LGV_Méditerranée
LGV Méditerranée
French high-speed railway
The LGV Méditerranée (French: Ligne à Grande Vitesse; English: Mediterranean high-speed line) is a 250-kilometre-long (160-mile) French high-speed rail line running from north to south between Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence, Drôme and Marseille, Bouches-du-Rhône, also featuring a connection to Nîmes, Gard to the west.
It connects the regions of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and Occitanie to the LGV Rhône-Alpes and from there onto Lyon and the north of France. Construction costs rose to €3.8 billion; the line entered service in 2001 following an official opening by President Jacques Chirac. The commencement of service on the line has led to a reversal of the respective airplane and train markets: by making Marseille reachable in three hours from Paris—a distance of over 750 kilometres (470 mi)—the train now handles two-thirds of all journeys on that route. LGVs Méditerranée, Rhône-Alpes and Sud-Est, when completed, also received their official nickname, the City To Coast (C2C) Highway ("Ville à la Mer").[2]
The line features the Tunnel de Marseille, allowing it to enter Marseille underground, the longest railway tunnel wholly located in France, at 7.8 km (4.8 mi).[3]