On April 10, SNCF started selling tickets for the new TGV Est line (service starts June 10). They are offering an introductory price of 15 Euros one way for this summer - 5000 seats per day will be available at that price. Apparently, these tickets are selling really well - according to this article, they have already sold 145,000 tickets during the first 3 days. A similar promotion is available for trips to and from Switzerland: 18 Swiss Francs from Basel and 22 Swiss Francs from Zurich (one way).
Air France seems to want to take up the fight - they currently hold a 65% market share on the Paris-Strasbourg route - and have also reduced their fares. EasyJet on the other hand seems to throw in the towel - they’re stopping their service on the Basel-Paris route at the end of June.
Over the past week, there has been quite a lot of press and also comments by otherbloggers about this new speed record. Here are a couple additional notes/comments.
Peet (in German) points to the one video clip that is the most interesting in his view, i.e. this one here. Looks like it is a direct reproduction of the onboard recording - with no added commentary by a TV reporter or some such. You can however hear the audio from the onboard intercom, i.e. between the driver and the laboratory, etc.
Philippe Herisse gives an interesting eye-witness account on his blog (in French). Philippe is an engineer with SNCF and writes articles for the French publisher La Vie du Rail. He was onboard the record-setting train.
Alstom/RFF/SNCF have set up an official site to document the record.
Somebody posted a curve showing elapsed time/distance vs. speed on the French forum “Trains en Voyage” - see this thread here (in French, registration required). Quite interesting …
Also, this record seems to have revived interest in high speed rail in California - it probably created more public and press attention for the ailing California High Speed Rail project than years of rail advocacy. Maybe we should all thank the French for inviting those lawmakers… Hmm, I wonder whether it was a coincidence that this record attempt took place in the same week as the California legislature’s spring break … After all, the CAHSR project potentially represents big business for Alstom.
With all the articles that appeared in the press, I noticed one thing: what’s it with this animosity towards the French? I often saw phrases similar to “… the French of all people …” used when talking about this record. Why would that be so surprising? Or is it just that Americans don’t like the French? I can see why the Germans would be jealous, but why should America care?
Then there was the usual Maglev vs. HSR debate: Maglev supporters were quick to point out that the Maglev record hasn’t quite been beaten (nobody claimed it was). Just to make it clear - I’m not a big fan of Maglev. Sure, it sounds interesting and is certainly intriguing from a technology point of view, but to me, it seems that Maglev is still very far from being a proven technology. Conventional High Speed Rail is proven technology, in use in multiple countries with thousands of miles of track in service and multiple manufacturers of equipment, etc. HSR today can basically be considered as being available off the shelf - just call Alstom or Siemens (or Bombardier/Talgo) and ask for a quote. Also, HSR is compatible with existing rail lines, Maglev is not (admittedly, this is less the case here in the US than in Europe, since most US rail lines are not already electrified. But that’s a minor point, compared with the fact that Maglev is a completely separate system).
You can also still watch the French TV live coverage here (probably only available for the next couple of days - you have to navigate to the “Edition du mardi 3 avril 2007″)
According to a report published by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (of the California State Assembly) was one of the selected few passengers aboard the record setting TGV earlier today. She was visiting France together with a delegation of California Legislators led by Assembly Speaker Nunez, but was the only one actually aboard the train.
Ma was among a handful of handpicked passengers on the V150 that set a new bullet train speed record by hitting 357.2 mph. The previous record was 320.2 mph set in 1990.
While we’re waiting for the official new record to take place, here’s a video (YouTube) that shows the old record achieved in 1990. Quite impressive … Now if we had HSR here in California, that stretch down the Central Valley should make for some nice flat straight running … Should be perfect for another record attempt … (Yeah right, maybe in the year 2030 or so … ).
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.
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.
Today, I ran across a reference to the “Railteam” alliance and thought “what the heck is that? Never heard that before”. So I did some research and was able to find the following information in a Eurostar press release:
The Railteam alliance will offer travellers high-speed, high-quality travel across European borders. As well as Eurostar, other members include:
Deutsche Bahn - Germany
NS and HSA - Netherlands
ÖBB - Austria
SBB - Switzerland
SNCB - Belgium
SNCF - France
The rapid development of high-speed lines across northern Europe, linking major cities, has created the opportunity for an alliance under the working title ‘Railteam’, which has a vision to provide travelers with:
Seamless connections at stations
Through ticketing and fares - one ticket/fare for a through journey
Easy access to timetables, information, booking and train services
Real time journey information
Universal, high-quality standards of customer service and facilities, such as on-board internet access
(I wish we would see some of these “features” in the U.S. …)
Looks like the whole thing is modeled after the alliances that already exists between various airlines (e.g. Star Alliance, SkyTeam, OneWorld, etc.). It will be interesting to follow the developments in the future - after all, a couple of years down the road, international rail travel is supposed to be deregulated in Europe.
It appears that the “Railteam” alliance does not currently have a website - there is something at railteam.com, but it does not appear to be related.
I meant to write an article about upcoming new rail lines that are scheduled to open in Europe this year, but I just ran across this piece by columnist Ed Perkins (written as part of a more generic travel article, so you might not have noticed the rail content …), where he sums up the most important parts quite nicely.
Rail: Focus on Europe. The Europeans remain serious about high-speed rail, and you’ll see some major improvements this year: The last remaining high-speed segment between London and the “Chunnel” will open late this year, cutting 15-20 minutes off the already spectacular rail times between London and Brussels (less than two hours) or Paris (a bit over two hours). From the new station at St. Pancras to the Continental terminals, travel will be entirely on high-speed tracks, with speeds up to 186 mph.
France will open most of the LGV Est line from Paris to near Strasbourg, with a branch connecting to Frankfurt, Germany. Belgium and the Netherlands will open high-speed links, cutting train time from Amsterdam to Paris to just three hours. Spain expects to complete most of the high-speed line between Barcelona and Madrid this year. Late in the year, Switzerland will open the new 20-mile low-level Lotschberg tunnel between Brig and Bern, cutting an hour off travel times between Italy and Germany.
Meanwhile, the United States continues to talk a lot and do little about high-speed rail. At best, we’ll see a few improved (but conventional) speeds on a few Midwestern Amtrak routes. The main improvements will be in local public transit and commuter systems — welcome, to be sure, but not a substitute.
I also like his comment about, well, the non-existent U.S. rail program. Although there might be some good news: Apparently, Senators Lautenburg, Lott, Inouye and Stevens are planning to re-introduce the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act next week - if you support this, call your senator to encourage him/her to support this bill!
Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Trent Lott (R-MS), Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Ted Stevens (R-AK) plan to re-introduce the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act next Tuesday.
(Yeah right, maybe in the year 2030 or so … ).
