New French suggestion: Lille Europe (via LGV)/ Calais Ville to Rang du Fliers The route have 155km/96 mi (94 km for LGV Lille Europe - Calais Ferthun and 61 km for Calais Ville - Rang du Fliers) , 17 stations and is electrified at 25 kV 50Hz. A big project ! The period would be in the 2010s, between 2011 and 2017, when TER Nord Pas De Calais was managing the line. It's a route that mixes high-speed line and classic line a bit like SEHS DLC but bigger compared to SEHS. The line would be 5 km shorter than DLG so theoretically it would be possible. The 94km of the LGV Nord is just a few trees and plains, so there's practically nothing to model, and it will cost less in performance than a route in the middle of a city, for example and with a maximum speed of 300 km/h, you'll travel from Calais Fréthun to Lille Europe and vice versa in 30 minutes. On the Calais Fréthun - Rang du Fliers section, the classic route, the maximum speed is 140 km/h and Calais Ville - Calais Fréthun is 100km/h for a journey time of approximately 1 hour for Calais Ville - Rang du Fliers. Despite its length of route (LGV and classic) , it has a reasonable journey time. In terms of scenery in the classic route section, it's rural with some plains, fields and villages/few small towns when you arrive at stations. The route offers a variety of services: TGV, TERGV, Intercité, regional and local services. So if you like driving at high speed with a variety of services, this route is for you. What is the TERGV? The TERGV for TER à Grande Vitesse/TER High Speed in English is the merger of TER and TGV, it is a TER using TGVs for their TER services and using the LGV Nord to be faster than by taking the classic routes, a unique case in France. So yeah a TGV which acts like a TER. List of Stations : LGV Nord : Lille Europe Calais Fréthun (Note : Trains coming from Lille Europe and continuing towards Rang du Fliers must reverse direction, and it's same for Rang du Fliers -> Lille Europe) Classic Route : Calais Ville Les Fontinettes Calais Fréthun Pihen Caffiers Le Haut Banc Marquise Rinxent Wimile - Wimereux Boulogne Tintelleries Boulogne Ville (or also named Boulogne sur Mer) Pont de Briques Hesdignuel Neufchâtel-Hardelot Dannes - Camiers Étaples le Touquet Rang-du-Fliers - Verton Rolling Stock and Service : - TGV Réseau in its Atlantique and Carmillion livery which operated the TERGV service : (Arras -) Lille Europe - Calais Fréthun - Boulogne Ville - Étaples Le Touquet - Rang du Fliers : 1h30 And (normal) TGV service : Calais Ville - Calais Fréthun - Lille Europe (- Paris Gare du Nord) : 45 min Atlantique Livery (the famous one ) Carmillion Livery It will be great to finally have a route where we can fully operate the TGV with multiple stops and long distance route for a journey time of 1h30. - BB 67400 + Corail in Intercité Livery Intercity Service : Calais Ville - Boulogne Ville - Étaples Le Touquet - Rang du Fliers (- Paris Gare du Nord) : 50 min Trains coming from Paris could terminate in Boulogne Ville. Despite electrification, a diesel locomotive like BB 67400 was used because beyond Rang-du-Fliers to Amiens the line wasn't electrified (and it still isn't) but from Amiens to Paris Gare du Nord was and is still electrified so the locomotive changed in Amiens for an electric locomotive: BB 22000 to continue until Gare du Nord, one locomotive change is always better than two, so it's best to only change at Amiens. - B 82500 in TER Nord-Pas-de-Calais Livery Regional Service : Calais Ville - Marquise Rinxent - Boulogne Tinttelleries - Boulogne Ville - Étaples Le Touquet - Rang du Fliers (- Amiens) : 55 min - 1h A BMU who is dual current (25 kV 50 Hz AC and 1,500 V DC) and have diesel engines. So it can easily complete it full run without any problems, unlike the Intercity train. - Z 24500 in TER Nord-Pas-de-Calais Livery Local Service : All stations between Calais Ville and Rang du Fliers : 1h05 - 1h10 An electric double-decker train; it finish at Rang-du-Fliers because, as I said, beyond that point, up to Amiens, the line is not electrified. Possible Loco DLC : TGV TMST/Class 373 In SNCF livery , TERGV Service Until 2015, it operated TERGV services with TGV Réseau. That could be good for the TERGV service and Eurostar services between Lille Europe and Calais Fréthun and that could also be a good addition for SEHS. Cab ride for Rang du Fliers - Calais ville (at 1:08:10 until the end of video) : Cab ride Calais Ville - Lille Europe (LGV Nord) : For my other suggestions, click on the "France" tag below the title.
It's true that there are similarities with the SEHS. With this mix of high-speed and regional trains, this route could appeal to a lot of people. And besides, it's not far from England !
If this route goes out, it probably never...in any case, not in the near future... but we still believe we'll have something to do with a Eurostar from Lille to London at least, even though I know that many are not interested because of the Channel Tunnel but personally, I'm interested, the only high-speed only route that I would like to see
The same for me ! After all it's not much different from a subway route and we'd have an international network !
I edited my suggestion because I noticed some errors a little late : First, my disastrous geography.. I confused Picardie and Nord-Pas-de-Calais, so it wasn't TER Picardie that managed the line, but TER Nord-Pas-de-Calais. Secondly, regarding the line size, the problem with Wikipedia is that it also includes tracks that are no longer used (at all or because the train doesn't pass through them), thus skewing the calculations. And finally, the Intercity service was operated by BB 67400 diesel locomotives and not BB 22000s, why? I added it at my suggestion.
