Transport Expertise Association

English publications…

Spain: first HSR network by 2015?

A quick note today to announce that Spain opened the final segment of the High Speed Rail line between Madrid and Malaga, in the South of the country.
The new €2.5 billion infrastructure linking Cordoue and Malaga was mainly financed by the European Union and brings the Spanish network to around 1,000 kilometers of HSR lines. [...]

No more airports for France: we are not sure yet…

Environmental issues are being widely discussed in France since President Sarkozy launched “Le Grenelle Environnement” (Environment Round Table), basically six workgroups discussing ecological and sustainable development issues to define government policies for the next five years.
Among the decisions that were taken at the end of October, the President announced that road and airport projects would [...]

SNCF: up to EUR 9 billion worth of HSR trains

Following-up with the article about the TGV which will top 360 kph in commercial speed (see here), I recently read that SNCF, the French railway operator, will have to replace most of the rolling stock operated since the 1980’s. SNCF plans to replace around 15 to 20 TGV trains per year between 2014 and 2020, [...]

Carpooling: from a free beginning until… an expensive end?

What is carpooling and why should people carpool?
Carpooling has many names in the United States: car-sharing, ride-sharing, lift-sharing, and so on… It basically consists in the shared use of a vehicle (a car, sometimes a van provided by an employer), on commuting trips to and from work. Carpoolers (people who are carpooling) are sharing their [...]

High Speed Rail: TGV commercial speed will top 360 kph

“223 mph” aka “San Francisco to Los Angeles in only 2 business hours”…
Google Maps™ says “382 mi – about 5 hours 49 mins, up to 7 hours 10 mins in traffic“. And, there is always traffic, isn’t it? Anyways, why driving when we can fly? But, how long would it take you to get [...]

Transportation on Demand: where are we now?

About two years ago (April-July 2005), I wrote a report entitled “Les transports à la demande aux Etats-Unis” (Transportation on Demand in the United States, see below). Working for the French Trade Office in Washington, DC, we wanted to gather the US best practices in this field to provide the French administration and transportation officials [...]

It is time to begin: Welcome to the Transport Information Group

After a couple months meditating upon whether or not editing another blog on the WWW, I gave it a second thought. I wanted to do something useful, not a simple “here-is-my-life-that-you-do-not-care-about” usual blog. Actually, it was not that much easy to figure out what to do and I’m not even sure it will work, I’m [...]