Haute-Picardie TGV station ( French: ''Gare de TGV Haute-Picardie'') is a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

on the

LGV Nord The Ligne à Grande Vitesse Nord (North High-Speed Line), typically shortened to LGV Nord, is a French -long high-speed rail line, opened in 1993, that connects Paris to the Belgian border and the Channel Tunnel via Lille. With a maximum speed ...

-Europe between

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Geographically, it is located about west of Péronne, between the towns of

Saint Quentin Saint Quentin ( la, Quintinus; died 287 AD) also known as Quentin of Amiens, was an early Christian saint. Hagiography Martyrdom The legend of his life has him as a Roman citizen who was martyred in Gaul. He is said to have been the son of a ...

and

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...

, in the heart of the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...

territory.

Overview

When built, it was criticised by the press for being too far from any of the neighbouring towns to be useful. It was located near a trunk road rather than a connecting railway line: it was often nicknamed ''la gare des betteraves,'' or 'sugar beet station', as it is surrounded by

sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and which is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together wi ...

fields, as it was the case for some rail stations in the countryside at the beginning of the twentieth century, when those vegetables were still transported almost exclusively by train to the nearest sugar refinery. Today, the station is connected with the two local main cities, namely

to the west and

to the east, by the A29 motorway – it takes around 30 minutes to reach either city and a bus shuttle service operates four times per day. The annual number of passengers varies from 360,000 to 400,000. As a very small TGV station, from the point of view of watching the trains the platform is only a few metres from the main running lines, where trains pass by at , and there is a good view of the lines in both directions. At most stations on high-speed lines there is some form of barrier preventing this close up viewing from the platform. Since 2013, passengers are not allowed onto the platforms until the arrival of the next stopping train, in order to avoid any risk of being hit by flying

track ballast Track ballast forms the trackbed upon which railroad ties (sleepers) are laid. It is packed between, below, and around the ties. It is used to bear the load from the railroad ties, to facilitate drainage of water, and also to keep down vegetat ...

. There is a business park close to the station.

References

External links

* Haute-Picardie Railway stations in France opened in 1994 {{Picardy-railstation-stub