Classic route
Intercités Nantes–Lyon
Nantes → Lyon · France
France’s great west–east diagonal, no Paris required: the Loire at Angers and Tours, Bourges’ cathedral, then Roanne and the Lyon hills.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 407260 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within 43 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 12 m from it
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: SNCF Connect — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
- See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it
Questions and answers
How long is the Intercités?
The Intercités runs 660 km from Nantes to Lyon.
How long does the Intercités take?
The fastest scheduled journey is ≈ 7 h for the 660 km. That is an average of 94 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 160 km/h.
Who runs the Intercités?
SNCF Voyageurs, with Intercités.
How old is the Intercités?
The line has been in service since 1870. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
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