France - General Information: Difference between revisions

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==Recent and future changes==
==Recent and future changes==
Most of the Belgian railway system is now electrified. Further
A significant number of local passenger services, mainly in rural areas, were withdrawn during the the late 1930s and again in the 1980s, but in most parts of France the Regional Councils now have a strong role in planning and funding local transport and are keen to promote railways. The exception, alas, is lines crossing Regional boundaries and where extensive deferred track maintenance has been in force - hence the closures of the lines between Volvic and Lapeyrouse (December 2007), between Montluçon and Eygurande-Merlines (March 2008), between Gisors and Serqueux (January 2009) and between Valençay and Luçay-le-Mâle (on the metre gauge Blanc Argent line) (October 2009) (both the latter are notionally "temporary" because of condition of track). Many councils are funding new rolling stock and are requiring SNCF to introduce improved timetables. However, in November 2009 the French @Cour des comptes ["Court of Accounts"] delivered a @report critical of the value for money of many TER services, recommending bus substitution.
electrification is not foreseen, except for the new high-speed lines now
being built and the proposed extension of the Brussel/Bruxelles Airport
branch. Major upgrading and new infrastructure (four-tracking) work has
begun within a radius of about 30 km around Brussels in order to enable
a "Regional Express Railway" ([http://www.b-rail.be/corp/F/assets/pdf/journal_rer.pdf RER]/[http://www.brail.be/corp/N/assets/pdf/gen_krant.pdf GEN]) to be created.


Two new high-speed routes have recently come into use: from
Regional Councils have, over recent years, expressed intentions of reintroducing passenger services on the following lines with little or no tangible result: Nantes - Nort-sur-Erdre (as a tram-train, targetted for September 2011) and thence to Châteaubriant (targetted for December 2012), Mulhouse - Müllheim (Germany) (full service in place of present "seasonal" limited service, targeted for 2013), [Avignon -] Sorgues - Carpentras (targetted for 2014), Oloron Ste.Marie - Bedous (where some work has started), Bedous - Canfranc, Thouars - Parthenay - Niort, Niort - Fontenay-le-Comte, Chartres - Voves - Orléans, Orléans - Châteauneuf-sur-Loire, Quillan - Perpignan (the latter already partly reopened for seasonal tourist service), Valence - Nîmes (via the Rhône right-bank line), Colmar - Volgelsheim (Neuf- Brisach Gare), Colmar - Ste.Croix-en-Plaine and Digne - St.Auban. How the Cour des comptes 2009 report (see previous paragraph) will impact on such aspirations remains to be played out. Meanwhile, a short section of the La Rochelle - La Pallice branch reopened in December 2008, as far as La Rochelle la Porte-Dauphine; there is an aspiration to extend to La Pallice, possibly as a tram-train.
Brussel to Aachen and to the Netherlands. The route to Germany is
used both by Thalys (TGVs) and ICE3, and (on the Brussel - Liège section)
by the hourly Oostende - Eupen (IC A) trains. As well as the the new
line, work has included "Soumagne" tunnel (some 6 km
long), new stations at Liège and (less dramatic) Leuven, and four- tracking
between northern Brussels and Leuven. The route to the Netherlands -
now in use - has involved extensive rebuilding at Antwerpen Centraal
station, and excavation of a through tunnel running beneath it, thus
serving the city centre without reversal. </p>
<p>The next stage of plans for improving rail access to
Brussels Airport - which already sports a triangular grade-separated
junction with the Brussels - Leuven line - should see the airport branch  
extended north to a triangular junction with a proposed new direct
Brussels - Mechelen line running along the middle of the E19
motorway.


