Transportation: France´s superfast train: The French National Railroad´s fleet of 260-km/h electrics competes favorably with the airlines between Paris and Lyons

Twenty years of experimentation in design has given France a new train that is superior to the automobile and airplane in speed, safety, comfort, and cost at distances up to 600 kilometers. It is cheaper to ride this train than to drive a car with two passengers over that distance. When the fuel costs for carrying passengers are figured, the train´s cost per passenger comes to only one seventh that per passenger on the Airbus, assembled in France by the European consortium Airbus Industrie. The train is the 260-kilometer-per-hour TGV (train a grande vitesse), in service since last September between Paris and Lyons and enormously popular with business travelers. The author first discusses the usage of the train, its competition to the airlines and its popularity with passengers. Then the author discusses how the train works and gives technical details.