TGV reaches speed of 553 km/h during trial runs

This is not an official world speed record for conventional rail vehicles yet, since it was not an official record attempt. That will be made later, possibly this month or in April. It was “merely” another run in a series of trials targeted at exploring the very high speed behaviour of the traditional wheel/rail system.

The French high-speed TGV train broke its own rail speed record when it reached 553 kilometres per hour, the daily Le Parisien reported Wednesday.

[Quoted from French TGV breaks world speed record , German News, Germany, Expatica ]

A photo is available here.

I’m pretty sure the final “real” record attempt will be well covered by the media … And I’m pretty sure that if they can, they will try to beat the Maglev records of 581 km/h. An Alstom spokesperson was quoted as saying that they were trying to reach “550-570 km/h”, which contrasts with the original announcement of “540 km/h” made last December. To me, this looks like the trials are going better than expected and the Maglev records, maybe even the “magic barrier” of 600 km/h, seems within reach.

Posted in: France, High Speed Rail | February 14, 2007 9:19 am