Grande Ceinture line
| Ligne de Grande Ceinture | |
|---|---|
| Overview | |
| Type | Freight |
| Operation | |
| Opened |
Construction from 1875, |
| Technical | |
| Line length | 157 kilometres (98 mi) |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) |
Construction from 1875,
The Grande Ceinture line (French - Ligne de Grande Ceinture) is a railway line round Paris 15 km from the Boulevard Périphérique. The decision to build it was taken at the end of the 19th century, to connect the radial lines linking the capital to the provinces and to relieve the existing Ligne de Petite Ceinture.
The Grande Ceinture is now entirely dedicated to freight traffic in its northern and eastern section between Sartrouville and Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, linking up the western (Normandy), northern (Picardie, Benelux, Great Britain), east (Lorraine, Alsace, Germany) and south-eastern and south-western routes and their extensions into Italy, Switzerland and Spain, and the connections between the different factories of Île-de-France. It linked up the marshalling yards of Achères, Villeneuve-Saint-Georges and Bourget until the closure of the first two of these in 2005-2006. Intense traffic (more than 200 trains a day) on certain sections, notably in Seine-Saint-Denis, are at saturation level.
To the west, a short section, between Sartrouville and Achères, is used in common with the Paris-Rouen line, and with one of the branches of RER A.
The southern section, between Versailles-Chantiers and Juvisy is also used by suburban trains (RER C) and TGV services (Le Havre-Rouen-Lyon-Marseille link).
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