The restoration of scheduled local passenger
An east - west curve avoiding St.Germain-des-Fossés opened in December 2006. A north - west curve avoiding Folligny is scheduled to open in June 2011.
services across the French border on the "classic" Nord main line from  
 
Quévy to Maubeuge and Aulnoye-Aymeries has been tried twice but
Until recently, the only regular interval services operated by SNCF were on Paris suburban lines. The introduction of a regular interval service pattern on the high speed lines from Paris to Lille, Nantes and Lyon has resulted in increased traffic. However, the infrequent service on many lines reflects the sparse population in most of France and the relatively small size of many cities - or perhaps they reflect the demand for travel to work fifty or more years ago and do not meet the current needs of people working more flexibly or travelling for leisure. Certainly, the traveller on cross-country, secondary and tertiary routes will hanker for the frequency of service found on just about all other European systems while concluding that the travel writers who lavish their praise on the ''TGV'' network never tangle with the more backward parts of the SNCF system!
EU policy requires cross-border services (unlike wholly internal ones) to  
 
be commercially viable; this proved impossible as this (and similar
The opening of the ''Ligne á Grande Vitesse Est'' represented the latest phase of the extension of the LGV network. An isolated, international section of LGV between Perpignan and Figueres/Figueras [ES] opens in December 2010, and will eventually be extended to Barcelona. Other projects being considered or developed include extensions of existing lines to Rennes, Bordeaux, Perpignan (to connect with the line to Figueres/Figueras [ES]), Modane (and Torino) and Genève (see next paragraph), together with a new line, ''LGV Rhin-Rhône'', from Lyon to Dijon and Mulhouse, of which the first section is scheduled to open at the end of 2011. Details of these projects are at the @RFF website.
services), unlike competing road services, generally suffer from the  
 
need to comply with two independent sets of national standards, yet
The ''ligne du haut-Bugey'', Bourg-en-Bresse - La Cluse - Bellegarde, has been modernised and electrified, to be reopened (along with the branch to Oyonnax) December 2010, offering a shorter, slightly faster route to Genève for TGV's from Paris; however, the overall alignment remains largely unchanged - it is not a "green field" ''LGV''.
have a relatively small potential traffic. European "harmonisation" has
 
yet to succeed in such instances.
A west-facing curve off the Alès line is (at long last) about to be built at Nîmes, so that passenger trains no longer need to reverse at Courbessac; target opening date is 2012. A light rail system is being developed in Mulhouse; as the first phase, this includes conversion of the Kruth branch and its linking to the town tramway system, to commence operation in December 2010. Future plans may incorporate other closed or freight only lines.
 
Other recent line (re-)openings include the Brussel west belt (see
The lines Montréjeau - Luchon and Rodez - Sévérac-le-Château may be under some threat of withdrawal of their ''Régional'' (local authority) financial support.
<a href="http://www.steane.com/egtre/be_route.htm">obscure line</a>
BE10/22) and layout changes in the Schaerbeek - Leuven area
(BE10/14 to 16). Closures are only those noted under <a
href="http://www.steane.com/egtre/be_route.htm">obscure lines</a> as
Deletions since previous edition.</p>
<p>A new short cutoff line through a tunnel is currently under
construction on the 'classic' route between Li&egrave;ge and Verviers.  
This will avoid the sharply curved section through Dolhain-Gileppe with
its 40&nbsp;kph speed limit.


==Special notes==
==Special notes==
In principle, all passenger services within Belgium run at intervals of one
Many SNCF main lines are closed for several hours each day, usually during the morning, for maintenance. These ''blancs travaux'' can cause long gaps between trains. There is a growing tendency - in an endeavour to catch up with deferred track maintenance - for services to be replaced by buses for exstensive periods without this being shown in the timetable.
hour or less (two hours, in the case of the routes with the least traffic)
between approximately 06:00 and 22:00, grouped into three categories:
*Intercity (IC, stopping only at main stations)
*Inter-regional (IR, stopping at stations of at least medium importance)
*Local (L, stopping at all stations en route).
Where possible, the schedules are designed to ensure convenient connections
between L trains and limited-stop services. Additional trains are scheduled
outside the fixed-interval framework in the early morning and late evening, at
peak hours (P), and for tourist traffic in the holiday season (T). Seat
reservations are available only on long-distance international services (they
are mandatory on TGV-type services such as Thalys and Eurostar).


