LGV Sud Europe Atlantique

The LGV Sud Europe Atlantique (LGV SEA), also known as the LGV Sud-Ouest, is a high-speed railway line in the early stages of construction, running between Tours and Bordeaux, in France. When built, it will be used by TGV trains operated by SNCF, the French national railway company. The project has been approved., Railway Gazette International 2009-02-04 It is an extension of the LGV Atlantique.

Purpose

The purpose of constructing the LGV SEA is to bring high-speed rail service to southwestern France and connect the régions of Poitou-Charentes, Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrénées with the high-speed rail service of Northern Europe, which connects Paris to London, Brussels, Amsterdam and beyond. The trip between Paris and Bordeaux will take around two hours and ten minutes with a projected speed of 300 km/h. The inter-city links between Tours, Poitiers, Angoulême, and Bordeaux will also be improved and southwestern France will be better connected to diverse parts of the country and the rest of Europe.

The project is also a response to the heavy traffic on the existing rail line. The speed differences between the high-speed TGV trains, which reach speeds of up to 220 km/h on the existing tracks, and the slower freight trains and TER (regional) trains which share the same track, create highly congested tracks and prevent the most efficient usage of the rails.

Creating dedicated tracks for the TGV allows more freight and......
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