SNCF Line Chart 752 LGV Paris-SE Paris-Lyon-Marseille

SNCF Line Chart 752 LGV Paris-SE Paris-Lyon-Marseille (752/1) The twenty-year history of France s first high-speed line has been marked by a number of route modifications as the line was progressively extended southwards and then connected at its northern end to the Jonction LGV which offered a new exit from Paris. When the line opened in 1981 TGVs followed the old PLM route for almost 30 km, to Lieusaint. From the junction here (still the zero point for the line as a whole) the LGV remained on the high ground to the west of the Seine valley, skirting on level gradients round the town of Melun. This route into and out of Paris is still used occasionally as a diversion, and TGVs are booked over it at certain peak periods when there are capacity problems through Coubert. (For profile see Chart 830/1) But most trains now run on the old formation from the Gare de Lyon only as far as the Pompadour sub-station in Créteil. The new LGV route turns eastwards here and climbs immediately to cross over the Grande Ceinture, where a connection allows trains to/from the LGV Atlantique to join the LGV-SE en route to Lyon or the north-east via the Jonction LGV. The line leaves the Seine valley and climbs onto the Brie plateau with a sharp rise through Limeil-Brévannes tunnel, a dip at the end of Villcresnes tunnel and another rise to PK 12, after which it continues at around 100m altitude to Coubert. These sharp undulations through the long tunnels associated with the change in MPS make it very difficult to determine speeds with accuracy over this stage of the run. Coubert West, the junction to the northern part of the Jonction LGV, is situated at PK 21.56, where the LGV-SE begins a long 90 curve that takes it southwards through Coubert South to Crisenoy where the new and old routes join at PK 17 from Lieusaint. MPS rises here to 300 km/h. (Our speed profiles for charts 752/1 and 752/2 show differential limits before and after modernization work; in fact these now correspond to limits for the majority of TGV sets (MPS 300) and for the few TGV-SE sets still limited to 270 km/h and mostly used on services via Dijon.) As far as PK 40 the line continues southwards over the almost level Brie plain but then drops sharply to cross the Seine and, like the nearby PLM line, follow the valley of the Yonne south-eastwards. At PK 46 the classic line and the LGV are less than a mile apart, with the river between them. A gently undulating profile follows as the line remains close to the river as far as PK 85, after which it cuts across the hills of the Othe forest which force the Yonne and the PLM line to make a long detour westwards. This cut-off involves the first short climb at the 35 ruling gradient, between PKs 86 and 88, and a sharp descent from 103 to 107. These steep grades impose 270 kph restrictions, at PK 90 going up and at PK 102-3 in the down direction. (752/2) At PK 117 the LGV crosses the PLM line and begins the long broken climb that takes it first onto the Auxois plateau east of Auxerre and then over the Morvan hills heart of the Burgundy region and watershed between the North Sea, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The climb is first interrupted by an undulating section between PK 146-156 followed by a short sharp ascent site, in the up direction, of the 1981 speed record of 380 kph. This rise takes the line over the 300m contour for the first time, at PK 159, and it remains at around this altitude through Pasilly, where the connection to the old line at Aisy branches off. (The connection undulates at around 300m to a 330m-summit at PK 10, then plunges to just over 200m at PK 15 before joining the PLM line.) The second major break in the climb comes at PK 175 where the profile nosedives again into the valley of a small but significant river, the Serein. The low point of the dip is at Toutry (PK 182), but the river is not actually crossed until PK 192, beyond a much more visible landmark, the A6 motorway (PK 185.35). The line is now well launched on the final stages of its assault on the Morvan. The 400m contour is crossed at PK 198, a first summit of 470m is encountered at PK 207.5, and the highest point of the line (alt 488.7m) is reached at PK 218. Because of tighter curves on this hilly section speed is limited to 270 km/h between PKs 205-226. 