On the Fast Track

French Railway Modernization and the Origins of the TGV, 1944-1983

Jacob Meunier (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

280 Seiten

2001
Praeger Publishers Inc (Verlag)
978-0-275-97377-3 (ISBN)

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For much of the postwar era, French society had a contradictory view of passenger trains, scorning them as quaint anachronisms on the one hand, yet also fearing their economic and social impact. All this changed with the introduction of the famed Train á Grande Vitesse (TGV) between Paris and Lyon in the early 1980s. In vivid detail, Meunier describes the political, economic, and social factors that both helped and hindered the development of the world's fastest, most technologically advanced train.

The present-day enthusiasm in France for high-speed rail travel dates only to the successful launch of the now-famous TGV in 1981. Until now, most published accounts of French high-speed rail have been of a technical nature and have ignored or minimized the historical, political, economic, and social context. Historians have been left with detailed descriptions of locomotives and experimental test runs, but there has been scant information cercerning why the machines were built and why the tests were carried out in the first place. This book is the first full-length treatment of high-speed rail travel and the bibliography is one of the most complete on the subject.

JACOB MEUNIER is a transportation analyst at Cambridge Systematics, Inc., a nationally-recognized consulting firm specializing in transportation planning, policy, and management. In the past, Dr. Meunier has worked as a research assistant for a member of the European Parliament in Brussels, and has taught economics, French, and European history at independent schools near Boston. He is co-author of Bridges and Barriers: The European Union's Mediterranean Policy, 1961-1998.

Foreword Introduction The Postwar Recovery of the Railways, 1944-1960 Competition, 1947-1970 The Origins of High Speed Rail, 1950-1970 The AErotrain: Origins and Failure, 1963-1975 The C03 Project: Proposal and Reception, 1965-1974 The Train a Grande Vitesse: Construction and Protest, 1974-1981 The Train a Grande Vitesse: Implementation, 1981-1983 Conclusion Bibliography Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	30.10.2001
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Zeitgeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Technikgeschichte
	Technik ► Fahrzeugbau / Schiffbau
ISBN-10	0-275-97377-8 / 0275973778
ISBN-13	978-0-275-97377-3 / 9780275973773
Zustand	Neuware