TGV - Is it fast?
 

I'd like to experience the 300 mph speed that this TGV train boosts about... which route is the best for that? <BR> <BR>thanx!

Hi, <BR> <BR>I think it is more like 300 kmph. a bit of a difference. It is fast, yes, but not a bullet train (that I am aware of, anyway. maybe in parts of Germany there is a 300 MPH train...)

Ben might be more of an expert on this issue, but 300 mph (504 kmh) is (or maybe was) the world rail record achieved by TGV. The operating speed is between 320 and 350 kmh. Any TGV has at least 200 k=m of such a track. the Paris-Lyon is entirely fast track (500 km), so is Paris-Tours or Paris-Lille (200 km).

I have traveled the Lyon-Paris route, and it seemed pretty fast to me.

For all the information about tgv trains you could ever want : <BR> <BR>http://mercurio.iet.unipi.it/tgv/

i think it's 200kmph,not 300 mph. if you are from california then it's what some of the the speed of some crazy drivers here on the freeway. it's okay, i took the one from lyon to paris, and get the upper deck too.

Thanks to Hans for directing us to a most interesting web site about the TGV. <BR>Interesting reading.

Paris-Avignon is about 560 miles (a little over 900 km) and it takes 4 hrs. The ride is so smooth, I was disappointed in any sense of speed. Like riding in a jetplane doesn't seem fast - - nothing like driving 110 mph. <BR> <BR>The one and only time I even perceived the speed was when you pass another TGV going the other direction - - then it really does seem like whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh - - they're gone! <BR> <BR>

Rex makes me smile! I've done that route before, and other than passing cars that are going 60 mph and seem to be standing still OR passing another TGV (whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!), you have no concept of the speed.

The TGV and its sister services in Europe are testimony to the first rate engineering and the scale of investment being made by governments and privatized rail industry. The smoothness and silence DO make the speed deceptive, but try standing outside by the side of the right of way when a TGV (I think is was the Lyon-Paris train) goes by at flank speed. SSSSSSscary.