This article is more than 5 years old

France’s high-speed TGV trains ‘running out of steam’ – official report

   This article is more than 5 years old
--
   Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images

   Many of France’s high-speed TGV trains, long hailed as the standard
   bearer of the nation’s rail revolution, are travelling in the slow
   lane, an official report has revealed.
--

   The report contains clear lessons for the UK, with chancellor George
   Osborne due to announce plans for HS3 between Leeds and Manchester on
   Monday. According to the French report, 33 years after the first TGV
   was launched, 40% of TGV trains still travel on conventional track
   rather than the specially built high-speed lines.

   Suggesting that the high-speed model was “running out of steam”, the
   report said that high-speed rail often failed to meet the necessary
   criteria. These were “to link large population centres, within one and
   a half to three hours, few or no intermediate stops, a frequent
--

   Pointing to examples where the social and economic viability of new
   high-speed lines had been overestimated, the Audit Office highlighted a
   steady drop in TGV profitability since 2008. The decision-making
   process had been only “partly rational” in the cases of the