that only 30% of its TGV services (Inoui and Ouigo) will be operated, affecting services from Paris to Occitanie (Montpellier), Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur (Marseille, Toulon...), Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (Annecy, Chambéry, Grenoble...), Bourgogne Franche-Comté (Dijon) and Grand Est (Strasbourg, Metz...).
And so, high-speed trains will be forced to use the classic lineThis will "significantly" lengthen journey times. For example, Paris-Lyon will take 4 hours 30 minutes (instead of 2 hours), Paris-Marseille 7 hours 20 minutes (instead of 3 hours) and Paris-Grenoble 6 hours (instead of the usual 3 hours). As a result of the trains using the classic line, the TGV stations on the LGV will obviously not be served, such as Le Creusot-Montceau-Montchanin TGV, Mâcon-Loché TGV, Lyon Saint-Exupéry TGV, Valence TGV and Nîmes-Pont-du-Gard.
Journey times more than doubled, international connections impacted
In the PACA region, TGV trains will stop at Marseille and Toulon, and all stations between Les Arcs Draguignan and Nice will not be served. In the Occitanie region, trains will stop at Montpellier, with no further services to Toulouse and Perpignan. Likewise, connections between the South-East and other regions of France will be suspended during these four days, including Lyon-Montpellier/Nantes, Lyon/Rennes, Marseille/Le Havre and Marseille-Lille. All these changes also mean that several TGV stations on the high-speed network will no longer be served to and from the South-East: Lille Europe, Haute-Picardie TGV, Roissy Aéroport Charles de Gaulle 2 TGV, Marne-la-Vallée Chessy and Massy TGV.
International routes have not been spared. For example, TGVs linking Spain, Italy and Belgium will be suspended including Paris-Barcelona, Paris-Milan and Marseille-Brussels. TGV Lyria services linking France and Switzerland will continue to operate, but with a reduced number of trains on the Paris-Geneva route. Services to Germany and Luxembourg will also be affected, notably Luxembourg-Marseille and Mannheim-Marseille.
Competing airlines will adapt their transport plans
Competition will also bear the brunt of this work, which should nevertheless make it possible to improve traffic flow on France's busiest rail route. Trenitalia has announced that its Frecciarossa trains will continue to operate, but using the classic line, which will mean journey times the same as those of SNCF TGVs. The same will apply to Paris-Milan trains, provided that the Alpine crossing, currently under construction in the Maurienne valley, is possible again by then. Renfe will be affected for its services between Lyon and Barcelona. However, the Spanish rail company has not yet presented its alternative transport plan for the four days of closure of the LGV Sud-Est.