Many trains consist of electric multiple-units and some such services split
Tickets purchased in France need to be validated before boarding the train by inserting them in a yellow machine (''composteur'') at the platform entrance. This stamps them with the station name, date and time.
en route to go to different destinations. Older units don't always carry a label
to show where they are going, with reliance on ticket checks and public address
announcements (making reference to the unit number, also displayed over the
internal doorways) to ensure passengers are in the correct part of the train.


Ordinary tickets for travel between two SNCB/NMBS stations are valid only for
direct journeys on the date of issue, in both outward and return directions. If
it is desired to break one's journey, to travel other than via the direct route,
or to travel on a later date, this must be specified when buying the ticket. The
fare for such tickets is calculated from the distance shown in the timetable
(which may include some fictional km, eg to finance exceptional infrastructure)
and a fixed terminal charge. Numerous discounted fares are available (generally
expressed as a % of the ordinarly fare apart from the terminal charge). A
summary of the various options for travelling with reduced fares, such as
minigroup and weekend returns, is given in the timetable, but for full
information you should consult the booklet &quot;Guide du Voyageur - Billets, Pass et
Cartes&quot; (or the equivalent in Dutch). Note also that tickets at the special
fares applicable in several cases for <strong>short cross-border journeys</strong>
can be bought <strong>only</strong> at the stations concerned. The
Benelux-Tourrail card is particularly useful to tourists, allowing five days
unlimited travel on the railways of Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg during a
period of one month. A penalty charge is levied if a ticket is purchased on the
train while the ticket office at the station is open. When boarding without a
ticket at an unstaffed station, inform the conductor immediately upon joining
the train if you wish to avoid the penalty.
Considerable efforts have been made to improve integration
between the various public transport services in Belgium. As well as
timetable coordination, this has taken the form of through ticketing, so
that travellers can buy a rail ticket valid for connecting travel by
bus/tram/métro within the flat-fare zone of major cities. In Brussels,
standard flat-fare single, multi-ride and 1-day tickets valid on the urban
bus/tram/métro network are now similarly valid for travel by rail between
any of the city's stations.
Each rail line in Belgium is identified by a line number, which is usually
the same as the corresponding table number in the public timetable. Line numbers
are displayed in white on blue hexagonal boards beside the track at junctions.
Information intended for railway staff only (eg depots and stabling points,
types of equipment) is conveyed by means of telegraphic codes; FSD = Ostend ,
HLE = electric loco etc.). Other trackside boards indicate line speed-limits (in
tens of km/h), gradients over 12/1000, prohibition of 3-phase motive power
(&quot;DMT&quot;) etc.


==Other General Information==
==Other General Information==

Revision as of 18:08, 16 November 2010

UPDATE IN PROGRESS BY GWB, USING BELGIUM DATA AS A TEMPLATE - HENCE THE DATA FOR BELGIUM!

National Railway System

Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français (SNCF). Infrastructure is owned and managed by Réseau Ferré de France (RFF).

Thalys services are managed jointly with the Belgian, German and Netherlands railways, while other international services are operated jointly with neighbouring administrations using various concocted trading names: TGV Lyria (Switzerland), Artesia and Riviera (Italy), and Elipsos (Spain). Eurostar was originally operated jointly with SNCB/NMBS and Eurostar (UK) Ltd. but from 2010 is a unitary undertaking (Eurostar International Ltd), owned by the same partners with SNCF holding a controlling interest (55%), London & Continental (owners of Eurostar (UK) Ltd) (40%) and SNCB/NMBS (5%).

Various open-access freight operators (particularly ECR, a DB Schenker subsidiary) are starting to appear depite French reluctance to embrace the spirit of the relevant European legislation. Voies Ferrées Locales et Industrielles (VFLI) is a SNCF subsidiary (with more flexibility of staff deployment) which contracts for the operation of certain secondary lines as well as some open access operation.

Languages

French. Breton is spoken in Brittany, but the visitor is likely to be aware of this only in the form of signs as most people speak French. There is limited use of Basque in the Pyrenees and German in Alsace.

Currency

Euro

UIC code

  • SNCF: numeric 87 alpha F.
  • Eurotunnel: numeric 69. This is used only for accounting purposes and does not appear on rolling stock.

