Transport in Paris: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 22:06, 27 December 2005

Revision as of 22:17, 27 December 2005

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==National and International Rail Connections==

{{Main|French_railway_history}}

Paris' first "[[embarcadère]]" train station, the predecessor to the [[gare Saint-Lazare]], appeared at today's [[Place de l'Europe (Paris,France)|Place de l'Europe]] from 1837 as a basehome for athe "novelty" Paris-à-Saint-Germain suburbanlocal line. Over the next ten years France's developing rail network would give Paris five (including the Saint-Lazare station) national railway stations and two suburban lines, and from 1848 Paris would become the designated centre of an "Étoile" (star) spider-web of rail with reaches to (and through) all of France's borders. This pattern is still very visible in France's modern railway map.

As far as national and European destinations are concerned, rail transport is beginning to outdistance air travel in both travel time and efficiency. The still-developing [[SNCF]]'s [[TGV]] (Train à Grande Vitesse) network, since its birth in 1981, brings France's most southerly [[Marseille]] only 3 hours from the capital. A train similar to the [[TGV]], the [[Eurostar]], has been connecting Paris to central [[London]] through 2h 35 of rail since 1994, and in the opposite direction, the [[Thalys]] line connects [[Brussels]] through 1h40 of rail.