The 27th of September 1981, the first TGV line opened to the public with its first line going from Paris to Lyon and back, making the two cities 425 kilometers (265 miles) apart only at a mere 2 hours of one another, reaching 300 Km/h (187 MPH). Since that date, many other new TGV lines have been built all over the country. Only a few weeks after the beginning of the operation of the TGV Sud-Est, I travelled to Lyon to take some pictures of these new trains. At that time, the TGV train sets were still wearing their orange livery. TGV Sud-Est #13 is seen here leaving the Lyon Perrache railway station with a train to Paris.
Pictures of French high speed conquest... With all kind of locomotives, trains and infrastructures that participated to improve rail speed and makes the best world records.