Trains and other things: July 2017

Today I'm continuing further north in France, from Bordeaux to Rennes.

LGV Sud Europe Atlantique is the newest high speed line in France and in whole Europe, and it was opened 2nd of July 2017. The travel time between Paris and Bordeaux is now reduced by 1h, the trip took 3h before, and 2h now. For this line SNCF ordered 40 new TGV 2N2 3UFC ("C" for capacity) trains named TGV L’Océane. The trains are equipped with dual voltage (25kV 50Hz AC/1.5kV DC).

SNCF announced in may this year that TGV brand will be replaced with "InOui" before 2020, and the reason is that SNCF will lose its monopoly in 2021, so the rail company will use similar brand names for all its services, e.g. OuiGo, OuiBus etc.

L'Oceane trains looks similar to the older TGV's but they look very different inside, unfortunately I did not had a chance to see from inside this time, hopefully I will a have a new chance soon.

The TGV I'm taking is a service to Strasbourg and Lille (double TGV), and it is stopping along it's route to Paris. Here our train is taking off to stop in Angoulême, the direct trains to Paris can take the route to the left.

Vossloh Euro 4000 operated by Europorte

Angoulême

The line is built for 320km/h

Poitiers is where I'm getting off. My next train will be to La Rochelle.

Alstom Régiolis train to the left. There are 8 different version of the train, this one is a dual mode regional (B 84500). Bombardier AGC to the right exists in 4 different version, this one is a dual mode regional (B 81500).

TGV Duplex 29000 to Lille, and TGV 2N2 3UA to Strasbourg.

Even though there is now a fast way from Paris to Bordeaux with TGV, there is also a conventional Intercités 100% Éco service from Paris Austerlitz which takes 4h 40min with 5 stops.

Intercité service is hauled by SNCF Class BB 26000 dual voltage locomotive

The coaches are of type Corail, B10tu, A10tu

"Daft punk" anime-style paintings outside the station

To the left is B 81500 from TER Limousin, here used for service to Limoges. To the right is Z 51500 from TER Aquitaine.

B 81500 from TER Poitou-Charentes

SNCF Class BB 460000 from Vossloh

My next train is a TGV to La Rochelle

It's known that all TGV passengers have to reserve seats, which I had also done. Unfortunately it turned out that our seats were occupied by two passengers. After telling that these were our seats, they refused to move blaming on the chaotic situation due to Montparnasse failure, so we had to stand in the corridor just like many other passengers.

Fortunately the trip was not long, and at La Rochelle which was the last stop, the platform was already full of passengers waiting for the train back to Paris (most probably due to previously cancelled train).