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High-speed train line to connect Paris to Toulouse in 3 hours

A project to create a new direct connection between Paris and Toulouse has been accelerated, with the three-hour connection now scheduled to start in 2024, five years ahead of schedule.

Published: 29 April 2021 10:13 CEST
High-speed train line to connect Paris to Toulouse in 3 hours
Photo: Guillaume Souvnant/AFP

Currently, traveling from Paris to Toulouse on the high-speed TGV train requires passing through Bordeaux, bringing the total journey time to four-and-a-half hours.

“Toulouse is the last big French city that isn’t served by the direct TGV,” said Gilles Dansart, journalist, rail transport specialist and editor of the site Mobilettre, specialising in mobility news. 

The government will devote €4.1 billion to the project, which has been under discussion for around 40 years.

According to France 3, the idea of connecting Toulouse to the capital through the high-speed rail network was first floated around the 1980s, though nothing concrete was set into action until 2004 by Philippe Douste Blazy, the former Mayor of Toulouse. 

Originally, Blazy set the project date to 2015. This was later pushed back a few times and was put on hold completely, relaunching in 2018 for a 2030 opening. The project is now back on for 2024, the year that Paris will be hosting the Olympics. 

Speaking to France Info, one Toulousain commented “with the comfort of the train, being able to take it after work to arrive in Paris within three hours before 8pm we can join friends when the bars and restaurants open!”

 

Member comments

  1. Er, perhaps something lost in translation? The project will take 7 years and will not start on the ground until 2024, leading to an opening in 2030 (and that’s assuming they can agree the final details of the route by 2024). It is costed at 6 billion euros altogether, which means the remaining share of 1.9 billion still has to be agreed – that took a while longer than planned for the Tours – Bordeaux LGV. There is also a plan to bypass Bordeaux, which would make the journey time between Paris and Toulouse much faster, but that seems to be on hold.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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