From East to West, in Europe and in France. Another look at the inauguration of a train which transforms national borders.

Paris-Strasbourg etc... Paris-Strasbourg in 2 hours and 20 minutes (instead of 4): that is the standard. Between the two, there is Paris-Reims in 45 minutes and Paris-Metz or Nancy in 90 minutes. But the TGV Est is not satisfied just serving large conurbations: it caters for the whole of the East. Leaving the high-speed line, it climbs into the Ardennes as far as Sedan, calling at Rethel (8,000 inhabitants) and Charleville-Mézières. It presses on through the valleys of the Vosges as far as Saint-Dié or Remiremont (8,500 inhabitants). You can go to the end of the Marne by TGV, to Vitry-le-François. Forbach, on the German border, is only 1 hour and 45 minutes from the Eiffel Tower and Mulhouse, the gateway to Switzerland, is 3 hours away. Even better, the TGV Est connects like never before with regional trains, leading to an 18 to 20% increase in TER traffic (regional trains) depending on the region.

It is not a train; it is a system It is regional, but it also operates across France. We are less aware that the TGV Est (TGV East) also goes to the West. The Strasbourg-Rennes and Reims-Nantes routes let Bretons benefit too. And direct links to Lille and Bordeaux make it available to all French people, with substantial time savings in each case. Lastly, it is a European system: the TGV Est travels as far as Luxembourg, Munich and Stuttgart (3 hours 40 minutes from Paris), Frankfurt (under 4 hours), terminating at Zurich in Switzerland. In total, this adds up to about a hundred daily TGVs to over 200 destinations and an expected 11.5 million passengers a year.