Timetable

TIMETABLES & MAPS YET TO BE UPDATED

Journey Planner

Downloadable Timetable

hari.b-holding.be/Hafas/folders/20091213/G/Lst.htm

Printed Timetable

The Spoorboekje/Indicateur officiel, with some text in German and English as well as French and Flemish, is published shortly before the annual change (second Sunday in December). Weekday services for all lines in numerical order are shown first, followed by the corresponding weekend services. The timetable is also available as a series of free leaflets, suitable for holding in a ring binder. A separate free "IC/IR" booklet with details of the regular-interval limited-stop services identified by letters, including diagrams showing the service pattern between the principal stations on weekdays and at weekends, is similarly available at SNCB/NMBS stations. Traditional long-distance international services to and from Belgium are given at the back of the timetable but they have been largely replaced by high-speed trains (Eurostar, Thalys, ICE, TGV), details of which are given in separate leaflets.

Engineering Information

Forward information on engineering works can be obtained from either

Maps

Timetable Maps

The timetable map contains a fold-out route diagram showing timetable numbers.

Other Maps

An SNCB/NMBS plan shows the current network, while the infrastructure provider has two useful plans: detailed schematic layout plan and overview route plan, identifying line numbers (note that these URLs may change in future years so a little experimentation may be necessary to get later versions). An unofficial map shows the maximum extent of the Belgian system, identifying passenger, freight and closed lines.

Gauge

Standard. The following SNCF lines are metre gauge: Villefranche-Vernet-les-Bains to La Tour-de-Carol-Enveitg, St Gervais-les-Bains-le-Fayet to Chamonix-Mont-Blanc and Salbris to Luçay-le-Male.

Electrification

Main lines from Paris to Le Mans, Hendaye, Toulouse, Marseille and Modane, together with many associated routes are 1500V dc. Other standard gauge lines are 25kV 50Hz. All high speed lines (Lignes à Grande Vitesse) are 25kV 50Hz, except for the Contournement TGV de Tours (Montlouis to Monts Indre et Loire) which can be used by conventional trains and is, therefore, 1500V dc. Villefranche-Vernet-les-Bains to La Tour-de-Carol-Enveitg is 850 volts dc third rail and St Gervais-les-Bains-le-Fayet to Chamonix-Mont-Blanc is 750 volts dc third rail. All 750 volts dc third rail operation has been eliminated from the SNCF Paris suburban network.

Rule of the road

Left, except in Alsace and Lorraine which were part of Germany between 1871 and 1918, where right hand running is the rule and German-style signalling can still be found. The change from left to right hand running is made on the flat at Mulhouse, but at all other locations there are flyovers. These are west of Molsheim, west of Sarrebourg, north of Ars-sur-Moselle, west of Rombas-Clouange, west of Fontoy and as part of the LGV Est junction at Baudrecourt. The arrangements at Ars-sur-Moselle, near Metz, are particularly complicated as the railway is quadruple track. Reversible signalling is extensively used.

Other railways

THE ABOVE IS A TEMPLATE FOR THE ENTRIES BELOW. WEBSITES TO BE INSERTED

Montenvers Mer de Glace train (metre gauge, electrified 11kV 50Hz) Chemin de fer de la Corse (metre gauge; operated by SNCF since 1983) Chemins de fer de Provence (Nice - Digne; metre gauge; operated by Veolia - see below) Le Petit Train de la Rhune (St Ignace - La Rhune; metre gauge, rack-worked, electrified 3000V 50Hz three-phase; operated by Veolia - see below. The only surviving line of the Voies Ferrées Départmentales du Midi) Houillères du Bassin de Lorraine (network of standard gauge freight lines in the Béning area; operated by VFLI (see above) since 2001). RDT13 (Régie Départmentale des Transports des Bouches-du-Rhône) (several standard gauge freight lines near Arles and Tarascon, as well as the short remaining section of the CF de l'Hérault; local authority owned and operated; is also amongst Tourist lines) Tra mway du Mont Blanc (Le Fayet - Le Glacier; metre gauge, electrified 11kV 50Hz)

Eurotunnel SA, in partnership with UK company Eurotunnel plc, has a concession to operate the Channel Tunnel between Calais and Folkestone.

