the day the TGV entered the station in 1993

For an exceptional event, exceptional circumstances… The inaugural TGV of the new Paris-Poitiers-Niort-La Rochelle service will still have taken more than five hours between the capital and Aunis. A real senatorial train… and it is not Mr. Monory, president of the Senate – one of the guests of this trip – who will contradict us. But, we swear, it will not happen again. From now on, the Île-de-France will be less than three hours from Charente-Maritime.

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Today [le 29 juin 1993]the elected officials probably no longer ask themselves the question: the department has hooked up the right wagon – an opinion which is not, as we know, shared by the railway workers. They will have been comforted…

Exceptional events, exceptional circumstances… The inaugural TGV of the new Paris-Poitiers-Niort-La Rochelle service will still have taken more than five hours between the capital and Aunis. A real senator’s train… and it is not Mr. Monory, president of the senate – one of the guests of this trip – who will contradict us. But I swear, it won’t happen again. From now on, Île-de-France will indeed be less than three hours from Charente-Maritime.

> Find all our archives in our search engine

Today [le 29 juin 1993]the elected officials probably no longer ask themselves the question: the department has hooked up the right wagon – an opinion which is not, as we know, shared by the railway workers. They will have been comforted by the presence of many “onlookers” along the tracks or on the bridges, eager to capture on film this snapshot which is making the news.

While the elected officials tasted the “TGV cuisine”, the open house operation was in full swing in the driving position. At the helm, Michel Boiteau assisted by Jean-Claude Noury, two “good-looking Niortais” who were, as it were, operating in their garden. Here, everything is technical, supple and hushed sensations, those that one feels at the wheel of a car which can travel at 200 km/h and with which one would respect the limitation of 90 or 130 km/h…

Jean-Guy Branger, deputy mayor of Surgères, savored his victory, he who had always been alongside those who demonstrated to save this stop on the La Rochelle-Poitiers line.

On the platform of La Rochelle station, the crowd was growing by the minute. And it was necessary to see as a symbol in the presence in Aytré, of employees of GEC Alsthom [aujourd’hui Alstom]gathered near the railway tracks to see “their” child pass.

So many years of having to take so many steps, go through so many tunnels, risk so many derailments, avoid so many false switches.

“It is here, our TGV that we have waited so long for! So many years where we had to multiply the steps, cross how many tunnels, risk how many derailments, thwart how many false switches…” It was Michel Crépeau, president of the Community of Cities who opened fire. And the President of the Senate, René Monory, who fired the last cartridges of the party. He also underlined the unanimous will of all the actors of Poitou-Charentes engaged in the same spirit of friendship for the realization of this great project. Learning to live in less strong growth means preparing for events to be stronger than men, he says in substance, before expressing his faith in decentralization which allows, through cross-financing of L State and local authorities, the implementation at lower costs of structuring equipment.

We are the first region in France whose four departmental capitals are now connected to the European TGV network.

François Blaizot, President of the Charente-Maritime General Council, has laid down his “pilgrim’s staff” (the expression is from René Monory) to fully enjoy this much-desired moment when, from the point of view of regional unity, “the western extremity is finally attached to the other departments”. To the rest of the world. Conquest of the west that Jean-Pierre Raffarin underlines: “Poitou-Charentes exists, the TGV has demonstrated it. We are the first region in France whose four departmental capitals are now connected to the European TGV network”.

La Rochelle-Paris connection: from one week to three hours, a brief history of this line

These few minutes scrounged by the electrification of the Poitiers-La Rochelle line and the arrival of the TGV should not make us forget that they come on top of two centuries during which we have constantly been biting on time.
It is said that the French departments were created in such a way that one could reach their borders from the capital in a day’s ride. The number of departments crossed by the Paris-La Rochelle railway line can thus give an idea of ​​the speed at which hurried travellers could reach the Atlantic coast from the capital in an emergency… With a good relay system, one can imagine that a rider would cover 60 to 70 kilometres in a day, which would bring the journey time to a little over a week, if one does not take into account the hazards of roads that are a little more eventful than today.
The historian Jourdan, a member of the Académie des belles lettres of La Rochelle, reported in his ephemerides some interesting elements on this connection. “On Tuesday morning, May 7, 1776, the first stagecoach going to Paris left at 4 o’clock. Its arrival was scheduled for Saturday, at an undetermined time. From 1803, there were three departures per week.” It was only in 1957 that Monseigneur Andriot, Bishop of La Rochelle, blessed the PO line train arriving from Niort and leaving for Rochefort. A long period of more or less peaceful coexistence was to begin between the Orléans company and that of Charentes, because La Rochelle happened to be twelve hours from Paris at a crossroads between the Poitiers-Rochefort line and the Napoléon-Vendée line (La Roche-sur-Yon) and Angoulême.
Until 1937, steam and its embers would triumph on the Paris-La Rochelle line. At a speed that is still recalled today by the distant descendant of the omnibus: this ineffable night convoy that leaves, every evening around midnight from the Gare d’Austerlitz and drops off its cargo of sleepers at 6:06 in La Rochelle…
At that time, electricity arriving in Poitiers left the beautiful 241 P 16, the ultimate queen of steam, only intelligent supporting roles on the western lines. Quickly dethroned by the experimental Diesels that were in particular the CC 65 000 widely used in La Rochelle, it was to completely disappear from the scene in favor of increasingly comfortable trains, in particular of course the “Corail” which put Paris four hours from La Rochelle.
This road time was reduced again when connections with the TGV Aquitaine allowed Rochelais to take advantage of the Bordeaux-Paris fast train, which puts Poitiers at equal distance, if we calculate in time, from the capital and La Rochelle. . An hour and a half on each side.
All that remained was to electrify the last part of the line to save the few minutes of stopping and changing trains in Poitiers. It is now done.