On the Fast Track

For much of the postwar era, French society had a contradictory view of passenger trains, scorning them as quaint anachronisms on the one hand, yet also fearing their economic and social impact. All this changed with the introduction of the famed Train a Grande Vitesse (TGV) between Paris and Lyon in the early 1980s. In vivid detail, Meunier describes the political, economic, and social factors that both helped and hindered the development of the world's fastest, most technologically advanced train. The present-day enthusiasm in France for high-speed rail travel dates only to the successful launch of the now-famous TGV in 1981. This book is a full-length treatment of high-speed rail travel and features a comprehensive bibliography.

Table of Contents

Foreword; Introduction; The Postwar Recovery of the Railways, 1944-1960; Competition, 1947-1970; The Origins of High Speed Rail, 1950-1970; The Aerotrain: Origins and Failure, 1963-1975; The C03 Project: Proposal and Reception, 1965-1974; The Train a Grande Vitesse: Construction and Protest, 1974-1981; The Train a Grande Vitesse: Implementation, 1981-1983; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Author Biography

Jacob Meunier is a transportation analyst at Cambridge Systematics, Inc., a nationally-recognized consulting firm specializing in transportation planning, policy, and management.