The low-rise, functional buildings of the Alstom factory in the French seaside town of La Rochelle have been the world’s most important centre for developing high-speed trains since the 1970s, when France started developing the TGV technology that has made the country Europe’s biggest user of high-speed rail.
The European market that La Rochelle supplies has been so important to the overall market for the fastest trains – those capable of 300kph or more – that the plant has played a part in building more than half of the very high speed trains operating worldwide.
