Высокоскоростная железная дорога LGV Méditerranée во Франции

French high speed railway

The LGV Méditerranée (French: Ligne à Grande Vitesse; English: Mediterranean high speed line) is a French high speed rail line running from north to south between Saint Marcel lès Valence, Drôme and Marseille, Bouches du Rhône, also featuring a connection to Nîmes, Gard to the west. It connects the regions of Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur and Occitanie to the LGV Rhône Alpes and from there onto Lyon and the north of France. Construction costs rose to €3.8 billion; the line entered service in 2001 following an official opening by President Jacques Chirac. The commencement of service on the line has led to a reversal of the respective airplane and train markets: by making Marseille reachable in three hours from Paris—a distance of over —the train now handles two thirds of all journeys on that route. LGVs Méditerranée, Rhône Alpes and Sud Est, when completed, also received their official nickname, the City To Coast (C2C) Highway ("Ville à la Mer"). The line features the Tunnel de Marseille, allowing it to enter Marseille underground, the longest railway tunnel wholly located in France, at 7.8 km (4.8 mi).

The LGV Méditerranée begins in the southeast at Saint Marcel lès Valence, as the extension of the LGV Rhône Alpes. The new Valence TGV station lies at the interchange with the regular Valence–Grenoble line, allowing rapid connections towards Valence, Romans sur Isère and Grenoble. At Crest, an emergency link is provided to the Briançon–Loriol line. The LGV then approaches the Rhône, rejoining the A7 autoroute at Montélimar. After crossing the Canal de Donzère Mondragon, the line connects to the regular network by an emergency link situated between Pierrelatte and Lapalud. Spanning the Rhône three times (twice at Mornas, once north of Roquemaure), the LGV continues to Les Angles, where a triangle allows access to the southwest and southeast. The southwest branch is generally thought of as the beginning of a future LGV Languedoc Roussillon, joining the regular Avignon–Nîmes line later at Redessan and since 2017 the LGV Nîmes–Montpellier. The southeast branch crosses the Rhône again on two parallel viaducts and serves the new Avignon TGV station, then follows the Durance which it crosses at Orgon. At Ventabren, a viaduct extends across the A8 autoroute, the D10 and the Canal de Provence. The line then dives southward, serving the new Aix en Provence TGV station, traverses the long Tunnel de Marseille and re joins the regular network at the entry to Marseille.