| 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 29.384 km of railways. Since 1991, 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 2004, the number of passengers using the main rail network reached 320 millions. The network of Ile-de-France region was used by 572 millions passengers. During the same year, 121 millions tons of freight were transported.
The Air Network
Each year, air traffic in France is made up of 100 million passengers and 4.8 billion tonnes-km of freight. 904 aircraft (planes & helicopters) fly under the French flag. The 2005 turnover generated by the airports of Paris reached 474.1 millions euros with a score of more than 78 millions passengers. For the same year, more than 736 600 commercial planes fly through and 1 860.6 millions of tons of goods and post are transported through the airports.
Transport by sea
France’s sea fleet consists of 212 boats weighing in total 4.7 millions tons and transporting 340 millions tons of freight per year. The French fleet is ranked 28th in the world in terms of tonneage. The French port system counts 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 n°.4 in Europe with a freight traffic of 95,5 million tons.
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A TRANSPORT NETWORK