French train smashes world speed record

A supercharged French TGV smashed the world speed record for a train on rails, hurtling through the countryside into the history books at 574.8 kilometres (357.2 miles) per hour.

Powered by two souped-up locomotives carried on extra-large wheels, the Train a Grande Vitesse (TGV) easily beat the previous record of 515.3kph set by another TGV in 1990. As its peak, it was travelling at close to half the speed of sound.

Dozens of journalists, technicians and VIP guests - including dignitaries and business leaders from China and India - were on the three carriage black and blue train for the bid.

Television screens flashed up the speed to passengers, flicking between the view from the driver's cabin, images of the tracks flying past, and a jet plane monitoring from overhead.

On the specially prepared track between Paris and Strasbourg - in the heart of French Champagne country - the vibrations grew as the TGV picked up speed.

Tension surged as it past the 400 kph mark, there were cheers as it broke the 1990 record and visible relief on the faces of the French technicians as the new official record of 574.8 kph was announced.

The special train, codenamed V-150, was at one point travelling at more than 150 metres (yards) per second. It reached similar speeds in trials in recent months, but this was the first test to be officially monitored.

It narrowly missed the overall world train speed record of 581 kph (360.8 mph) reached in 2003 by a Japanese magnetic levitation, or Maglev, train - which does not come into contact with rails.

Patrick Lannoy, director of the RFF rail network on the Paris-Strasbourg line, said it was too dangerous to take on the Japanese record. "There was no way we could try the Maglev record, 580 was running too many risks, we were heading into the unknown."

France's TGV trains have been operating since 1981, daily reaching speeds of 320 kph over some 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) of track. The new Paris-Strasbourg line will come into service in July, cutting the travel time from four hours to two hours and 20 minutes.

For the TGV manufacturer Alstom, the record bid was a chance to test its design in extreme conditions and showcase its technological advances.

Facing stiff competition from German and Japanese rivals, Alstom is angling for future bids from Argentina, China and Italy - as well as from the US state of California which this week sent a delegation to France to study the TGV.

President Jacques Chirac sent his congratulations on "this new proof of the excellence of the French rail industry."

European Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said that "thanks to French engineers, Europe is the champion of the world."

"What is important for us today 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. 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 about the impact of air transport.

Bombardier of Canada and Talgo of Spain are also manufacturers.

The Shinkansen and the ICE currently average about 300kph (186 mph) but a new version of the Japanese train, the Fastech 360Z, is expected to operate at 360kph (223.5 mph) when it enters service. Alstom is preparing a new generation of TGVs - also capable of 360 kph - to come on line from 2012.

AFP