EITB 24 - France / March 15, 2007
French officials inaugurated a new high-speed train line Thursday aimed at slashing travel time between Paris and more than a dozen cities in Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland and northeast France.
President Jacques Chirac, hosting a lunch with contractors and other partners in the project, hailed a "major industrial success" with the new line for France's celebrated TGV high-speed trains.
Thursday's ceremony signaled an end to work on the line, though engineers will continue tests until June 10, when commercial service is expected to begin.
The 300-kilometer (186-mile) line will nearly halve the railway travel time between Paris and Strasbourg near the German border, to 2 hours, 20 minutes, from 3 hours, 50 minutes, railway officials said.
The line also will cut travel times between Paris and Luxembourg, the Swiss cities of Basel and Zurich, as well as Munich and Frankfurt in Germany.
The five-year project cost $3.13 billion (US$4.12 billion), funded by 22 partners including the French and Luxembourg Governments, the European Union, as well as train operators.
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