LGV Perpignan-Figueres
Encyclopedia
High-speed rail
High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions by the European Union include for upgraded track and or faster for new track, whilst in the United States, the U.S...
line between France and Spain. The line connects two cities on opposite sides of the border, Perpignan
Perpignan
-Sport:Perpignan is a rugby stronghold: their rugby union side, USA Perpignan, is a regular competitor in the Heineken Cup and seven times champion of the Top 14 , while their rugby league side plays in the engage Super League under the name Catalans Dragons.-Culture:Since 2004, every year in the...
in Roussillon
Roussillon
Roussillon is one of the historical counties of the former Principality of Catalonia, corresponding roughly to the present-day southern French département of Pyrénées-Orientales...
, France, and Figueres
Figueres
Figueres is the capital of the comarca of Alt Empordà, in the province of Girona, Catalonia, Spain.The town is the birthplace of artist Salvador Dalí, and houses the Teatre-Museu Gala Salvador Dalí, a large museum designed by Dalí himself which attracts many visitors...
in Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
, Spain. It consists of a 44.4 kilometres (27.6 mi) line which crosses the French–Spanish border via the 8.3 kilometres (5.2 mi) Perthus Tunnel
Perthus Tunnel
The Perthus Tunnel is a twin-bore railway tunnel between Perpignan, France and Figueres, Spain built as part of the high-speed railway line between Barcelona and Montpellier under the Eastern Pyrenees. The tunnel took five years to build and was completed on February 17, 2009...
bored under the Perthus Pass. It opened on 19 December 2010 with a TGV
TGV
The TGV is France's high-speed rail service, currently operated by SNCF Voyages, the long-distance rail branch of SNCF, the French national rail operator....
service from Paris via Perpignan to Figueres–Vilafant
Figueres–Vilafant railway station
Figueres–Vilafant is a railway station near Figueres in the Alt Empordà county of Catalonia, Spain, on the LGV Perpignan–Figueres line. It opened on 19 December 2010 with French SNCF TGV trains from Paris connecting with Spanish RENFE Alaris broad-gauge trains to Girona and Barcelona.The station is...
, and regular freight traffic started on 21 December 2010.
The line was formally opened on 27 January 2011.
History
The contract to build the line was awarded on 17 February 2004 to the TP Ferro consortium, a joint venture of EiffageEiffage
-History:The company was formed in 1992 through the merger of several companies: Fougerolle , Quillery , Beugnet , and La Societe Auxiliaire d' Enterprises Electriques et de Travaux Public, better known as SAE .-Major projects:Recent projects have included the Channel Tunnel completed in 1994, the...
(France) and Dragados
Grupo ACS
Actividades de Construcción y Servicios, S.A. is a Spanish company dedicated to civil and engineering construction, all types services and telecommunications. It is one of the leading construction companies in the world, with projects in many countries around the world...
(Spain). The group constructed the line for an estimated cost of approximately €1.1 billion, and will operate the line for 53 years. It will receive a public subsidy
Subsidy
A subsidy is an assistance paid to a business or economic sector. Most subsidies are made by the government to producers or distributors in an industry to prevent the decline of that industry or an increase in the prices of its products or simply to encourage it to hire more labor A subsidy (also...
of €540 million, split between the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, France and Spain.
Test running started in November 2008, and the international section officially opened on 17 February 2009, but no services ran until December 2010 while a station at Figueres was constructed.
Line
The track on the new line is standard gaugeStandard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...
using 25 kV AC railway electrification at 50 Hz, consistent with the French LGV
LGV
LGV may stand for:* Large Goods Vehicle in Europe.* Lymphogranuloma venereum* Lignes à Grande Vitesse, French high-speed rail lines:** LGV Atlantique** LGV Est** LGV Interconnexion Est** LGV Nord** LGV Méditerranée** LGV Picardie** LGV Rhône-Alpes...
and Spanish AVE
AVE
Alta Velocidad Española is a service of high-speed rail in Spain operated by Renfe, the Spanish national railway company, at speeds of up to . The name is literally translated from Spanish as "Spanish High Speed", but also a play on the word , meaning "bird".AVE trains run on a network of...
high-speed rail networks. The line is to be open to both passenger and freight trains, the maximum grade being limited to 1.2%. The design speed is 350 kph.
Traditional Spanish rail lines are broad gauge
Broad gauge
Broad-gauge railways use a track gauge greater than the standard gauge of .- List :For list see: List of broad gauges, by gauge and country- History :...
, so rail connections between France and Spain have involved a break-of-gauge
Break-of-gauge
With railways, a break-of-gauge occurs where a line of one gauge meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock cannot run through without some form of conversion between gauges, and freight and passengers must otherwise be transloaded...
. Passengers and cargo must either change trains, or the trains must pass through gauge-changing installations at the border. This line will be the first connection without a break-of-gauge and the first international connection to the AVE network. Another connection to France near the Atlantic coast in the Basque country
Basque Country (autonomous community)
The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....
is planned, and a link via Huesca
Huesca
Huesca is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the autonomous community of Aragon. It is also the capital of the Spanish province of the same name and the comarca of Hoya de Huesca....
is under study.
Services
A TGV service from Paris via Perpignan started on 19 December 2010 to a temporary station at Figueres and a connecting service on the classic line on to Barcelona. The total journey time from Paris to Barcelona has been reduced by 1h 15m to 7h 25m. Of that, 5h 30m is spent on the Paris to Figueres segment. Initially there is a service of two Paris-Figueres TGVs per day, together with three RENFERENFE
Renfe Operadora is the state-owned company which operates freight and passenger trains on the 1668-mm "Iberian gauge" and 1435-mm "European gauge" networks of the Spanish national railway infrastructure company ADIF .- History :The name RENFE is derived from that of the former Spanish National...
Alvia trains a day between Barcelona and Perpignan using the conventional line between Barcelona and Figueres and change of rail gauge
Rail gauge
Track gauge or rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the heads of the two load bearing rails that make up a single railway line. Sixty percent of the world's railways use a standard gauge of . Wider gauges are called broad gauge; smaller gauges, narrow gauge. Break-of-gauge refers...
on the fly at Figueres.
RENFE started a standard-gauge freight service on 21 December 2010.
As of January 2011 there are four freight trains a week running over the line from Barcelona, with journey times reduced by 6 hours: one train each way to Lyon, and one each way to Milan.
Future
The Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line is being extended from Barcelona to Figueres. Services are expected to run from Perpignan to Girona starting in 2012 and Paris to Barcelona. Trains will be able to travel at high speed from MadridMadrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
to Perpignan, and services from Lyon
Lyon
Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
to Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
in under four hours are planned, probably in 2014, using the classic line in France between Perpignan and Nîmes
Nîmes
Nîmes is the capital of the Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. Nîmes has a rich history, dating back to the Roman Empire, and is a popular tourist destination.-History:...
. A new company jointly owned by RENFE and SNCF is to be formed to run services between Paris and Madrid. Ten new trains are to be purchased at a cost of €300 million.
In May 2010 it was announced that tendering had started for the Nîmes–Montpellier bypass route. This will be the first stage in the link between the Spanish high-speed network and LGV Méditerranée. The line will carry a mix of freight and high-speed trains. It is expected that the line will open in 2016.
Work on the Montpellier-Perpignan section is not expected to start until 2020.