Veolia-Transdev (a recently announced merger of the passenger interests of Transdev and Veolia Transport [previously Connex, Vivendi, and CGE]) - through subsidiary Sociéte Générale de Chemin de fer et de Transports Automobiles (CFTA) - operate passenger trains on the branches from Guingamp to Carhaix and Paimpol and a number of tourist lines (see their website @@) and, directly, some urban tram systems. @ WEBSITE TO BE ADDED

Tourist lines

The best available list of French tourist lines is provided by the Union des Exploitants de Chemins de Fer Touristiques et de Musées (a grouping of preserved and tourist lines) @(UNECTO) website, but fortunately the information given is not limited to UNECTO members. Similar information is often published in spring issues of French railway magazines. Some tourist trains operate over RFF freight lines and are, therefore, susceptible to suspension or withdrawal. Most lines operate quite infrequently, usually at weekends during the summer season.

Rail cycling is possible on a number of lines - see the @Vélos-rail de France website. These lines are also shown - as Cyclorail, Cyclo-draisine or Vélorail - in the @UNECTO list. @ WEBSITE TO BE ADDED


Metro

The @Trams in France website provides comprehensive information.

Trams

The @Trams in France website provides comprehensive information. All French tram systems are either of recent construction or extensively modernised. Lyon T3 tram route from Part-Dieu and its Rhônexpress eastward extension to Aéroport Saint Exupéry use part of the trackbed of the former Chemin de Fer de l'Est Lyonnais. Part of the Valenciennes system is over the trackbed of the former Chemin de Fer d'Anzin.

@itransports.fr is a web site about public transport provision with zoomable geographical maps showing all public transport stations and stops. It includes trams, funiculars, etc., and local bus facilities in and around various towns.


Recent and future changes

A significant number of local passenger services, mainly in rural areas, were withdrawn during the the late 1930s and again in the 1980s, but in most parts of France the Regional Councils now have a strong role in planning and funding local transport and are keen to promote railways. The exception, alas, is lines crossing Regional boundaries and where extensive deferred track maintenance has been in force - hence the closures of the lines between Volvic and Lapeyrouse (December 2007), between Montluçon and Eygurande-Merlines (March 2008), between Gisors and Serqueux (January 2009) and between Valençay and Luçay-le-Mâle (on the metre gauge Blanc Argent line) (October 2009) (both the latter are notionally "temporary" because of condition of track). Many councils are funding new rolling stock and are requiring SNCF to introduce improved timetables. However, in November 2009 the French @Cour des comptes ["Court of Accounts"] delivered a @report critical of the value for money of many TER services, recommending bus substitution.

Regional Councils have, over recent years, expressed intentions of reintroducing passenger services on the following lines with little or no tangible result: Nantes - Nort-sur-Erdre (as a tram-train, targetted for September 2011) and thence to Châteaubriant (targetted for December 2012), Mulhouse - Müllheim (Germany) (full service in place of present "seasonal" limited service, targeted for 2013), [Avignon -] Sorgues - Carpentras (targetted for 2014), Oloron Ste.Marie - Bedous (where some work has started), Bedous - Canfranc, Thouars - Parthenay - Niort, Niort - Fontenay-le-Comte, Chartres - Voves - Orléans, Orléans - Châteauneuf-sur-Loire, Quillan - Perpignan (the latter already partly reopened for seasonal tourist service), Valence - Nîmes (via the Rhône right-bank line), Colmar - Volgelsheim (Neuf- Brisach Gare), Colmar - Ste.Croix-en-Plaine and Digne - St.Auban. How the Cour des comptes 2009 report (see previous paragraph) will impact on such aspirations remains to be played out. Meanwhile, a short section of the La Rochelle - La Pallice branch reopened in December 2008, as far as La Rochelle la Porte-Dauphine; there is an aspiration to extend to La Pallice, possibly as a tram-train.

