Check out the new TGV services coming on line from December 2011 with the opening of the new Dijon-Mulhouse high-speed line...

It took more than a year of talks to reconcile the desires of the regional authorities along the route (Alsace, Franche-Comté, Bourgogne and Rhône-Alpes), the service proposals made by the RFF and the ambitions of the SNCF. But the two mediators appointed by the Ministry of Ecology and Sustainable Development stood firm and have come up with a balanced compromise. The new proposal will change the life of the population of the Rhin-Rhône area and bring new life to public transport. Good job!

It's a French first - the key TGV Rhin-Rhône is new, because it is not focused on Paris, but instead links the provinces together. There will be no fewer than 6 services every day between Strasbourg and Lyon, 5 of which will head right on down to the Mediterranean (still at high-speed) to Marseille or Montpellier, shaving about an hour off the journey times.

It provides a new Paris-Est route with more trains and significant time savings. 9 returns a day to Besançon, 8 to Belfort-Montbéliard (in 2h15 instead of 3h45), and 11 to Mulhouse, 6 to Basel and Zurich (20 to 30 mins quicker than the current TGV Est).

Local TGV services too! TGVs will start to run on the Dijon-Basel corridor from December 2011 at a frequency which means that it will be able to used for medium-distance journeys. Add to that the proposed TER links, which will be timed to coincide with the TGVs in Franche-Comté and from Dijon and Mulhouse and a real network starts to form, which will be the key to TGV Rhin-Rhône success.

And what about Europe? SNCF and DB are working on it. A direct Frankfurt-Lyon-Mediterranean TGV link is planned for December 2011, and two connections a day between Frankfurt and Marseille are currently under consideration. A year later you'll be able to travel from Paris to the Black Forest with connections being extended from Mulhouse to Freiburg im Breisgau. TGV Rhin-Rhône will also open up other German economic and tourist centres, and even Milan, to passengers from the Bourgogne and Franche-Comté regions, via the Strasbourg and Basel hubs.