Opening of the 140km TGV Rhin-Rhône line from the east of Dijon to Mulhouse will affect services on two axes: Paris - Mulhouse - Zurich and Germany - Strasbourg - Lyon - southern France. Paris - Zurich trains will be diverted from TGV Est to the new line thereby cutting the journey time by 30 minutes to around 4 hours. Services from Metz, Nancy and Strasbourg to Lyon and destinations in southern France will also be routed over the new line. A Frankfurt - Strasbourg - Marseille service will start in March once TGV Duplex trains have been approved for operation in Germany, followed by a Basle - southern France service a year from now.
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French Rail Network (RFF) says there are four reasons for the national reorganisation of train services:
30% is due to the opening of TGV Rhin-Rhône, to prepare the network for the operation of new open-access international services, and to increase capacity
30% is to allow for major work underway at a cost of Euros 13bn to renew 6240km of track, replace 2420 switches and crossings, and resignal lines between 2008 and 2015
30% is to simplify France's notoriously-complicated timetables and operate trains at regular intervals, and
10% is due to an increase in demand - there has been a 45% surge in regional traffic using TER trains since 2002 and a further 30% growth in passenger traffic is expected over the next 10 years.
