Proposals for a Paris-Le Havre TGV Line

Description:

There are proposals to introduce a new high speed rail link between Paris and the Lower Normandy coast at Le Havre. through an extension to the TGV network. Normandy has no TGV line at all at present and President Sarkozy has announced a scheme to build a line as far as Le Havre as part of a 'Grand Paris' project.  The aim is to extend the Capital area to include the busy port of Le Havre at the mouth of the Seine.

The campaign, 'Pour une Normandie à Grande Vitesse' (For a high speed Normandy), has said that the link should be extended through Caen to Cherbourg.  Campaigners for PNGV, which is based in Lower Normandy, are demanding equal treatment for the Cherbourg-Paris route as for the Le Havre-Paris line.

It is planned for the Normandy TGV network to be completed by 2020.  It is hoped that the scheme will be approved during government debates which are due to start in 2011.