Online dictionary of France travel and tourism: transport

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Gare Saint Lazare

French words: Gare Saint Lazare
alternative words: Saint Lazare station, Saint Lazare railroad station, Gare Saint Lazare station
keywords: building , paris , transport
related topics: Paris subway
related web sites: http://www.paris.org/Gares/Saint.Lazare/ , http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gare_Saint-Lazare
explanation: Built in 1837 in northwestern Paris near a department store district, "Gare Saint Lazare" is the oldest railroad station of Paris. Becoming too small, it was successively enlarged between 1841-1843 and between 1851-1853. The station scene has been immortalized by Monet's painting "Gare Saint Lazare" in 1877. The present station was built by Juste Lisch between 1885-1889 for the occasion of 1889's world exposition and presents a 17th century Beaux-Arts style frontage with the direct link to a terminus hotel.

Millau bridge

French words: Viaduc de Millau
alternative words: Millau viaduc, Bridge of Millau, Viaduc of Millau
keywords: transport
related web sites: http://www.viaducdemillaueiffage.com , http://www.millau.fr
explanation: In order to lighten the heavy traffics of A6-A7, the government planed a second motorway, A71 to connect Paris with the Mediterranean sea in 1978. But, passing through mountainous regions, its achievement was very slow, especially around Millau where the route has to cross over a deep Tarn valley. Inaugurated by President Chirac in December 2004, Millau bridge is the tallest bridge in the world, suspended by 7 pillars with one of them 343m high, higher that Eiffel Tower, while its length is 2460m.

Mont Blanc tunnel

French words: Tunnel du Mont Blanc
alternative words: Tunnel of Mont Blanc
keywords: alps , transport
related topics: Frejus tunnel , Chamonix
related web sites: http://www.atmb.net , http://cojeomon.edres74.ac-grenoble.fr/travaux/montagne/cham/histu.htm
explanation: Inaugurated in July 1965 by General De Gaulle, Mont Blanc tunnel is one of the oldest car tunnels passing through Alps. Il connects Chamonix in France to Aosta valley in Italy with the total length of 11,6km. After a fire of March 1999 which made 39 victims, several security measures have been added such as parallel evacuation gallery. It reopened in March 2002, but since the closure of Frejus Tunnel in June 2005, it has to receive all the transalpine traffics in spite of environmentalists' protestation.

Paris subway

French words: Métro de Paris
alternative words: Paris underground, Metro de Paris, Metro, Paris metro
keywords: paris , paris suburb , transport
related topics: RER , RATP
related web sites: http://www.ratp.fr
explanation: In order to ease an urban congestion, Paris decided to build its own subway in 1897 after that of London. The first line was opened in 1900 for the occasion of an universal exposition of Paris between Porte de Maillot and Porte de Vincennes. In 1935, Paris had already 13 subway lines and subsequent extensions were toward the nearest suburban areas. A full automatic 14th subway line was added in 1998. The total length of the subway is at 208km, including suburban areas, and the number of stations is 301.

Paris tramway

French words: Tramway de Paris , Tramway Parisien
alternative words: Paris tram, Tramway in Paris
keywords: paris , paris suburb , transport
related topics: Paris subway , Parisian bus , RATP
related web sites: http://www.tramway.paris.fr , http://www.ratp.fr
explanation: The first tramway attracted by horses began its service in Paris in 1853. It was gradually electrified between 1891-1899 to reach 300 lines. But due to a concurrence of the subway opened in 1900 and buses, it disappeared from the city center in 1937 and from the suburb in 1957. After the first energy crisis in 70s, people looked over again the tramway as clean and energy efficient transport method. The first modern tramway appeared in Paris suburb in 1992 and the city center (boulevards Maréchaux) in 2006.

Parisian bus

French words: Bus parisien
alternative words: Paris bus
keywords: paris , paris suburb , transport
related topics: Paris subway , RATP , Paris tramway
related web sites: http://www.ratp.fr , http://www.amtuir.org
explanation: Parisian bus has nearly 2 centuries old, because it had been already operating in Paris with horse traction since 1828. Though all the companies merged in 1855, they had suffered a concurrence from tramways opened in 1870 and subways opened in 1900 before passing to engine traction in 1905. Covering length of 3403km by 58 lines (569km inside Paris), the bus is one of the fastest methods, along with the subway, to move inside Paris thanks to special bus lanes. It is managed now by a public company, RATP.

RATP

French words: RATP , Régie autonome des transports parisiens
keywords: paris , paris suburb , transport
related topics: RER , Paris subway , Montmartre hill , Parisian bus
related web sites: http://www.ratp.fr , http://www.navily.net
explanation: Public company which covers most of Paris and its suburb transport system. It includes Paris subway (16 lines, including full automatic Meteor line), Parisian bus network (total length 3400 km), a part of suburb railroads (lines A and B of RER), Montmatre hill's funicular and tramway (2 lines already operating in the suburb area and a circular line around Paris under construction). RATP transported total 2666 million persons in 2002 with 44000 employees. RATP means "Regie autonome des transports parisiens".

RER

French words: RER , Réseau Express Régional
alternative words: Regional Express Network, Paris suburban railway
keywords: paris , paris suburb , transport
related topics: Paris subway , SNCF , RATP
related web sites: http://www.ratp.fr , http://idf.sncf.com , http://www.navily.net/histreranc.php
explanation: Though there had existed already railroads which connected the suburbs to Paris before WWII, those lines belonged to different companies and badly interconnected between them So the government built in 1977 a public organisation, RER which would unified those scattered lines by completing lacking segments and electrifying them if necessary. There exist now 5 RER lines with an alphabet initial. The oldest is the line A which runs from west to east through Paris, followed by the line B, from north to south.

SNCF

French words: SNCF , Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français
alternative words: French national railway company, French national railroad
keywords: transport
related topics: TGV , RER
related web sites: http://www.sncf.fr , http://www.voyages-sncf.com , http://www.rff.fr , http://www.entreprise-sncf.com
explanation: SNCF, French national railroad company, was created in 1938 by merging 5 private companies. Initially the government controlled 51% of the capital, but since 1982, the whole capital belongs to the state. In 1997, the railroad assets were transferred to another public company, RFF (Reseau ferre de France) in order to introduce competitions. SNCF operates not only classic trains but also high speed trains (TGV) and some Paris' suburban lines (RER), with total length of 32,000 km tracks and 180,000 employees.

TGV

French words: TGV , Train à très grande vitesse , Train à grande vitesse
alternative words: French bullet train, French high speed train
keywords: transport
related topics: SNCF , Eurostar , Tours , Le Mans , Lyon , Eurotunnel , Marseille , Strasbourg , Lille
related web sites: http://www.tgv.com , http://www.public-histoire.com/saga/tgv.html , http://www.trainweb.org/tgvpages/tgvindex.html , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV
explanation: In early 1970's, the main French railway line, Paris-Lyon being saturated, the government decided to add a new line. The first TGV line Paris-Lyon opened in 1981 Since then, the following sections have opened. Atlantic TGV (Paris-Tours and le Mans) in 1990, Northern TGV (Paris-Lille and Brussels) in 1993 with Dover tunnel in 1994, Mediterranean TGV (Lyon-Marseille) in 2001. Eastern TGV (Paris-Strasbourg) is under construction. TGV owns the word record of conventional trains, 515 km/h established in 1990.

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