Lyria
| Lyria SAS
|
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Société par actions simplifiée |
| Seat | Paris, France |
| management | Fabien Soulet (Managing Director) |
| Branch | Rail transport |
| Website | https://www.tgv-lyria.com |
Lyria is a subsidiary of the Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF) and the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB), which operate the TGV connections between France and Switzerland . The SNCF holds 74% of the shares in the company under French law and with its registered office in Paris, while SBB holds 26%.
historical overview
From the summer of 1961, the long-distance train TEE Cisalpin (Trans Europ Express) (not to be confused with the later Cisalpino trains) connected Paris with Milan via Lausanne . In January 1984 the connection was discontinued and replaced between Paris Gare de Lyon and Lausanne by four three-system TGV trains operated jointly by SNCF and SBB , which were named Cisalpin , Champs-Élysées , Lemano and Lutetia . On May 31, 1987, this offer was assigned to the newly created EuroCity train type and supplemented with direct routes between Paris and Bern ; In the same year, a daily circulation was extended to Zurich for the first time.
On May 23, 1993 the economic interest group GIE "TGV France-Suisse" was founded with the aim of operating the Paris-Lausanne / Bern routes. The Paris – Geneva connection via Lyon has been part of the LGV Sud-Est connection within France since the start of operations in 1981 and initially remained unaffected. On September 28, 1997, the GIE trains “TGV France-Suisse” were given the brand name “Ligne de Cœur”. In 1999 the company was transformed into "Rail France Suisse SAS ". On March 4, 2002, "Rail France Suisse" finally became "Lyria", which also replaced the "Ligne de Cœur" as a brand name. Since January 2005, Lyria has also been responsible for marketing the Paris – Geneva TGV connection.
In the winter of 1995–1996, the connection to Lausanne was extended to Brig every Saturday in order to serve the winter sports resorts of the upper Rhone Valley in the canton of Valais.
On September 28, 1997, the connection to Lausanne and Bern was given the name "Ligne de Cœur". Nine trains were given a new visual identity, operations were reorganized and expanded. On March 4, 2002, the brand name "Lyria" replaced "Ligne de Cœur". Lyria’s offer was expanded in January 2005 to include the Paris – Geneva route. This connection, which has also recently been marketed by Lyria, was in fact the first route served by the TGV Sud-Est since it opened on September 27, 1981.
As of June 10, 2007, on the occasion of the opening of the high-speed link (LGV) Est européenne, Lyria expanded its existing offer to include the Paris – Zurich route via Strasbourg, Mulhouse and Basel. On December 10, 2007, the connection in winter was extended every Saturday to include the Zurich – Chur route and marketed under the name “TGV des Grisons”. However, this route extension was discontinued after two winters due to a lack of customers.
As part of the opening of the LGV Rhin-Rhône, the Paris – Zurich connection (at the expense of Strasbourg and Colmar) also served the city of Dijon from December 11, 2011, and the trains also stop at Besançon-Franche-Comté TGV and Belfort stations -Montbéliard TGV. In addition, the terminus of Paris was moved from Paris-Est to Paris Gare de Lyon. Since then, all Lyria connections have run from the same station.
Although Lyria had committed to serving the Paris – Bern route via Frasne, Pontarlier and Neuchâtel until December 2014, on July 3, 2013, it announced that it would be terminated in December 2013. The company cited a shortage of passengers since December 2011, but without any evidence that the route had suffered losses.
To save the route, 20,000 signatures were collected in December 2012 on both sides of the border.
Some emphasize that the suspension of the route ran counter to the decision of the Swiss parliament, which wants to maintain the connection between Switzerland and France via the Jura and Bern, especially Neuchâtel (see Federal Law on the LGV Connection, 742. 140.3).
In 2017, the so-called seasonal TGV des neiges to the winter sports resorts of the Vaudois Alps and Prealps (Montreux, Aigle) and the canton of Valais (Martigny, Sitten, Siders, Leuk, Visp and Brig) was switched between Lausanne and Valais for traffic regulation reasons discontinued until 2020. Nevertheless, you can still book a train ticket to these winter sports locations. For the remainder of the journey, all you have to do is change to an SBB train.
