Two billion passengers have been carried by the TGV High Speed Train in France since its launch in 1981.

SNCF started high speed activity in 1981. That year, the volume of passengers was limited because the service started in September (only four months of operation that year) and the section of high speed line in service was only half of Paris to Lyon. Nevertheless, 1.3 million passengers were carried by TGV.

In 1982 the figure was more than 6 million and in 1984, the first full year of operation in which the full Paris to Lyon high speed line was in service, this volume rose to 14 million.
The number of high speed services progressively increased in France and before the end of the decade – in 1989 – 100 million passengers had travelled by TGV.

In 2004, the number of passengers hit one billion (cumulative total) and in 2007 the annual volume reached 100 million for the first time.

Today, in early 2013, SNCF carries about 125 million passengers per year and for the first time the French high speed train operator can be proud in acknowledging that at least 2 billion passengers (equivalent to one third of the Earth’s population) has already travelled by TGV.

According to SNCF’s President Guillaume Pepy the third billion is expected by 2021, but it is possible that this figure may be reached before then.
And all these passengers were and will certainly be travelling in complete safety, and will be saving energy and natural resources...

Congratulations to all the people who have made it possible to achieve this impressive success.