Our anniversary event “80 years of Parisian, 80 headlines”
The very first issue of Le Parisien appeared on August 22, 1944, in the midst of the liberation of Paris. To celebrate this birthdaywe have selected 80 historical or emblematic “headlines” of their time. Sport, news items, conquest of space, presidential elections, disappearances of stars… They tell the story of eight decades of current affairs. We have chosen to tell you behind the scenes. A series to discover until the end of the year.
The photo may be in black and white, but we can guess the orange color of the first TGVthe same as the Parisian logo at the time. This Friday, February 27, 1981, on the front page of the newspaper, train No. 16 looks great in the photo taken close to the rails. She seems to stare at the readers. She can! The day before, this train was simply the fastest ever. “380 km! World record for France,” we say soberly.
No need for emphasis, the feat is sufficient in itself. In this winter of 1981, twilight of the seven-year term of Valéry Giscard d’Estaingthe SNCF is carrying out the last tests before the commissioning of the first high-speed line in France, which should make it possible to connect, from the following September, Paris to Lyon (Rhône) in two hours, compared to three hours and forty -five with a Mistral, in service since 1950. The opportunity also to reveal the performance of the TGV, a new rail car, and to erase the previous speed record, already held by the French company.
On the inside page, “three knights of the rail” are in the spotlight. Their names are André Cossié, Jacques Ruiz and Daniel Levert. Three railway workers from the Strasbourg depot (Bas-Rhin) forgotten in the history books, but who made it possible to achieve this feat in the Lyon – Paris direction, near Tonnerre (Yonne).
Forty-two years later, no one at the SNCF can say “I was there”, but the event remains engraved in the memories of railway workers. Like the inauguration, seven months later, by the newly elected François Mitterrand, of the first French high-speed line. To which, again, we dedicate the front page on September 19, nicely titled “In search of saved time”.
“It was a huge marker in the history of the French, a complete change in the way they travel,” Christophe Fanichet, general director of SNCF Voyageurs, says today. Not many people remember this record, but now high speed is part of the DNA of French mobility. We have forgotten that, without the LGV on Paris – Lyon, Marseille (Couches-du-Rhône) is seven and a half hours from Paris. »
“When we are in the life of the French, we are in Le Parisien! »
The Parisian pulls out all the stops again nine years later, when the symbolic bar of 500 km/h is crossed. Rebelote in 2007, the year when a TGV reached the crazy speed of 574 km/h on the Paris – Strasbourg line. On April 3 of that year, our transport specialist Marc Lomazzi, who would later become head of the economy department, was dispatched to the Marne to tell the behind-the-scenes story of the adventure on two pages which would be published the next day.
Aboard the rocket on rails, he recounts how “at more than 550 km/h, the train begins to shake, the noise is deafening, and the slightest slope crossed at more than 160 m/s (him) lifts his heart” . The opportunity also for him to decipher the technological and media interest of such a performance, while Alstom, the manufacturer, is struggling to export its jewel.
Inauguration of the Paris – Marseille high-speed line in 2001, of the TGV Est in 2007… For each significant event that has marked the life of the SNCF, Le Parisien has devoted the headlines to it. Even to celebrate birthdays.
For the 30th anniversary of the TGV, in 2011, the editorial team tells on four pages how this innovation has changed the lives of the French, by giving them “the freedom to be able to move quickly with a low-carbon means of transport”, as Christophe Fanichet explains. . The best way to explain it is an anamorphic map.” That’s good, we had published in our file this map of France redrawn according to time and no longer distance, where with a wave of the magic wand Marseille becomes closer to the capital than Brest (Finistère), while it is 150 km further.
Between our newspaper and the railway company, two institutions which are almost the same age, the story endures, with its ups and downs, its disputes and its reconciliations. It is, by far, the company to have been on the front page of our newspaper the most times. The reason is simple: because it is at the heart of daily life, more than any other.
Every day, 5 million travelers take one of the approximately 11,000 trains in circulation. “When we are in the lives of the French, as the SNCF is, we are inevitably in Le Parisien. That’s the problem! » laughs Christophe Fanichet. Since the start of the year alone, a train or station has made the headlines four times, whether to evoke the movement of controllers, the social climate before the Olympic Games Or TER regularity problems.
Sometimes strained relationships
The adage is that journalists don’t talk about trains that arrive on time, but about those that arrive late. We must recognize that at Le Parisien, we apply it to the letter. Mayhem in the stations caused by a railway strike or equipment breakdowns, ticket prices, trains canceled…
There are many reasons to put SNCF on the front page. One example among many: on February 27, 2011, during the school holidays, we put on the front page these “30,000 travelers trapped”, following an act of vandalism on a line in the Alps.
An unfair spotlight? “I understand that you write it like this when we encounter difficulties. But, as a boss, I regret that you do not say that the railway workers, who are fully committed, have done everything to avoid the problem. »
Sometimes our relationships become strained to the point of becoming frosty. Like when, on May 27, 2017, we revealed that the TGVs would now be called Inoui. Or, more recently, after our scoop of January 23 on TGV services which are threatened lack of profitability, like Paris – Arras (Pas-de-Calais) or Paris – Chambéry (Savoie).
But, without hard feelings, we continue to cover the SNCF as closely as possible. And we will not hesitate to put her in the spotlight when she achieves a new feat or presents something new. Without a doubt, the TGV M, the 5th generation of SNCF’s high-speed train, designed once again by Alstom, will be featured prominently on the front page of Le Parisien when it enters service next year.