80 metres are lost in 4 km after PK 218, but then the line descends more gently to almost 300m to cross the Trévoux and Arroux rivers whose waters, somewhat surprisingly, end up in the Atlantic by way of the Loire. At PK 253.5 the line crosses another river, the Digoine, that despite its small size requires a substantial viaduct - also the starting point of a steep climb to a sharp summit at PK 256 and the beginning of another, much longer 270-km/h stretch that continues until beyond Macon. After a slightly higher but more rounded hump at PK 260 the line drops again, dipping to just under 300m as it approaches Le Creusot-Montchanin station. (752/3)

Another sharp summit follows at PK 278.5 (a considerable handicap to trains leaving Le Creusot) and the line then finally leaves the Morvan hills and heads for the valley of the Saône. Two more obstacles, however, remain to be overcome: the hump at Curtil (PK 294.5) and the Col du Bois Clair. These are both isolated gables in the profile caused by low hills that a traditional line would have gone round or through but that the LGV strides over, though it needs the ruling gradient of 35 to do so. From the 381m altitude of Bois Clair the line falls almost 200m in 14 km as it enters the valley of the Saône at Mâcon. The Mâcon area is extremely congested, for after the station at PK 334 the line crosses a motorway at 335.2, the PLM main line at PK 336 (with a single-line connection used by TGVs between Metz/Dijon and the south see diagram) and then the flood plain of the Saône on a long viaduct between 337 and 338 also the origin of the spur to Pont-de-Veyle on the Macon-Bourges line, used by trains to Geneva and to the Alps via Aix-les-Bains. 300-km/h running becomes possible again after the PRS at PK 342, but the presence of a neutral section means that trains have little chance of reaching this speed before the climb out of the Saône valley at PK 351-5. Gradients then undulate between altitudes of 240-290m to Montanay, where trains for Lyon leave the main line. At Sathonay the Lyon branch of the LGV joins the secondary line from Bourges to Lyon which descends almost 100m in the 5 km between Sathonay and Lyon-St-Clair as it winds down the narrow spur between the Saône and Rhône valleys. (752/4a) Meanwhile the main LGV, having risen to a summit of 308m after Miribel, at PK 392, makes a spectacular descent into the Rhône valley. The river here is at the northern edge of its flood plain, hard against the southern ramparts of the Dombes plateau; the LGV tunnels through these ramparts and crosses the river and associated canal on a long curving viaduct inclined at 35 down. It then runs southwards over a marshy plain to St-Exupéry station (Satolas airport). Henceforth the LGV is oriented slightly west of south, getting gradually closer to the north-south axis of the Rhône valley south of Lyon. To the east are the foothills of the Alps, and the railway therefore cuts right across the grain of the landscape, intersecting a series of small valleys that run westwards towards the Rhône. So after a gentle climb (max 25 ) from St-Exupéry to St-Quentin, the profile becomes mountainous in the extreme. From a minor summit just short of PK 416 the line descends through the complex of junctions at St-Quentin and the crossing of the Lyon-Grenoble line (see diagram). Trains from Lyon joining the LGV at St-Quentin need to apply full power at once, though, for there is a climb with stretches at 33-35 from 270m at PK 418 to almost 400 at Diémoz, the ascent being broken by a short breather between PK 421-423. Gradients on the following descent are not so steep, max 25, but the line nevertheless dips to almost 300m at PK 437 before climbing at 35 over Savas viaduct to PK 437.7 and dropping again to Meyssiez viaduct, just north of the tunnel of the same name. Climbing resumes through the tunnel, steepening to 35 again for the final 3 km to Primarette summit. The following descent is the most severe in the whole of the LGV network, with 4km down at 35 followed by another five averaging 12.5 (max 27 ) to beyond Lapeyrouse. The