Trans Europ Express - Contraction and End

Contraction and End

From the late 1970s onward, gradually more and more Trans-Europe Express trains were replaced by other trains giving a similar kind of service but also carrying 2nd class. Business travellers used air travel more and more. In 1979 DB completely restructured the network with the coming of the new national InterCity services, resulting in successively fewer TEE services and more InterCity services in the course of time. The introduction of the TGV service in France in 1981, and its subsequent expansion, along with expansion of high-speed rail lines in other European countries led to still more TEEs' being replaced by domestic high-speed trains.

By 1984 most services were abandoned, leaving only some national services in (mostly) Italy and France and a very few international services. Most trains were replaced by a new international intercity network with the name EuroCity which provides both 1st and 2nd class service. The EuroCity network began operating on 31 May 1987, and with effect from that date the last remaining international Trans-Europe Express trains were redesignated or withdrawn, except the Gottardo (reclassified as EuroCity in September 1988), but the TEE designation continued in use for a few domestic trains operating entirely within France until 1 June 1991.

In September 1993 certain former-TEE trains operating non-stop journeys between Brussels and Paris (or vice-versa), which had been converted to EuroCity and offered both first- and second-class coaches, were rebranded as Trans-Europe Expresses, but remaining two-class trains. This was during a transition of Paris–Brussels express services to a new TGV alignment, and initially included the trains Brabant, Île de France, Rubens and Watteau, all four serving the route in both directions. However, by 1995 the only TEE-branded trains remaining were the northbound Île de France (train 85) and southbound Watteau (train 88), the opposing-direction trains carrying the same names having already been converted to TGV stock (and designation), and these last two TEEs were replaced by TGV trains with effect from 29 May 1995, once again ending the formal use of the Trans-Europ Express name. These few Paris–Brussels (or vice-versa) expresses, operated 1993-1995, were the only TEE-designated trains ever to carry second-class carriages. A few trains continued to utilise TEE coaches until 1 June 1996, but the trains themselves were no longer classified as TEEs.