PalenQ

This December 11 France will open an extension of the current Paris to Dijon TGV line - dubbed the Rhin-Rhone high-speed line, which will run from the terminus of the current TGV line to Dijon and go via Besancon, Belfort and Mulhouse to the Swiss border where the trains will run into Basel and Zurich.

Alleo (Paris-Germany) TGV trains will also use the new Rhin-Rhone high-speed line on TGV services between Frankfurt and Marseille, Mulhouse, Dijon, Valence, Besancon and Belfort.

New TGV stations are named Belfort-Montbellard TGV station and Besancon-Franche Comte TGV station.

All of the TGV Lyria trains (Paris-Basel/Zurich) will now depart from Paris Gare de Lyon and not Paris-Est as some did before.

www.voyages-sncfr.com for schedules (which may not be posted as the new TGV line only goes into service with the commencement of winter schedules Dec 11, 2011.

cocofromdijon

I'm glad you wrote this info before I did. You gave more details than I would do.
However I'm adding a link where you can already check schedules easily. http://horaires2012-sncf.com/ Voilà!

kerouac

It rather annoys me that the northern Swiss trains will no longer depart from Paris-Est, their historic home, but I guess you can't fight progress.

Phil

kerouac:

This also annoys me. Not so much for history but for the loss of easy high-speed connections from Switzerland to the north of France, Belgium, the Netherlands and London via Gare du Nord, which is adjacent to Gare de l'Est.

So we'll have to transfer via RER line D *sigh*

Phil.

PalenQ

Paris will have to built that long planned Central Station I guess between Gares Est and Nord - called Magenta I believe and all TGV trains will have a common interchange with easy access to Eurostar.

ardithl

If someone finds a link to schedules for the train between Frankfurt and Marseille (or Dijon, Valence, or Lyon), could you please post a link?

Links to the schedules from destinations in France are here:
http://www.sncf.com/en_EN/html/media...d-article.html
but I haven't yet found anything about connecting to Frankfurt without going through Paris.

PalenQ

ardithl - I think the Alleo TGV/ICE trains direct between Frankfurt and Marseille, Dijon, Valence, etc will not commence service until the new Rhin-Rhone TGV line opens in Dec

Currently most services go via Paris but there is at least one going via Brussels where you transfer to a direct TGV to Marseilles and another where you transfer at Marne-la-Vallee, just outside of Paris from the TGV-Est line.

PalenQ

the next TGV line extension scheduled to open will be the Avignon TGV station to Montpellier to Perpignan TGV line that will tie in with the new Pyreness rail tunnel and high-speed line in Spain to Barcelona, with connections there to Madrid and Seville - hey how about thru Paris to Seville overnight TGV trains?

kerouac

There are night (unusually slow) TGVs to places like Montpellier, so it would be easy to do something to Spain if there were sufficient demand in the future.