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.
DIVIDED VIEWS: Although the Fed agreed on holding rates steady, some officials see no rate cuts for this year, while 10 policymakers foresee two or more cuts There are a lot of unknowns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates, but US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled at least one thing seems certain: Higher prices are coming. Fed policymakers voted unanimously to hold interest rates steady at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.50 percent for a fourth straight meeting on Wednesday, as they await clarity on whether tariffs would leave a one-time or more lasting mark on inflation. Powell said it is still unclear how much of the bill would fall on the shoulders of consumers, but he expects to learn more about tariffs
NOT JUSTIFIED: The bank’s governor said there would only be a rate cut if inflation falls below 1.5% and economic conditions deteriorate, which have not been detected The central bank yesterday kept its key interest rates unchanged for a fifth consecutive quarter, aligning with market expectations, while slightly lowering its inflation outlook amid signs of cooling price pressures. The move came after the US Federal Reserve held rates steady overnight, despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to cut borrowing costs. Central bank board members unanimously voted to maintain the discount rate at 2 percent, the secured loan rate at 2.375 percent and the overnight lending rate at 4.25 percent. “We consider the policy decision appropriate, although it suggests tightening leaning after factoring in slackening inflation and stable GDP growth,”
Meta Platforms Inc offered US$100 million bonuses to OpenAI employees in an unsuccessful bid to poach the ChatGPT maker’s talent and strengthen its own generative artificial intelligence (AI) teams, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said. Facebook’s parent company — a competitor of OpenAI — also offered “giant” annual salaries exceeding US$100 million to OpenAI staffers, Altman said in an interview on the Uncapped with Jack Altman podcast released on Tuesday. “It is crazy,” Sam Altman told his brother Jack in the interview. “I’m really happy that at least so far none of our best people have decided to take them
As they zigzagged from one machine to another in the searing African sun, the workers were covered in black soot. However, the charcoal they were making is known as “green,” and backers hope it can save impoverished Chad from rampant deforestation. Chad, a vast, landlocked country of 19 million people perched at the crossroads of north and central Africa, is steadily turning to desert. It has lost more than 90 percent of its forest cover since the 1970s, hit by climate change and overexploitation of trees for household uses such as cooking, officials say. “Green charcoal” aims to protect what
RSS