An east - west curve avoiding St.Germain-des-Fossés opened in December 2006. A north - west curve avoiding Folligny is scheduled to open in June 2011.

Until recently, the only regular interval services operated by SNCF were on Paris suburban lines. The introduction of a regular interval service pattern on the high speed lines from Paris to Lille, Nantes and Lyon has resulted in increased traffic. However, the infrequent service on many lines reflects the sparse population in most of France and the relatively small size of many cities - or perhaps they reflect the demand for travel to work fifty or more years ago and do not meet the current needs of people working more flexibly or travelling for leisure. Certainly, the traveller on cross-country, secondary and tertiary routes will hanker for the frequency of service found on just about all other European systems while concluding that the travel writers who lavish their praise on the TGV network never tangle with the more backward parts of the SNCF system!

The opening of the Ligne á Grande Vitesse Est represented the latest phase of the extension of the LGV network. An isolated, international section of LGV between Perpignan and Figueres/Figueras [ES] opens in December 2010, and will eventually be extended to Barcelona. Other projects being considered or developed include extensions of existing lines to Rennes, Bordeaux, Perpignan (to connect with the line to Figueres/Figueras [ES]), Modane (and Torino) and Genève (see next paragraph), together with a new line, LGV Rhin-Rhône, from Lyon to Dijon and Mulhouse, of which the first section is scheduled to open at the end of 2011. Details of these projects are at the @RFF website.

The ligne du haut-Bugey, Bourg-en-Bresse - La Cluse - Bellegarde, has been modernised and electrified, to be reopened (along with the branch to Oyonnax) December 2010, offering a shorter, slightly faster route to Genève for TGV's from Paris; however, the overall alignment remains largely unchanged - it is not a "green field" LGV.

A west-facing curve off the Alès line is (at long last) about to be built at Nîmes, so that passenger trains no longer need to reverse at Courbessac; target opening date is 2012. A light rail system is being developed in Mulhouse; as the first phase, this includes conversion of the Kruth branch and its linking to the town tramway system, to commence operation in December 2010. Future plans may incorporate other closed or freight only lines.

The lines Montréjeau - Luchon and Rodez - Sévérac-le-Château may be under some threat of withdrawal of their Régional (local authority) financial support.

Special notes

Many SNCF main lines are closed for several hours each day, usually during the morning, for maintenance. These blancs travaux can cause long gaps between trains. There is a growing tendency - in an endeavour to catch up with deferred track maintenance - for services to be replaced by buses for exstensive periods without this being shown in the timetable.

Tickets purchased in France need to be validated before boarding the train by inserting them in a yellow machine (composteur) at the platform entrance. This stamps them with the station name, date and time.


Other General Information

Signal post numbering

  • in controlled area: F37 = signal F of blok (= block post or signal box) 37.
  • automatic signals on open line: A806 = signal on track A at km 80,6; BX753 = signal on track B for trains running in "wrong" (right-hand) direction at km 75,3, where the X denotes "wrong" direction; signals for use in the wrong direction show occulting aspects - the V of small white lights above certain signals is lit when the signal is cleared for a movement starting or ending such 'wrong direction' running.

Passenger train numbering

  • the concept of "up" and "down" (or pair and impair in French practice) to describe the direction of movement does not apply in Belgium; on a double track line one will be "A" and the other "B", with direction "A" being that in which the trackside km increases.
  • internal trains carry three or four digit numbers of which the first two digits denote route (and indicate direction) while the final digit(s) provide unique train number within that route - whether the final digit is odd or even carries no significance.
  • trains between SNCB/NMBS and NS or CFL adopt Belgian practice throughout.
  • trains between SNCB/NMBS and SNCF carry different numbers within France (following the French pair/impair numbering practice) from those carried in Belgium.
  • International trains (classified as such) may have two (adjacent - one odd, one even) numbers, to accommodate the numbering systems of those adjacent administrations where odd and even numbers do denote direction; for motorail (AutoTrain) services originating in Benelux, the odd number will be one less than the even number.

See also