TGV

Having failed to obtain authorisation to run to Spain from Paris Gare de Lyon, Renfe has just announced the opening of an AVE train link between Toulouse and Barcelona in the second quarter of 2025. On this route, the Spanish company's high-speed trains will stop at Carcassonne, Perpignan, Figueras and Girona. The trainsets...

Proxima has made a good start on the €1 billion it received from the Antin Infrastructure Partners fund before the summer. For €850 million, the future competitor of the SNCF in the west of France has just ordered 12 Avelia Horizon high-speed trains from Alstom. Delivery is due to start in 2028, which suggests that the trains will be...

The opening up to rail competition is set to accelerate in 2025 with the announcement today that Trenitalia will be offering services as far as Marseille on the Paris-Lyon-Marseille route, which is the busiest and, above all, the most lucrative for SNCF. "We are currently awaiting the final authorisation for services to start in 2025", the company confirmed to us this morning...

At this week's InnoTrans trade fair in Berlin, SNCF Voyageurs and Deutsche Bahn (DB) unveiled their new direct service between Paris and Berlin, operating daily from 16 December. DB will have the privilege of providing the transport thanks to its...

The horizon is brightening for SNCF's business activity. After a slow recovery, marked by a return to pre-Covid traffic levels of 80 %, the company is announcing an increase of 14% in the number of business passengers in the autumn of 2024. This follows double-digit growth in the first few months of the year. "The...

After the rain, the sun shines. The wet start to the Olympic Games was followed by a cascade of medals. Traffic is now flowing smoothly on all the high-speed lines in response to the network being paralysed by acts of sabotage last Friday. Since that sombre Friday, SNCF Réseau staff have been hard at work,...

Updated at 2.30pm "A bearded man is a bearded man. Three bearded men, that's two bearded men". The fires that last night affected several stations along several TGV lines controlling signalling and points - at junction points no less - are reminiscent of this famous line by Audiard in the eponymous film Les Barbouzes....

With the expected growth of Ouigo, which will account for 30% of the SNCF's high-speed offer by 2027 compared with 20% today, the railway company is opening up the distribution of its low-cost offer to leisure and business travel agencies, abandoning its original principle of selling exclusively direct via the website...

Infrabel, the Belgian rail network operator, has announced the complete suspension of high-speed train services on the line between Brussels and the French border from 12 to 29 August. This will apply in both directions, resulting in a 30-minute increase in journey times. Eurostar trains...

Faced with growing demand for TGV travel, which SNCF is struggling to meet, the rail company has decided to beef up its low-cost Ouigo product. By 2030, it should account for 30% of its high-speed offer, compared with 20% today. "To achieve this, we are going to increase the number of Ouigo TGV trains...

The Grand Ouest is attracting new rail operators. After Le Train, which plans to launch in 2026, another major competitor to the SNCF has today announced its arrival: Proxima. The project is being spearheaded by a number of industry heavyweights, including Rachel Picard, former director of Voyages SNCF, and Timothy Jackson,...

Kevin Speed's ambition is to become "the" new player in high-speed rail transport by 2029. Its project has taken another step forward following the approval by the French Transport Regulation Authority (ART) of the framework agreement it signed with SNCF Réseau on 29 February. Signed for a renewable period of 10 years, the agreement...

Eurostar is planning a major acceleration in the growth of its rail business with the announcement of its intention to order up to 50 high-speed trains. This new fleet will provide passengers with greater comfort during their journey, and the railway company with larger trains capable of running at higher speeds...

A logical next step. Launched at high speed on the Paris-Lyon line in winter 2021, Trenitalia is completing its roll-out on France's busiest route for business travellers with a comprehensive offer dedicated to companies. Called Trenitalia Pro, this commercial offer includes low fares and, for business travellers, a complete range of services...

In the wake of its merger with Thalys, Eurostar has unveiled its first sustainability report, detailing its sustainability commitments and current progress in this area. The first objective, the most important for its fleet of 51 trains, aims to reduce its energy consumption and use 100% of renewable energy...

It's now official: high-speed rail is finally set to take its first steps in the United States, after many aborted projects over the last few decades. The first sod was turned on 22 April to start construction of the Brightline West high-speed line, named after the group that is carrying out the work and will operate the line...

On Monday 29 April, SNCF unveiled the livery of its future Inoui TGV at Alstom's Belfort plant, where some of the trainsets are assembled. A little surprise: for the first time, the trains will feature a white livery with black accents on the nose of the power car, grey accents on each carriage and...

To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Ouigo is giving its 38 low-cost TGVs a facelift. Already ultra-capacious, with capacity for 1,268 passengers - the equivalent of 6 B737-800 aircraft - they will soon be even more so. The interior refurbishment, scheduled to take place between 2025 and 2027, will make it possible to add a few more seats by doing away with the bench seats and...

On 21 May, Renfe will start running around ten of its new AVE S-106 trains. These are high-speed trains designed by the Iberian manufacturer Talgo, which the Spanish rail company intends to use to spearhead its growth this year. Firstly, because they will enable the company to launch new...

Eurostar is continuing to harmonise its offer following the absorption of Thalys in 2023. From 4 November, the railway company will be introducing new travel classes across its entire network serving France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. Eurostar Standard will be its entry-level class, corresponding to...