Building Railways In The UK Is Easy
I have just read this article on Global Rail News, which is entitled French Senate approves Lyon-Turin rail link.
That sounds easy until you read this from the Wikipedia entry.
Test drilling found some internally stressed coal-bearing schists that are poorly suited for a tunnel boring machine, and old-fashion Drilling and blasting will be used for the short corresponding sections.
It is not going to be a simple tunnelling job. It is more akin to some of the eighteenth and nineteenth century tunnels through the Pennines. Except that the tunnel will be 57 kilometres long and modern explosives are better.
It will carry a lot of freight, in addition to passengers from Paris and Lyon to Northern Italy.
But I doubt, I’ll ever be able to take a High Speed Train from London to Milan, as I’ll be long gone before everything is completed.
First Class On A TGV
I hadn’t travelled in First on a TGV before, but on this trip I did.
I wasn’t impressed with the leg room, which seemed to be about the same on a Virgin Class 390.
Not Much Legroom
I had thought it would be bigger as the TGV Atlantique has a much larger cross-section, than the British train.
The refreshments were disappointing too.
Disappointing Refreshments
The picture shows, the smoothie and pretzels.
First Class certainly wasn’t worth the extra thirty euros or so.
Compare it with Second Class in the TGV Duplex I took from Geneva to Paris.
In Second Class On A TGV Duplex
I took this picture from my seat on the lower deck. Is it a deck, saloon or floor?
Leaving Bordeaux For Paris
Bordeaux St. Jean station was full of TGV Atlantique trainsets as I left for Paris.
It appeared that some trains were coupled together in pairs, to make massive people movers for the journey to and from Paris. Incidentally, each train can carry 485 psassengers.
I was not worried about the date of Friday the Thirteenth. I’ve left jobs on this date twice and I’ve always gone on to better things.
Through The Fog To Bordeaux
The train was a TGV Atlantique, which had started at Hendaye and after Bordeaux, it would be on its way to Paris. The visibility wasn’t good.
Through The Fog To Bordeaux
We also arrived in Bordeaux a few minutes late. But the train wasn’t at anyway near the speed it would attain on the high speed line; LGV Atlantique to Paris.
It was a typical boring and professional train ride, that is becoming common all over Europe.
From Geneva To Paris
Four words sum up the TGV Duplex trip from Geneva to Paris; fast, frequent, comfortable and boring. This bridge was the only interesting thing I was able to photograph.
From Geneva To Paris
To describe the trip as boring is actually a complement and I arrived in Paris just over three hours after I left Geneva.
If only all travel was as simple.
Not Very Correct French
French Railways or SNCF has just introduced a budget low-cost TGV service . They’ve called it Ouigo, which I assumed is pronounced “we go”.
I thought the French had laws against the language of the dreaded rosbifs!
But it is a concept that might just have enough to succeed.
Would I use it?
Probably not, as it seems to be tied into French mobile phones and post codes. But I had read that the web site was only in French, but it’s now also in English. So I suspect that in a few months, it’ll be as easy to use as easyJet or Ryanair.
I shall certainly try it on one of my trips back from somewhere in Southern Europe.
Reversing at Marseilles
The train reversed at Marseilles. So instead of going backwards, I was now facing north and on the eastern side of the train, so I didn’t get any of the sun that was going. There wasn’t much and we did have a bit of rain.
It started twenty minutes late at 13:30 and arrived in Lille at 18:00, which meant it lost another five minutes. But I still had enough time to get the Eurostar to London.
This train was via Paris Charles de Gaulle, so I didn’t have to change trains in Paris.
Charles de Gaulle Airport from the TGV
Why is it we don’t plan to build a connection between HS1 and HS2 in London, just like the French have done around Paris?
After all Birmingham to Paris would be only about three and a half hours, which would probably be quicker than a plane, if you took in the transfers to and from the airports.
French Dog on a French Seat on a French TGV
I took this picture of a poodle on the TGV.
French Dog on a French Train
It went all the way from Nice to Lille.
How Safe is the TGV?
TGVs are fast, but are they safe?
It is interesting to look at the list of accidents on Wikipedia.
On high-speed lines, there have been derailments but overall the technology has worked and the train has stopped fairly safely, with perhaps a few bruised passengers. But then the lines are straight, have few points and crossovers, and the trains are designed to hold together in an accident.
But on normal tracks there have been some serious accidents; one bomb, one freak accident in a depot, one derailment and four involving level crossings. The French are worried about the last and are endeavouring to remove all level crossings from lines used by TGVs.
None of the accidents have been as bad as the Eschede accident on Deutsche Bahn, where over a hundred people died.
So are TGVs safe?
Yes!
The French are to be applauded in removing level crossings and keeping their high-speed lines as straight and as clear of things to hit as possible. It could be argued that if the train at Eschede had just derailed and not hit the bridge, then the casualties would have been greatly reduced.
A Train and a Half
Or is it is half a train and a double-half train?
A Standard TGV Reseau and a Duplex
This is the train I took from Nice to Lille. Note that it is a standard single-deck TGV Reseau, with a Duplex coupled on behind.
It might look odd, but it does give a degree of flexibility. In fact the two halves split at Lille, with the Reseau going on to Brussels.
The Anonymous Widower 