Contents of article "The TGV"
Perpignan - Barcelona in 50 mins
Perpignan - Barcelona in 50 mins
The creation of a new TGV (train à grande vitesse) line between Perpignan and Barcelona via le Perthus will make the journey so much faster and easier between France and Spain for both tourists and freight. At the moment, the journey time between the two towns is 2h45 - the expected time when the TGV is completed is 50 minutes!
Work is well underway on the tunnel which will take the TGV across the Pyrenees and into Spain. Built in Germany and transported to La Jonquera in separate pieces, the tunnel drilling equipment (le tunnelier) which is to pierce the first of the two ‘tubes’ of the 8.2 kilometre tunnel should be ready for action in June. The ’tunnelier’, aptly named the Tramontana, weighs about 2,300 tons and is more than 150 metres long. At the moment, it is being assembled by a team of German engineers so if you travel along the motorway or the main road from Le Perthus to La Jonquera, look out for the large ‘building site’, home to the heavy equipment which will eventually create the LGV (ligne à grande vitesse) through the Albères Mountains.
On Friday 8th July 2005, the symbolic ’first rail’ was placed, signalling the sealing of the contract to take the TGV to Barcelona as well as the modernisation of Perpignan’s rail provision.
The provisional date for the first train from Perpignan to enter the station at Barcelona is 17th February, 2009.
TGV works viewed from les Chartreuses - Feb 2007
TGV works (2) viewed from les Chartreuses - Feb 2007
Two years away from the day in 2009 when the first train from Barcelona should enter Perpignan, the constant roadworks and land torn up has become so much a part of the scenery in the Pyrenees Orientales that one hardly even notices anymore. In particular, the 45km between Perpignan and Figueres have proved challenging - 8.3km straight through the Alberes - and not so cheap at a mere billion euros!
Although the offical ’début’ for the opening of the line is February 2009, the trains are expected to start running well before that to test them out for the general public.
The Route
Perpignan - Le Soler - Toulouges - Ponteilla - Villemolaque - Banyuls-des-Aspres - Tresserre - Montesquieu - Le Perthus - La Jonquera - L’Estrada - Bosquero - Biure - Llers - Figueres
Between le Boulou and Argeles Feb 2007
The new bridge between le Boulou and Argeles Feb 2007
The Facts
In order for the TGV to achieve speeds of 350 km/hour, it must run on a special line, an ’LGV’ (ligne à grande vitesse) which must be straighter than a normal train track.
The section of the TGV line going from Perpignan to Figueres (or rather Le Soler - Llers) will be known as the ’section internationale’ on this LGV (ligne à grande vitesse) and is being constructed by a private company TP Ferro, branch of the Spanish group ACS whilst the other part of the track is being built by the French Eiffage group, which also built the Eiffel Tower and the Millau viaduct.
view from the bridge just after village Catalan looking towards Perpignan
view from the bridge road just after village Catalan looking towards Le Boulou
-Along the 25km of the track which will be known as ’la plate-forme de France’ (Le Soler as far as the tunnel at Montesquieu), there will be 39 viaducts, tunnels, bridges........ in other words, some kind of construction every 400m approximately.
Part of the contract states that all building work and subsequent construction should be landscaped and planted, so that the region does not continue to resemble a building site! Particular care has been taken in some areas to preserve the environment, for example in Toulouges where two large oaks have been replanted elsewhere, as they are home to large long-horned beetles.
Spanish trains drive on the right, French trains drive on the left! This has been solved by a ’saut de mouton’ (a sheep leap), one around Tresserre and another between Le soler and Toulouges, which allows the Spanish trains to leave the LGV and change to a French link line until the LGV is completed on to Montpellier.
- On the French side of the Alberes tunnel, 1.4 million square metres of earth were moved and more than 200 tons of explosives used to break through 800,000 square metres of rock.
The main road most effected by the TGV is the RD618 - Argeles to Le Boulou.
Digging is underway, roadside, just after village Catalan
The ’light at the end of the tunnel’ is expected by the end of this summer (2007) when the first of the ’tunneliers’ should break through the final rock layers of the Alberes into France. The two tunneliers, called Tramontane and Mistral, do not move quite as quickly as their namesakes!
Work has proceded more quickly on the Spanish side due to the fact that the Spanish are not terribly bothered to whom the land belongs - according to the DUP (Déclaration d’utililité publique), once it has been ’appropriated’ by the public services, Spanish land owners do not really have a say in the disposal of their land - wheras the French have to comply with permissions and land sale etc
June 2007
It’s official! The expected date for completion of the TGV between Perpignan and Barcelona is now 2012, three years later than promised.
It seems that the Spanish have decided to take the TGV UNDER Barcelona via a tunnel, rather than the original plan of taking it around the western side of the town. The present works are already proving a problem for the foundations of buildings such as Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, so the decision has been made to build a tunnel which is expected to be safer, but will take a further three years to complete. Perpignan to Figueras will be completed by 2009
It is likely that the Spanish company, TP Ferro, responsible for completing the Spanish part of the Perpignan-Barcelona TGV line on or before 17th February 2009, will have to pay penalties to TGV backers for not respecting the time limits. They, in turn, will be compensated by the Spanish government. It had been expected that 34 passenger trains and 24 freight trains would travel the line daily
