The inauguration of the Paris-Dijon-Basel-Zurich line, held on 25 November at the Dijon Consortium, was an opportunity for the railway company's management to outline the project, which will be launched on 11 December. Franco-Swiss business travellers in Paris will then benefit from a concentration of operations at the Gare de Lyon. They will also be travelling in the new Euroduplex TGVs, which will be gradually introduced on the line over the course of 2012. Frequency and journey times will also be improved, with six daily return trips and a journey time reduction of around 30 minutes, bringing Basel and Zurich respectively to within 3 hours 03 minutes and 4 hours 03 minutes of Paris. Other changes, such as the development of the "Lyriapremière" service (restaurant service at the seat, availability of international press) on the Paris-Basel-Zurich route, or the introduction of timetables with a fixed interval, will also be introduced from 11 December. These are all new advantages for Lyria, which should enable the company to once again gain ground on the airlines: Lyria's managers are also forecasting a double-digit increase (18%) in international traffic on the Paris-Basel-Zurich route for 2012.
