Press Release: Inauguration of the TGV Est high-speed line: high-speed rail link launched between Paris and Bratislava

Jacques Barrot, European Commission Vice-President responsible for transport, will inaugurate the TGV Est high-speed line on 15 March 2007. This will complete the first phase of work on the largest railway engineering project at the start of this century, which the European Union has cofinanced to the tune of €241 million. From June 2007, the new rail link will bring Strasbourg within 2h 20m of Paris and open the way to high-speed travel between France, Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg. The 300 kilometres of track already built between Paris and Baudrecourt in Lorraine are the first section of a 1,500-kilometre European railway line intended to link Paris and Bratislava via Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Munich and Vienna.