page_title: LGV Est
section_title: Early proposals and planning
hierarchical_section_title: LGV Est / History / Early proposals and planning
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of French TGV lines in use and under construction. Original intention is to show the location of the Rhin-Rhone TGV.
context_page_description: The Ligne à Grande Vitesse Est européenne, typically shortened to LGV Est, is a French high-speed rail line that connects Vaires-sur-Marne and Vendenheim. The line halved the travel time between Paris and Strasbourg and provides fast services between Paris and the principal cities of eastern France as well as Luxembourg, Germany, and Switzerland. The LGV Est is a segment of the Main line for Europe project to connect Paris with Budapest with high-speed rail service.
  The line was built in two phases. Construction on the 300 km from Vaires-sur-Marne to Baudrecourt began in 2004; the first phase entered into service in June 2007. Construction on the 106 km second phase from Baudrecourt to Vendenheim began in June 2010; the second phase opened to commercial service on 3 July 2016. Opening of the second phase was delayed after a train derailed near Eckwersheim during commissioning trials, resulting in 11 deaths.
  A specially modified train performed a series of high-speed tests on the first phase of the LGV Est prior to its opening. In April 2007, it reached a top speed of 574.8 km/h, becoming the fastest conventional train and fastest train on a national rail system.
context_section_description: In 1969, Metz politician Raymond Mondon requested a study of a fast train from Paris to Strasbourg along the route of the planned A4 autoroute. In 1970–71, the International Union of Railways (UIC, based on its French acronym) developed a master plan of fast intercity connections in continental Europe. Its connection between Paris and Strasbourg was very similar to the route of the LGV Est. The UIC master plan called for this line to be constructed shortly after Paris-Lyon and Paris-Brussels lines. In 1974, the director of SNCF confirmed that the company wanted to follow the UIC master plan.
  Germany, which was developing the Transrapid maglev system, was long reserved about the TGV system being developed by France. A 1975 study concluded that the passenger traffic to only Alsace and Lorraine would not be enough for the financial feasibility of the line. In 1982, recognizing German reluctance to extend the line into Germany, SNCF president André Chadeau announced that the company would not build the LGV Est without government subsidies. The following year, Saverne engineer Charles Maetz convinced MPs Adrien Zeller and François Grussenmeyer to establish the East European TGV Association (French: l'Association TGV Est-Européen), which managed to bring together local authorities to support the project.
  The LGV Est is a direct result of a project begun in 1985 with the establishment of a working group chaired by Claude Rattier and later by Philippe Essig. Their report provided the basis for preliminary design studies conducted in 1992–93. The initial 1980s plan extended along a corridor from Paris to Munich. However, the expected passenger traffic along this corridor was quite low, unlike Paris-Lyon and Paris-Brussels/London corridors, and a direct route crossed a region of eastern France far from any major urban area.
  In 1986, MP Marc Reymann submitted to the government a route that shared a common trunk line between the LGV Nord and LGV Est from Paris, through Charles de Gaulle Airport, to Soissons before forking into lines to Brussels (LGV Nord) and Strasbourg (LGV Est). In 1988, the German government agreed to a rail line from Paris to Frankfurt via Saarbrücken.
  The following year, Philippe Essig presented the route that would later be built and at the same time addressed the other problem: financing. This route, further north than previous proposals, served Reims and Strasbourg. In order to avoid offending the cities of Nancy and Metz, which share an ancient rivalry, and avoid problems encountered during the construction of the A4 autoroute twenty years earlier, this route traveled directly to Strasbourg and passed midway between Nancy and Metz, where a single station would be built to serve both towns and improve relations between them.
  Financing of this proposal called for contributions from local governments—a first in France for construction of a high-speed line—and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. This was a favorable financial arrangement for SNCF due to low ridership projections and because the population of the towns served were below a threshold for building a high-speed line. The complexity of financing resulted in the long delay of the project. Under the government of Pierre Beregovoy (French Prime Minister from 1992-1993), the government refused to contribute more than 25 billion francs to the project, and limited the route to Baudrecourt, to which the Alsace region threatened to withdraw its financial contribution to the project. After long delays under the successive governments, all wanting to limit the cost of the project, a two-phase project was finally accepted by all parties, provided that commitments were made for the quick completion of the second phase.
caption: French TGV network, with the LGV Est in brown running east from Paris
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