France Launching New Eastern High-Speed Rail Line

France will set off the world’s fastest firework display on Thursday to mark the opening of a high speed train link that will bring passengers a step closer to traveling quickly from Paris to Budapest.

Three hundred kilometers of the new track between Vaires-sur-Marne, outside Paris and Baudrecourt in eastern France will be illuminated by torches and a pyrotechnic extravaganza that will take place at over 500 km per hour.

The line will slash the journey time from Paris to Strasbourg to two hours and 20 minutes when trains traveling at 320 km per hour start transporting passengers in June.

The track took five years to complete at a cost of $4.22 billion and the trains that will have interiors sketched out by fashion designer Christian Lacroix. A second phase, cutting the journey time between Paris and Strasbourg to less than two hours, will start next year.