France is a large country and trains are used a lot. France is especially famous for its fast bullet trains called TGV, Train à Grande Vitesse or train of high speed. The concept was developed already in the 1970s and it has been a massive success.

This train is a TGV Duplex, a doubledecker TGV. One TGV Duplex set has 512 seats. Their development started already in 1988 and currently French state railways SNCF has 160 units. Originally the TGV Duplex trains were blue and grey, but recently SNCF launched a new colouring scheme with more white and grey shades. Here the leading motor wagon is already in the newer colours, but the middle coaches behind are still in the original blue and silver colourings. Picture from Paris Gare de Nord 20.10.2017 by Ilkka Siissalo.

• TGV high speed trains of SNCF
• Electric locomotives of state railways SNCF
• Diesel locomotives of state railways SNCF
• Electric and diesel multiple units of SNCF
• Narrow gauge trains in France
• Trams
• Metro trains
• Eurostar, a bullet train service under the English Channel
• Channel Tunnel between France and Britain has its own Channel Shuttle trains as well as the Eurostar and British Rail freight trains.
• Thello, Italian railways Trenitalia in France
• Léman Express, a Swiss/French joint venture in the Geneve region
• TGV Lyria, a joint venture of Swiss SBB and French SNCF in fast bullet train traffic

France is not only a country of fast TGV trains, but has also a wide variety of traditional trains. The state railways SNCF has still a very strong position and has still almost a monopoly in passenger traffic. France also has a long tradition of manufacturing trains and most of the trains are made in the country itself. For electric locomotives there are even several electric systems, which creates even more variety.

This locomotive is of the series BB15000. It is a 25kV system locomotive built 1971-77. Quite soon these machines will be phased out and will be replaced by modern electric multiple units. Picture from Paris Gare du Nord 20.10.2017 by Ilkka Siissalo.