by george matthews
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article1655631.ece
One hundred and seventy-six years ago, Britain invented the passenger railway. Twenty-five years ago tomorrow, the French reinvented it.
The inaugural Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV) or high-speed train - like a terrestrial space rocket with a Gallic nose - left the Gare de Lyon in Paris on 22 September 1981. Since then, 1.2 billion passengers have been carried by TGVs within France, at speeds of up to 186mph, without a single, serious injury.