France’s TGV train set a new world speed on rails on Tuesday, hitting 574,8km/h on a stretch of track in eastern France.
The experimental version of the Traine a Grande Vitesse (TGV), equipped with two supercharged locomotives and extra-large wheels, easily beat the 515,3km/h set by a TGV in 1990.
The TGV narrowly missed the overall world train speed record of 581km/h reached in 2003 by a Japanese magnetic levitation, or Maglev, train.
Manufacturer Alstom arranged the exploit in order to test its latest engineering designs in extreme conditions, and also to display the TGV’s technological prowess to clients in a growing world market.
Facing stiff competition from German and Japanese rivals, Alstom is angling for deals in Argentina, China and Italy — as well as from the United States state of California, which this week sent a delegation to France to study the fast train programme.
”Not only are you French people lucky to have the high-speed train system, but it also impacts the environment in a positive way,” said Fabian Nunez, speaker of the California state assembly, which is looking into a possible link between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
France’s electrically powered fast trains have been operating since 1981, daily reaching speeds of 320km/h over about 1 600km of track. The latest line — to open in July — reduces travel time from Paris to the eastern city of Strasbourg from four hours to two hours and 20 minutes.
It was on a section of the Paris-Strasbourg line — prepared with extra ballast and boosted overhead electric cables — that Tuesday’s speed record was broken. The special train — dubbed V150 — was at one point travelling at more than 150m per second.
The train reached similar speeds in trials in recent months, but this was the first test to be officially monitored.
”What is important for us today [Tuesday] is to prove that the TGV technology, which was invented in France 30 years ago, is a technology for the future,” said Guillaume Pepy, director general of the state rail company SNCF, which is TGV’s main customer. Outside France only South Korea has so far bought TGV trains.
Japan’s Shinkansen ”bullet train” and the Inter-City Express (ICE) of the German company Siemens are the other major players in a global fast-train market that has been boosted recently by environmental concerns over the impact of air transport.
Bombardier of Canada and Talgo of Spain are also manufacturers.
The Shinkansen and the ICE currently average about 300km/h, but a new version of the Japanese train, the Fastech 360Z, is expected to operate at 360km/h when it enters service. Alstom is preparing a new generation of TGVs — also capable of 360km/h — to come on line from 2012. — AFP