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France benefits from a very efficient transport network. The road network is the most concentrated in the world and the longest within the European Union consisting of 965,916 km, 10,000 of which are motorways (2nd in Europe). Road transport still accounts for 76% of total freight transport but combined transport is quickly increasing.
Rail Network

France has 31,770 km of railways (1st January 2000). Since 1990, France’s TGV has held the high-speed rail record (515km/h). Its network covers 1281m and the official commercial speed limit is 300km/h. In 2002 the annual traffic in terms of travellers using the railways and regional trains outside Ile de France was 325 millions and 575 millions on the Ile de France region, and 127.6 billion tonnes of freight are transported.
The Air Network
Each year, air traffic in France is made up of 100 million passengers and 4.1 billion tonnes- km of freight. 904 aircraft (planes & helicopters) fly under the French flag. Paris's airports welcome more than 76 million passengers (8th in the world in 2000). Millions of tonnes of goods and post are transported through the airports and more than 700,000 commercial planes fly through.
Transport by sea
France's sea fleet consists of 210 boats weighing in total 4.1 million tonnes and transporting 91.5 million tonnes of freight per year. The French fleet is ranked 28th in the world in terms of tonneage. The French port system consists of 7 autonomous ports (owned by the state), which account for 80% of the goods traffic, 23 national ports that see 80% of all passenger traffic. Marseille (the biggest French and Mediterranean port) is ranked no. 3 in Europe with a freight traffic of 95 million tonnes.
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