Speed, punctuality and safety are valuable assets for these services, which also give passengers direct access to city centres. There are now 34,450 km of track, compared to 52,000 km in the early 'thirties. Concurrently, the drive to improve productivity has led to a rapid reduction in the workforce, from 500,000 in 1939 to 180,000 in 1998. The future of the railways now depends on developing the high-speed rail network and piggyback transport. Use of the latter, already frequent for long distances, is likely to be expanded, particularly between Lille and Marseille, via Lyon, because of the saturation of the motorway network, and also along international routes to the UK and Italy, as recent plans for a rail tunnel between Lyon and Turin illustrate.
Today there is a train almost every hour.
Travelling by Eurostar is rather like a plane journey, with futuristic terminals, check-in 20 minutes before departure, boarding cards and facilities for separate transport of luggage. Paris to Brussels in an hour and twenty-five minutes Since 14 December 1997, the journey between Paris and Brussels has been 45 minutes shorter. From 7.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m., there is a train every hour and every half-hour at peak times. Thalys also serves many Belgian, German and Dutch towns as far away as Cologne and Amsterdam.