On 2 July 2017, SNCF will start operating services on the the new Sud Europe Atlantique and Bretagne Pays de la Loire high-speed lines. Bordeaux will then be 2h04 from Paris - a saving of 55 minutes -, and Rennes 1h25 awayreducing journey times by 39 minutes. The railway company estimates that the improvement in journey times will generate almost four million additional passengers on these two lines. In all, some 60 towns and cities - including Brest, Quimper, La Rochelle and Toulouse - will benefit from shorter journey times, as well as better connections as part of the harmonisation of the timetables of connecting TERs.
For business travellers, the first trains in the morning will enable you to arrive early for a meeting, for example at 7.45am in Paris from Rennes and at 8.30am in Rennes from Paris. The same applies to Bordeaux, with a TGV entering Saint-Jean station before 9am, while the TGV serving Montparnasse station will be expected shortly after 8am. Although the definitive timetables will be unveiled in a few months' time, the company has already announced that they will be with two TGVs per hourThis means a total of around twenty trainsets in each direction for the day on the Paris-Rennes route, and no fewer than three trainsets in each direction on the Paris-Rennes route. 18 daily return trips between Paris and Bordeaux. On the latter route, business passengers will benefit from a greater comfort on board with new 1st and 2nd class seats thanks to the order for 40 TGV Duplex Atlantique trainsets to be delivered by Alstom between 2016 and 2019.
