A taste of high speed travel
High speed rail lines. They’re one of the many ways that Europe differs from Australia (and there are many)! These lines link the larger cities within countries, and work is progressing on faster links between European destinations.
Prior to our first trip to Europe in 2008, the fastest I’d travelled in a train was in NSW on the XPT service from Melbourne to Sydney. And the 160kmh milestone was only for a very short portion of the journey.
After spending time in Paris, we headed south to Avignon, some 650 km away, which by the legendary TGV (Train Grande Vitesse), was covered in less than three hours!
France’s first high speed rail line, the route still uses some sections of steam era routes, obviously much improved, but the high speed sections allowed for running at up to 300kmh.
For some Australian context, Melbourne to Goulburn is 680 km, and takes almost nine hours, on the very same XPT I mentioned earlier.
To say that the trip from Paris to Avignon was enjoyable is an understatement! Aside from those brief moments when a plane takes off and lands, I’d never been so fast on the ground! And it was super smooth.
Since then, we’ve travelled on the high speed rail lines in the UK, Germany and Italy, I think the German ICE trains are the pick of the bunch, but would happily climb aboard any of them!
Not all TGV journeys are high speed for their entirety. Some routes, such as across to the Alps at Annecy use a portion of high speed line, then take to slower, more winding traditional lines.
Similarly, the line towards Strasbourg, and beyond into Germany, has some amazing 320kmh running out through the Champagne region. It then follows a river and canal twisting and turning for a portion of the journey - the next stage is being constructed to bypass this scenic section.
One of the highlights of the latest generation trains on this route is an in-carriage speedometer, where you can keep and eye on just how fast the countryside out the window is flashing past you.
Or, you can track your progress on the on train wi-fi - also great fun!
Scott.