roller-coaster ride is not yet over, for the line climbs (max 34.5 ) to a minor summit at St- Sorlin, falls a little and then rises again to a slightly lower summit in Galaure tunnel. Then it plunges once more, with 2.7 km at 35, into the Galaure valley. Undulating grades lead to a final ridge of hills at Claveyson-Brem, after which the line descends the valley of the Herbasse towards the Isère. After crossing the river the line rises slightly to St-Marcel. A chord here provides a link to the Grenoble-Valence line; Valence TGV station is located at the point where this route crosses over the LGV. (752/4b) TGVs leaving Lyon Part-Dieu for the south pass under the PLM main line from Perrache at Guillotière, then turn and climb sharply to join it briefly before turning off on the Grenoble line. This involves three different post sequences: PLM from Paris via Part Dieu, ditto via Perrache, and then the Lyon- Grenoble posts - all on the down side. Line voltage changes from 1500 V DC to 25kV only after Chandieu; the neutral section is on a 15 up gradient and TGVs do not always have time to get back to line speed before encountering a second neutral separating the Grenoble line from the LGV. The southbound connection here is the longest and most tortuous of the St-Quentin junction links, as it climbs to pass over the Grenoble line, curves to cross the up LGV and the up Grenoble-LGV connection and then descends between the up and down LGV lines to join the latter after fully 3.2 kms independent existence. The northbound link, on the contrary, is the most direct and the difference between up and down routes is as much as 353 metres. 752/5 At Valence the LGV is still some way east of the Rhône, which it will not join for another 70 km. So it climbs gently at first over the foothills of the Vercors plateau to a summit at PK 519 which is followed by a sharp drop into the valley of the Drôme and, inevitably, another steep climb to the tunnel through the Tartaiguille hills at almost 300m. The subsequent descent is partly at 35. Ahead lies a broader valley,

that of the Roubion, and then still higher ground. So the LGV finally resolves to edge a little further westwards towards the Rhône valley. Near PK 550 it joins the A7 motorway where the latter is climbing to avoid Montélimar; road and railway cross two minor summits (PK 552, 560) before descending into the valley proper. For the next 50 km bridges and viaducts become more apparent than gradients and tunnels. At La Garde-Adhémar the LGV crosses the motorway and the adjacent canal with a double bow-string girder bridge; the distance is given for the centre-point between the two spans. At Lapalud the PLM main line is crossed again, with connections; then between Mondragon and Mornas the LGV cuts across a loop of the Rhône with long viaducts and two bow-string spans across the river itself. At Roquemaure the line crosses to the right bank of the Rhône, tunnelling through a fold in the hills bordering the river and then climbing onto the Angles plateau before making a spectacular approach to Avignon. The northern junction for the Nîmes branch is situated in a rocky cutting on the climb to the plateau; the line then makes a long left-hand curve, descending to cross the Rhône on one of two long metallic viaducts (the other being the southern connection to the Nîmes branch), with views up the river to the town of Avignon on the left. Non-stop trains reach high maxima here on account of the gradients (max 35 ), but GPS users should beware: the structure of the viaduct scatters signals and produces false readings. Avignon TGV station is situated due south of the town at a point where the line is oriented east-west. 752/6 The start from Avignon is downhill at first, as the LGV dips to pass under the PLM tracks just before they cross the Durance (and the tunnel and gradient mean that up stopping trains approach the platforms at Avignon TGV almost blind). The LGV remains close to the Durance for another 40 km; there is one short tunnel through a rocky outcrop in a bend of the river and any number of viaducts which are, however, all very low indistinct structures. After Sénas river and railway separate. A first range of hills is crossed