On December 15, 2019, on the occasion of the Lyria 2020 project, the previously operated daily route from Marseille to Geneva became a seasonal connection. It continues to serve the Aix-en-Provence TGV, Avignon TGV, Lyon Part-Dieu and Bellegarde stations. The direct connection TGV Lyria Bern – Paris (one round trip daily) has been canceled.
Development of traffic
- In 2005, Lyria passed the 3 million passenger mark on all connections for the first time.
- In 2007, Lyria carried more than 2 million international passengers for the first time.
- In 2008 Lyria carried 3.8 million passengers on its TGV trains, of which 2.2 million were international passengers.
- In 2009 Lyria carried 3.7 million passengers in its TGV trains (-0.85% / 2008), of which 2.2 million were international passengers.
- In 2010 Lyria carried 4 million passengers in its TGV trains (+ 10% / 2009), of which 2.3 million were international passengers11.
- In 2011 Lyria carried 4.32 million passengers in its TGV trains (+ 8% / 2009), of which 2.6 million or 63% were international passengers.
- In 2012, Lyria carried 5.2 million passengers on its TGV trains.
- In 2013, Lyria carried 5.8 million passengers on its TGV trains.
- In 2014 Lyria carried 5.5 million passengers on its TGV trains.
- In 2015, Lyria carried 5.4 million passengers on its TGV trains.
- In 2016, Lyria carried 5.1 million passengers on its TGV trains.
- In 2017, Lyria carried 5.1 million passengers on its TGV trains.
- In 2018, Lyria carried 4.5 million passengers on its TGV trains.
links
The following connections will be offered as TGV Lyria services in the 2020 timetable, with double-deck trains being used everywhere.
- Lausanne – Dijon – Paris (three circuits a day; about 3 hours 40 minutes travel time); three more connections via Geneva
- Geneva – Bourg-en-Bresse – Paris (eight round trips a day; minimum 3 hours 11 minutes travel time)
- Zurich – Basel – Mulhouse – Paris (six round trips a day; minimum 4 hours 04 minutes travel time)
- Geneva – Lyon-Part-Dieu – Marseille (a pair of trains during the summer months; travel time around 3 hours 25 minutes)
Through connections to Montpellier or Brig that were previously offered are no longer included in the 2020 timetable.
In the TGV Lyria three travel classes are offered for passengers: Standard, Standard 1ère, Business 1ère. There is an expanded range of restaurants on the trains, consisting of a bar car and on-site service in business class.
On the Geneva – Paris route, the average train load factor in 2008 was around 78 percent; the market share compared to aircraft is around 50 percent.
Rolling stock
Nine TGV Sud-Est (PSE) with three-system equipment were used for the connections to Lausanne and Bern that were established in 1984 . Of these nine TGV 110–118, seven belong to the SNCF and two to the SBB (TGV 112 and 114), the latter due to its stake in Lyria. In 2005 and 2006, all nine Lyria PSEs were modernized in line with the conventional two-system PSEs. These trains have not been used since December 2012 and have been shut down.
The maximum speed of the trains is 300 km / h (before modernization 270 km / h) on the PSE high-speed line between Valenton near Paris and Aisy in Burgundy , west of Dijon. Due to a technical limitation, the maximum speed when operating below 15 kV is only 160 km / h. This speed can only be extended in a few places in Switzerland.
Classic two-system trains are used for connections to Geneva, usually TGV PSE or two-story TGV Duplex .
The modern TGV POS (Paris-Eastern France-Southern Germany) with the numbers 4401–4419 (TGV 4406 belongs to the SBB) have operated on the Zurich – Basel – Strasbourg – Paris line since June 10, 2007 . These TGVs reached a top speed of 320 km / h on the new LGV Est européenne line . The interior design of these trains was created by the French fashion designer Christian Lacroix . Since December 2011, trains to Basel and Zurich have been running on the LGV Rhin-Rhône , where sections can also travel at 320 km / h.
