2023-08-27 08:53:03
If the TGV still holds the absolute world record for speed on rails, with regard to the speed of commercial lines, our tricolor flagship is not on the podium, overtaken by Chinese ambitions.
To go on vacation this summer, millions of French people have taken the TGV. And if untimely breakdowns sometimes spoil departures and returns, they make us forget the technical prowess that the French high-speed train represents. Few countries enjoy such a fast means of rail transport. Even if, despite its status as a pioneer in this field, France has now been overtaken by faster trains.
Admittedly, our TGV still holds the world rail speed record, established in 2007, at 574 km/h, under very specific test conditions and with a train modified for performance. Nothing to do with the commercial operating speed, which peaks at 320 km / h. Fast but it is clear that today we can drive faster elsewhere, if we are to believe the ranking of the fastest trains in the world, published each year and unveiled by CNN.
China at the forefront of “TTGV”
The TGV is now the 4th fastest train in the world. In front of us, there is China and its Maglev train, the current version of which runs at 460 km/h near Shanghai. And a new version tested a few months ago will exceed 600 km/h, with a target of 1000 km/h in the long term. You might call it a TTGV, a very high-speed train, faster than an airplane.
It must be said that it is a train that flies, or almost. The Maglev, English abbreviation of “magnetic levitation”, are electromagnetic levitation trains. The principle is somewhat the same as when trying to bring two magnets together: the train and the rail repel each other. As a result, there is no more friction, which makes it possible to reach phenomenal speeds and to travel 10 kilometers every minute. China wants to deploy them all over the country.
Number 2 in the ranking is also a Chinese train, this one on rails: the Fuxing, 350km/h at commercial speed. Small bonus point: it is autonomous, without a driver inside.
On the third step of the podium we find the Germans and their ICE3, 330km/h. And number 4 therefore, our dear TGV, 320 km/h, on a par with the Japanese Shinkansen.
The new TGVs will not go faster
If this ranking has the appearance of a race at speed, we should not harbor too many hopes. A Paris-Marseille in an hour and a half, it’s a dream but unfortunately it’s not for tomorrow. Apparently, speed is no longer SNCF’s strategic priority.
“We are at 320 km / h, we are not trying to go faster,” said Jean-Pierre Farandou, the boss of the SNCF, at the Parisian, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the TGV.
The new version, the TGV M, which is due to enter service in the coming months, has other ambitions: the same speed, but new aerodynamics which will allow it to consume 20% less energy; more modularity, with seats that can be added or removed on demand, to transform a 1st class into 2nd class or add spaces for bicycles, according to needs; a more efficient wifi too…
A choice that we can regret, thinking that going even faster, not only is it very practical, but it would make rail more competitive once morest air travel on short journeys. A Paris-Barcelona in 4 or 5 hours once morest 7 hours today for example. And then there is also a remnant of spark: having the fastest train in the world was also for a long time one of France’s great industrial prides, a showcase of our technology and our know-how.
Speed requires colossal investments
The problem is also economic. These “super bullet trains” are trains that are expensive to develop. And then there is all the infrastructure that goes with it, especially the rails, which must be perfectly aligned with a tolerance of less than a millimeter. Behind it, managing maintenance on an entire rail network is extremely expensive. And the faster the trains go, the higher the costs.
We also see it with hyperloop-type projects, these trains supposed to travel at very high speed in tubes, a project initiated by Elon Musk and tested by various companies around the world. Today, some doubt the feasibility, in particular because it is extremely expensive. In documents leaked in 2016, it was estimated to cost $60 million per kilometer. In comparison, the LGV lines are between 15 and 20 million. Inevitably this is reflected at some point in the price of tickets, but this is precisely the sinews of war in French rail at the moment.
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