with two tunnels and a pronounced summit at PK 671, then another climb takes the line up to a still higher summit on the windswept Eguilles hills at PK 684. Southbound minima here are often low, as the steepest part of the climb coincides with a neutral section and drivers sometimes have power off already for the 270 kph limit at PK 685. This is motivated by the following descent another of the viaduct spectaculars which are frequent on this line. The viaduct this time is the longest of all the tall structures on the LGV with a length of 1733m, carrying TGVs high over the A8 motorway. After a slight kink in the profile the descent continues into the valley of the Arc; the aqueduct visible to the west here is not the Roman Pont du Gard but the nineteenth-century Roquefavour aqueduct. Finally a more gentle climb takes the LGV onto the Arbois plateau where Aix-en-Provence TGV station is situated. Three kilometres south of the station the line enters the very long tunnel which runs through the hills enclosing Marseille on the north a counterpart to the long Nerthe tunnel on the PLM line, which the LGV joins immediately on leaving its own tunnel. 752/7 The Nîmes branch leaves the main LGV on the rocky plateau west of Avignon. It climbs to Saze where the southern branch comes up from the viaduct over the Rhône, and then descends gradually over rather featureless countryside towards the valley of the Gardon at a point where the latter is winding down towards the Rhône (which at PK 18 is only a couple of kilometres south of the LGV). A series of rather indistinct viaducts carry the line across the Briançon and the Gardon, but only two overbridges offer any clear landmarks before Redessan. Here for the present time the LGV comes to an end. It is of course planned to continue westwards, so the link to the old line at Manduel is posted separately from zero just after Redessan SEI. The layout here is complicated by the presence between the up and down link tracks of sidings for works trains, but there are probably only a few metres difference between the two directions. The situation of the south-to-west TGV link at Angles is much more complex as the southbound route uses burrowing junctions at both its western and southern ends. No reliable distance figures have yet been obtained for this connection. Posts are on the east (down) side throughout, with no discontinuities. Note the unusual situation at St-Quentin, where the links between the LGV and the Lyon-Grenoble line are not posted separately but with LGV distances. This is true even of the trailing connection from the Lyon direction to the LGV southbound, which has 416, 417 and 418 posts which are not in fact at those distances from anywhere, but 3, 2 and 1 km short of the true PK 419 where this link joins the LGV. Junction diagrams

Junction diagrams

LGV-SE route distances down These tables show cumulative distances from/to Paris Gare de Lyon via the LGV-SE (charts 752) to points on the high-speed line between Paris and Marseille, and to major points on the old network that are reached by TGVs via the LGV-SE; i.e. Dijon, Bourg-en-Bresse, Lyon-Part-Dieu and Toulon; also distances between Lyon and the southern part of the LGV. For distances to/from the LGV Jonction (Marne-la-Vallée) and to/from the west via Massy LGV and Massy Palaiseau, see Paris Interconnection distance chart. To avoid cumulative rounding errors these tables are calculated and presented to three places of decimals. As posts are on the down side throughout the distances shown should be accurate for southbound journeys. Posts and distances not actually on the main Paris-Marseille route are in italics (this includes the «virtual» LGV PK at St-Quentin!). NB: not included in this table for reasons of space and clarity is the connection at Macon from the PLM line to the LGV south, used by trains between Metz/Dijon and the south see diagram. The distance between Lyon Part-Dieu and Macon PLM via the LGV is 66.696 km northbound, 66. 