the Rhin-Rhône High Speed Line

 

Regional railway connections along the Rhine-Rhône branch often involve long journey times. In addition, there are no direct high speed links at all between the regions of Alsace, Franche-Comté and Bourgogne and the regions of Rhône-Alps, Provence-Alps-Côte d’Azur, Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrenees.

Finally, the routing of freight trains along existing railway tracks within this corridor is nearing saturation point. The Rhine-Rhône high-speed railway line, in addition to its European dimension, will bring improvements to:

The East-West branch: between the Greater Paris region, Bourgogne, France-Comté, the south of Alsace and Switzerland.
The North-South branch: Alsace, Bourgogne, Franche-Comté, Languedoc-Roussillon, Lorraine, Midi-Pyrénées, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Rhône-Alpes, etc.

In total:

12 of the 21 mainland French regions will benefit from the project.
At a European level, the plans will in particular affect Germany, Switzerland (German- and French-speaking areas), the UK, Belgium and the Mediterranean Arc.
 

The main aims of the Rhin-Rhône High Speed Line are to:

Create an effective link in the European and French high speed networks,
Allow the routing of European and French freight traffic,
Increase numbers of services to the areas concerned.
 

Eastern branch :
190km of new track (140km in works for the first phase), from Dijon to Mulhouse.
Map of the Eastern branch of the Rhin-Rhône High Speed Line (PDF, 312 kb)

Western branch:
From Dijon to the Paris-Lyon high speed line.
Map of the Western branch of the Rhin-Rhône High Speed Line (PDF, 192 kb)

Southern branch:
Intersection with 2 other branches towards Lyon.
Map of the Southern branch of the Rhin-Rhône High Speed Line (PDF, 360 kb)

Map of the Rhin-Rhône High Speed Line (PDF, 460 kb)
 

The cost of the work on the Eastern line is estimated at €2,312 billion.
 

The Eastern branch project is supported by 20 joint funders, in addition to Réseau Ferré de France: the European Union, Switzerland, the French government, regions, departments and the territorial collectivities of the regions through which the line will pass. 

Eastern branch:
July 2006: Work started
End of 2011: Planned opening.