TGV

The TGV, train a grande vitesse, is France's electric high speed intercity rail service, developed by state railway SNCF with trains built by Alstom. Planning began in 1966, President Georges Pompidou approved the project in 1974, and the design shifted from gas turbine to electric propulsion after the 1973 oil crisis; SNCF ordered 87 high speed trainsets from Alstom in 1976. Commercial service began on 27 September 1981 between Paris and Lyon on the newly built LGV Sud-Est line, and TGV trains now reach commercial speeds up to 320 kilometers per hour on newer lines, carrying 168 million passengers a year by 2025 without a single passenger fatality in an accident during normal high speed service in more than four decades of operation.