955 southbound. Point First series PK New series PK Distance from Distance from Lyon Paris Part-Dieu Paris Gare de Lyon buffs 00.000 00.000 Créteil 9.351 00.000 09.351 Bif Lieusaint 29.426 00.000 29.426 Crisenoy 17.090 46.516 via Lieusaint Crisenoy 39.404 17.090 48.755 via Coubert* Bif Pasilly dn 161.746 01.255 193.411 Bif Aisy (PLM) 16.421 235.956 208.577 DIJON 314.208 286.829 LE CREUSOT-MONTCHANIN 273.816 305.481 MACON TGV 333.977 365.642 Bif Macon dn 337.888 00.147 369.553 Bif Pont de Veyle 6.028 07.289 375.434 BOURG-EN-BRESSE 37.012 405.157 Bif Montanay 380.500 380.500 412.165 Sathonay 389.314 13.528 420.979 LYON PART-DIEU 5.030 429.477 LYON ST-EXUPÉRY 409.705 441.370 LYON PART-DIEU 507.505 00.000 Bif Guillotière Sud 511.602 514.235 04.097 Bif de Grenoble 515.080 04.165 04.942 Bif St-Quentin N 416.647 448.312 Bif St Quentin E 418.531 24.732 450.196 GRENOBLE 130.538 556.002 CHAMBÉRY (via St-André) 106.363 531.827 Bif St-Quentin W 21.975 415.863 22.752 Bif St Quentin S dn 419.082 450.747 25.971 Bif Valence 493.427 525.092 100.316 Bif St-Marcel dn 495.917 9.986 527.582 102.806 VALENCE VILLE 00.000 537.568 112.792 VALENCE TGV 495.464 527.129 102.353 Bif Angles N 618.147 00.000 649.812 225.036 Bif Redessan 25.059 00.000 674.871 250.095 Bif Manduel 3.238 15.726 678.109 253.333 NÎMES 27.150 689.533 264.757 AVIGNON TGV 625.162 656.827 232.051 AIX-EN-PROVENCE TGV 699.140 730.805 306.029 End LGV 711.007 854.580 742.672 317.896 Bif Chartreux 860.257 748.349 323.573 Blancarde 862.762 3.258 750.854 326.078 TOULON 66.982 814.578 389.802 MARSEILLE buffs 862.090 750.182 325.406 * All further distances are via Coubert. For runs via Lieusaint, subtract 2.239 km. For up direction see next sheet

LGV-SE route distances up In this direction distances from points lying off the LGV are shown only to the LGV junction PK or the next significant LGV point. To avoid cumulative rounding errors these tables are calculated and presented to three places of decimals. However, as the flying junctions at Manduel, Angles, and south of Lyon for the line from Grenoble/St- Quentin have separately posted or unposted northbound branches for which precise figures are not available, distances through these junctions do not correspond to that level of accuracy. There may be very slight differences at Manduel; Angles north going north is certainly shorter than the posted distance by some 50-80 metres; Bif Grenoble south of Lyon involves an extra 50 metres approximately for northbound trains. Posts and distances not actually on the main Paris-Marseille route are in italics (this includes the «virtual» LGV PK at St-Quentin!). Point First series PK New series PK Distance from Distance from Others Marseille Lyon P-D MARSEILLE buffs 862.090 00.000 From Toulon TOULON 66.892 00.000 Blancarde 3.258 862.762 63.724 Bif Chartreux 860.257 01.833 66.229 End LGV 854.580 711.007 07.510 AIX TGV 699.140 19.377 AVIGNON TGV 625.162 93.355 From Nîmes NÎMES 27.150 00.000 Bif Manduel 15.726 03.238 11.424 Bif Redessan 00.000 25.059 14.662 Bif Angles N 00.000 618.147 100.370 (39.65)# VALENCE TGV 495.464 223.053 From Valence VALENCE VILLE 00.000 00.000 Bif St-Marcel up 09.442 496.361 09.442 Bif Valence dn 493.427 225.090 12.376 Bif St-Quentin S up 418.724 299.793 Bif St-Quentin W up 416.383 22.440 302.134 Bif Grenoble 4.165 515.080 (320.54)# Bif Guillotière S 514.235 511.602 (321.38)# LYON PART-DIEU 507.505 (325.48)# From Grenoble GRENOBLE 130.538 00.000 CHAMBÉRY 106.363 Bif St-Quentin E up 26.090 419.962 104.448* Bif St-Quentin ex Gren up 417.938 300.579 106.472* LYON ST-EXUPÉRY 409.705 308.812 114.705* LYON PART-DIEU 5.030 00.000 Sathonay 13.528 389.314 08.498 Bif Montanay 380.500 338.017 17.312 From Bourg BOURG-EN-BRESSE 37.012 00.000 Bif Pont de Veyle 7.689 6.426 29.323 Bif Macon up 0.000 337.741 380.776 60.071 35.749 MACON TGV 333.977 384.540 63.835 LE CREUSOT-M CHANIN 273.816 444.701 123.996 From Dijon DIJON 314.208 00.000 Bif Aisy (PLM) up 235.965 16.446 78.243 Bif Pasilly up 0.000 160.516 558.001 237.296 94.689 Crisenoy 17.090 701.427 380.722 Bif Lieusaint 00.000 29.426 718.517 397.812 Crisenoy 39.404 701.427 380.722 Créteil 0.000 9.351 740.831 420.126 via Coubert 738.592 (418.55)# via Lieusaint PARIS GARE DE LYON buffs 0.000 750.182 429.477 via Coubert 747.943 (427.90)# via Lieusaint # Less precise distances on account of unposted flying junctions and up line curve at Villeneuve-St-George (+660m approximately) * For distances from Chambéry, subtract 24.175.