The TGV high-speed train began commercial service between Paris and Strasbourg yesterday, nearly halving the travel time between the two cities to 2 hours 20 minutes and linking the TGV network with Germany.
The train made its maiden voyage with 360 passengers on board early yesterday, arriving on time and continuing on to the German city of Stuttgart, said Anne Premel, spokeswoman for the Strasbourg municipality. Passengers who got off in the Alsatian capital were greeted with local music and bretzels -- pretzels the size of a pizza, a local specialty.
The line, on which the TGV broke its own world speed record for conventional rail trains in April when the bullet train reached 574.8kph, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Francois Fillon on Saturday.
"Strasbourg just over two hours from Paris, that was a dream. The dream is now fulfilled," he said. The previous fastest connection between the two cities took 4 hours.
Trains on the new 406km line reaching Strasbourg via Reims, Metz and Nancy -- with the first 300km on dedicated high-speed tracks -- will travel at speeds of up to 320kph, compared to a maximum of 300kph for current TGV trains.
Different branches of the line will also cut travel time from Paris to several other European cities. The train to Frankfurt, Germany, takes 3 hours 50 minutes and to Stuttgart, Germany, 3 hours 40 minutes. A trip to the Swiss city of Zurich takes 4 hours 30 minutes.
For Strasbourg, the TGV will mean more tourists, better business opportunities and the possibility of a real estate boom. But Mayor Fabienne Keller noted it was largely the municipality, not the central government, that had secured the extension of the nation's high-speed rail network.
"Alsace largely fought it out itself. The TGV wasn't offered to it," she said, referring to the 20-year battle over the financing of the project worth 3.2 billion euros (US$4.3 billion) -- or a total of 5.5 billion euros with trains included -- which eventually found backing from 22 partners including the EU, the French and Luxembourg central governments, train operators and other French regional governments.
Planners now foresee a network of high-speed lines stretching from Barcelona, Spain, to Budapest, Hungary. The plans are to create two axes that meet in Strasbourg: one running between Paris, Munich, Vienna and Budapest; the other running from Hamburg to Frankfurt, Lyon and Barcelona.
The EU has earmarked 20.35 billion euros to finance European networks, much of it to five priority transcontinental rail links, which are due to be completed by 2015.
A new rail bridge over the Rhein River to Germany is expected to be open in 2011.
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced
Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Aramco), the Saudi state-owned oil giant, yesterday posted first-quarter profits of US$26 billion, down 4.6 percent from the prior year as falling global oil prices undermine the kingdom’s multitrillion-dollar development plans. Aramco had revenues of US$108.1 billion over the quarter, the company reported in a filing on Riyadh’s Tadawul stock exchange. The company saw US$107.2 billion in revenues and profits of US$27.2 billion for the same period last year. Saudi Arabia has promised to invest US$600 billion in the US over the course of US President Donald Trump’s second term. Trump, who is set to touch
SKEPTICAL: An economist said it is possible US and Chinese officials would walk away from the meeting saying talks were productive, without reducing tariffs at all US President Donald Trump hailed a “total reset” in US-China trade relations, ahead of a second day of talks yesterday between top officials from Washington and Beijing aimed at de-escalating trade tensions sparked by his aggressive tariff rollout. In a Truth Social post early yesterday, Trump praised the “very good” discussions and deemed them “a total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner.” The second day of closed-door meetings between US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) were due to restart yesterday morning, said a person familiar
RSS