France unveils super-fast train

[AtW]

224mph - imagine the mess that would make when it hits the concrete post some little scrote placed on the track or goes over points with it's bolts missing after a recent bout of maintenance or even when it ploughs through the red light into a slow moving commuter train because the guy 'driving' it was reading/asleep at the time.

Or tree leaves (sp?) fall on track? That would surely cause chaos on British Railways!

[KathyWoolfe]

224mph - imagine the mess that would make when it hits the concrete post some little scrote placed on the track or goes over points with it's bolts missing after a recent bout of maintenance or even when it ploughs through the red light into a slow moving commuter train because the guy 'driving' it was reading/asleep at the time.

If there are no engines at either end where does the driver slee,,,,,I mean sit.
And if it is driven by motors under each carriage, you cna just imagine the carnage when the motor under the first carriage fails and the rest of the train tries to drive over the lead carriage.

[BoredBloke]

224mph - imagine the mess that would make when it hits the concrete post some little scrote placed on the track or goes over points with it's bolts missing after a recent bout of maintenance or even when it ploughs through the red light into a slow moving commuter train because the guy 'driving' it was reading/asleep at the time.

[AlfredJPruffock]

I also had my part in the success story - due to my part in successfuly scuppering EDS's bid to take over ALSTOM's IT systems - some of the older pundits on the board may recall this episode.

Vive La France

[Joe Black]

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has attended the launch of a new high-speed train made by engineering giant Alstom.

Indeed he did.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/c...1&nbwm=1&asb=1

Funny part though was watching him being shown round the train. Seems to have been a little bit distracted - new wife texting him not to forget to buy some milk on the way home? - before appearing to wrap things up with an "eh, very interesting, what's next?".

[DodgyAgent]

France unveils super-fast train

President Sarkozy unveils the new high-speed train in La Rochelle

New high-speed train
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has attended the launch of a new high-speed train made by engineering giant Alstom.

The AGV (Automotrice Grande Vitesse) train will travel at up to 360km/h (224mph), powered by engines placed under each carriage, the company says.

The absence of locomotives at either end allows it to carry more passengers.

Alstom compares the AGV - successor to the TGV - to the world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, in terms of importance and innovation.

"That we are here today is testimony to the courage of Alstom, because during its worst period it decided not to sacrifice its research and development," Mr Sarkozy said in front of the new train at Alstom's rail test centre in La Rochelle, western France.

In 2004, Mr Sarkozy, then finance minister, intervened to save Alstom by partially privatising the company and blocking a takeover by Germany's Siemens which wanted to dismantle the French giant.

"We need to entrench a simple message in people's minds: industry is not over, industry is essential for the economy of a rich nation as much as an emerging nation," Mr Sarkozy said at the launch.

World record

The new AGV trains are set to travel 1,000km (600 miles) in three hours, which is "a new stage in the competition with the airlines", said Alstom's Executive Chairman, Patrick Kron, at the ceremony.

With an engine under each carriage, the AGV - which translates as "high-speed railcar" - is unlike the TGV, which has engines only at the back and front.

It was also built using Alstom's own funds rather than as a joint venture with the state rail firm SNCF as the TGV was.

The TGV's maximum speed currently is 320km/h. But a modified TGV achieved a world rail speed record for a train on conventional rails last April, reaching 574.8km/h.

The AGV's new engines are more energy-efficient and the innovative multiple-unit design allows more passenger space, Alstom says.

It also reduces maintenance costs, the company says.

The Italian operator NTV has already bought 25 of the AGV trains, and will run them on the Italian high-speed network at a speed of 300km/h in 2011.

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I say - issue 100 years exclusive railways license to the French or the Japanese or both to modernise UK railways.

And get the British army to build them

[AtW]

France unveils super-fast train

President Sarkozy unveils the new high-speed train in La Rochelle

New high-speed train
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has attended the launch of a new high-speed train made by engineering giant Alstom.

The AGV (Automotrice Grande Vitesse) train will travel at up to 360km/h (224mph), powered by engines placed under each carriage, the company says.

The absence of locomotives at either end allows it to carry more passengers.

Alstom compares the AGV - successor to the TGV - to the world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, in terms of importance and innovation.

"That we are here today is testimony to the courage of Alstom, because during its worst period it decided not to sacrifice its research and development," Mr Sarkozy said in front of the new train at Alstom's rail test centre in La Rochelle, western France.

In 2004, Mr Sarkozy, then finance minister, intervened to save Alstom by partially privatising the company and blocking a takeover by Germany's Siemens which wanted to dismantle the French giant.

"We need to entrench a simple message in people's minds: industry is not over, industry is essential for the economy of a rich nation as much as an emerging nation," Mr Sarkozy said at the launch.

World record

The new AGV trains are set to travel 1,000km (600 miles) in three hours, which is "a new stage in the competition with the airlines", said Alstom's Executive Chairman, Patrick Kron, at the ceremony.

With an engine under each carriage, the AGV - which translates as "high-speed railcar" - is unlike the TGV, which has engines only at the back and front.

It was also built using Alstom's own funds rather than as a joint venture with the state rail firm SNCF as the TGV was.

The TGV's maximum speed currently is 320km/h. But a modified TGV achieved a world rail speed record for a train on conventional rails last April, reaching 574.8km/h.

The AGV's new engines are more energy-efficient and the innovative multiple-unit design allows more passenger space, Alstom says.

It also reduces maintenance costs, the company says.

The Italian operator NTV has already bought 25 of the AGV trains, and will run them on the Italian high-speed network at a speed of 300km/h in 2011.

---

I say - issue 100 years exclusive railways license to the French or the Japanese or both to modernise UK railways.