Punctuality, comfort, safety
TGV Med High-Speed Rail Line continues to beat air travel in market share of its fourth year of service to the south of France
White Plains, NY, 2/14/05 -- Build high-speed trains right, and they will come. And the trains will quickly win leading market share over airlines on trips of 3 hours or less. That is the lesson that French TGVs can teach an America overly dependent on gas for planes and cars, two increasingly congested modes of transportation that also produce significantly higher levels of air pollution than trains do.
The most recent TGV success story is the line, opened in mid-2001, that connects Paris to Provence and the Mediterranean coast - the TGV Méditerranée, or TGV Med for short. Nearing the end of its fourth full year of operation, TGV Med - with a top commercial operating speed of 186 mph - has garnered 95% of the combined air-rail market on the Paris-Avignon, 100% on Paris-Nîmes and 62% on Paris-Marseilles, according to Rail Europe, North American subsidiary of the French National Railroads (SNCF) and leading distributor of European rail tickets and passes.
“In order to win market share, trains must be frequent and reliable,” notes Fabrice Morel, President of Rail Europe. With some trains running directly to and from Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport (which has its own rail terminal, linked to the air terminals), TGV Med offers 16 trains daily in each direction between Paris-Avignon (2 hours 40 minutes), 9 between Paris-Aix-en-Provence (2 hours 54 minutes) 18 between Paris-Marseilles (3 hours), and 18 between Paris-Nimes (3 hours.)
“On-time performance spells reliability,” says Morel. “More than 90% of the trains on the TGV Med route, which includes trains operating within the south of France, as well as between Paris and the South, run within 10 minutes of scheduled departure and arrival times. This is a major advantage compared to airlines on these routes, which have an average 70% of flights operating within 15 minutes of scheduled times.”
TGV Med has carried more than 57 million passengers since its launch, with consistent increases in ridership of 5% each year.
For tickets on TGV Med or any other train in France or Europe generally, including the U.K. and Eurostar tickets, contact a travel agent or Rail Europe at 1-888-382-7245 in the U.S., 1-800-361-7245 in Canada or log on to the company's web site, www.raileurope.com. The site includes a Fares & Schedules feature, useful for planning rail trips.