--- title: "Back on Track: France's New TGV M Makes Its First Run From Paris to Marseille on 6th November" description: France's new TGV M makes its first Paris to Marseille run on 6th November, with a two-level bistro, eight bike spaces and step-free wheelchair boarding. author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-11-04T09:00:00.072Z updated: 2026-11-04T09:00:00.090Z canonical: https://richtravelmagazine.com/article/tgv-m-paris-marseille-first-run-6th-november image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/unsplash-ddtfdw-sgxe.webp categories: Smart Travel, Destinations content_type: News region: France, Europe publication: Rich Travel Magazine about: - type: Organization name: SNCF description: France's national railway, operator of TGV Inoui, Intercités and the Carte Avantage discount cards. url: https://www.sncf.com industry: Rail transport --- On Friday 6th November a double-decker train with a longer, sharper nose will leave Paris Gare de Lyon for Marseille Saint-Charles, and the TGV will enter its fifth generation. The TGV M, built by Alstom and sold to passengers under SNCF's TGV INOUI brand, arrives more than two years late. It was meant to carry spectators to the Paris 2024 Olympics, then slipped to 2025, to early 2026, to 1st July and to early September, before SNCF and Alstom put it back to the autumn on 11th September. ## When will the TGV M begin service? Its maiden voyage takes place on Friday 6th November 2026, according to an announcement SNCF made on the evening of Wednesday 14th October, when it invited the press on board the inaugural journey. Regular passenger services are expected to follow from Monday 9th November, according to The Connexion and the French travel trade title TourMaG, although SNCF has not confirmed that date in the material we checked. Six trains are due to enter service at first, and the rest of the fleet will follow into the early 2030s. The launch comes the day after a national rail strike. All four main SNCF rail unions have called a stoppage for Thursday 5th November, so anyone heading to Paris for the first run should check their train close to departure. Our [date-by-date guide to this month's strikes in France, Spain and Italy](https://richtravelmagazine.com/article/europe-strikes-november-2026-trains-flights) has the details and your refund rights. ## On which line? Paris Gare de Lyon to Marseille, the first route served by the TGV M. It is the busiest high-speed line in France and the one where Trenitalia already competes with SNCF. Paris to Lyon follows in the first phase, and SNCF plans to extend the new trains to Nice, the Alps and Languedoc-Roussillon later, although it has given no timetable for those routes. SNCF has published no separate fares for the TGV M. The trains are sold as ordinary TGV INOUI services with the usual changing prices, so a seat on the new train should cost the same as a seat on an older TGV running that day. From London, Eurostar arrives at Paris Gare du Nord, and the Marseille trains leave from Gare de Lyon on the other side of the city. The route south follows the Rhône valley through Valence and Avignon to Aix-en-Provence and the port of Marseille, a journey we described when [the TGV turned 45 in September](https://richtravelmagazine.com/article/tgv-train-turns-45-winter-seats-alps-germany). ## What is changing on board? Two floors, a two-level bistro, bike parking, 20 per cent less energy consumption, and it is the first TGV that wheelchair users can board fully on their own, without assistance. The bar car has been renamed Le Bistro and now fills a whole carriage on both decks, a first in the history of the TGV. The lower deck works like a small grocery: passengers take sandwiches and drinks from open fridges, warm dishes in microwaves, make coffee at the machines and pay at self-service terminals, with a barista on hand to help. A staircase leads to the upper deck, where 28 seats look out over the countryside. The interior was designed by AREP, an SNCF subsidiary, with the Japanese design studio Nendo. Each nine-car train has eight spaces for bicycles, six in second class and two in first. First-class seats are wider, second class has more legroom, every seat has a power socket and a USB port, and the WiFi has been upgraded. The carriages can also be reconfigured, so SNCF can swap seats for luggage or bike space, or turn first class into second, as demand changes through the seasons. The train carries up to 740 people in its densest layout and around 600 with the bistro, about 20 per cent more than the previous generation, and two trains coupled together carry more than 1,400. SNCF says the TGV M uses 20 per cent less energy, thanks to its more aerodynamic nose and to braking that feeds power back into the overhead line. It also produces 32 per cent less CO2, and 97 per cent of its materials can be recycled. Batteries on board let it keep moving at reduced speed if the power supply fails, so a train can reach a powered stretch of line rather than stall between stations. For wheelchair users, a lifting platform at the door raises them into the train without help from staff. SNCF and Alstom say the TGV M is the first TGV to offer this, and the design grew out of work with wheelchair users' associations that began in 2017. When SNCF unveiled the interior in March 2025, it showed a lower deck with room for up to five wheelchairs. Visually impaired passengers can use Bluetooth navigation to find their way through the train. ## Around 160 trains on order, including 30 for Eurostar SNCF has ordered around 160 of the new trains from Alstom since 2018, worth about €4.6 billion. The first 100 were ordered in 2018, 15 more followed in 2022 for services to Italy, 30 were added in 2025 for Eurostar and its cross-Channel routes, and a further 15, worth €600 million, were ordered in January 2026, mainly for routes between France and Belgium. The TGV M runs at 320 km/h, the same top service speed as the TGV Duplex it will gradually replace. If you want to travel on one of the first trains, look for TGV INOUI services between Paris and Marseille from 9th November, bearing in mind that older Duplex trains will keep running on the line alongside the six new ones for some time, and SNCF has not yet said which departures the new trains will work. For the rest of the season's new routes, see [eight destinations to discover by train this autumn](https://richtravelmagazine.com/article/back-on-track-8-destinations-to-discover-by-train-in-europe-this-autumn).