Rail transport in France is mostly operated by SNCF, the French national railway company. France has the second largest European railway network, with a total of 29,901 kilometers of railway. However, the railway system is a small portion of total travel, accounting for less than 10% of passenger travel.
Since 1981, the SNCF has operated the TGV service, a high-speed rail network which has been consistently expanded in subsequent years.
France is a member of the International Union of Railways (UIC). The UIC Country Code for France is 87.
Read more about Rail Transport In France: History, Exploitation, The Network, Material, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words rail, transport and/or france:
“Old man, it’s four flights up and for what?
Your room is hardly any bigger than your bed.
Puffing as you climb, you are a brown woodcut
stooped over the thin rail and the wornout tread.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“One may disavow and disclaim vices that surprise us, and whereto our passions transport us; but those which by long habits are rooted in a strong and ... powerful will are not subject to contradiction. Repentance is but a denying of our will, and an opposition of our fantasies.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“I shall not bring an automobile with me. These inventions infest France almost as much as Bloomer cycling costumes, but they make a horrid racket, and are particularly objectionable. So are the Bloomers. Nothing more abominable has ever been invented. Perhaps the automobile tricycles may succeed better, but I abjure all these works of the devil.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)