From 2011, Lyria took over the 19 existing TGV POS that previously drove for Alleo to southern Germany. The trains were given a new paint job with the Lyria logo and the interior was modernized by 2015. Since 2012, the two- story TGV 2N2 “Euroduplex” with the numbers 4701–4730 have been operating on the Paris – Basel (–Zurich) route. These trains with 507 seats can transport more passengers than the single-story TGV POS with 355 seats. The intention of replacing all TGV POS there by the end of 2013 was not implemented by the operator Lyria at the time, because using its own TGV POS was cheaper for Lyria than using double-decker trains rented from SNCF.
At the beginning of 2018 it was announced that Lyria is modernizing its fleet and that at least the Paris – Basel / Zurich connection will be served exclusively by double-decker Euroduplex trains from 2020. At the end of January 2019, the 2N2 set 4720 in Lyria paintwork was presented. A total of 15 sets with 507 seats each were adapted for Lyria. From September 2019, the interior fittings of these sets were also modernized in a monthly cadence per train; the cars were equipped with WiFi. Since the timetable change in December 2019, these vehicles have been used on the Lyria network. No information was given about the future use of the 19 POS sets.
Network expansion
In 2009, the Vallorbe / Pontarlier – Dijon route was upgraded. A better power supply and stretched curves allow a higher travel speed, which enables a time gain of around 15 minutes between Paris and Bern / Lausanne.
An improvement took place in June 2009, which was achieved through the renewal of the conventional route in the Haut-Bugey between Bourg-en-Bresse and Bellegarde and resulted in savings of around 30 minutes between Geneva and Paris (the new travel time for Paris-Geneva is then only about three hours, similar to the Paris – Marseille route). The number of connections has been increased from seven to nine.
The new LGV Rhin-Rhône between Mulhouse and Dijon was commissioned at the end of 2011 and shortened the journey between Paris and Basel – Zurich by a further 30 minutes compared to the route via Strasbourg, so that Paris could then be reached from Zurich in four hours.
On Swiss soil, the new construction of the Rosshäuser tunnel on the Bern – Neuchâtel line , which went into operation at the end of 2018, would have saved 3 minutes between Bern and Paris and was financed with CHF 154 million from the fund for high-speed rail connections . However, since the timetable change in December 2013, the Bern – Paris connection has been routed via Basel; this reduced the travel time by 15 minutes.
With the commissioning of ETCS Level 2 between Pully and Villeneuve in April 2017, the seasonal weekend connections “Lyria des Neiges” and “Lyria d'été” to Valais were discontinued; Until 2020, the TGVs used will only be able to travel to Lausanne instead of Brig.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ SBB Annual Report 2008 ( Memento of December 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 4.0 MB), p. 128/144
- ↑ an economic interest group under French law, see fr: Groupement d'intérêt économique and en: Groupement d'intérêt économique
- ↑ TGV LYRIA - timetable from December 15, 2019 (PDF), at tgv-lyria.com
- ^ Brian Perren: High-speed rail gains from air . In: Modern Railways . Vol. 65, No. 719, 2008, ISSN 0026-8356 , p. 58 f.
- ↑ Lyria power cars for demolition . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 10, year 2013, ISSN 1421-2811 , p. 528.
- ↑ SNCF and SBB strengthen partnership: SBB invests 100 million in TGV trains. Archive bahnonline.ch, February 16, 2011
- ^ A b Peter Schenk: One storey instead of two storeys: It's getting tight on the way from Basel to Paris. In: bz Basel. November 18, 2013, accessed February 4, 2016 .
- ↑ Peter Schenk: Soon more space in the TGV: The Basel - Paris route is being upgraded a lot. In: Basellandschaftliche Zeitung. January 28, 2018, accessed March 23, 2020 .
- ^ First «Euroduplex» in the colors of TGV Lyria. In: finews.ch. Retrieved February 1, 2019 .
- ↑ TGV only runs via Basel to Paris , August 7, 2013, Der Bund