[Metroland]

The TGV, France's very fast train and a source of Gallic pride, is set to be replaced by an even speedier model, the AGV, which President Nicolas Sarkozy will officially launch today.

The unveiling of the AGV, Automotrice a (grave) Grande Vitesse (high-speed self-propelled carriage) will take place near La Rochelle, western France.

The new generation of trains will travel at a top speed of 224 mph compared to 186 mph for most TGVs (Trains a Grande Vitesse) currently used in France.
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At that pace, the Eurostar from London to Paris would take 1h42mins instead of the 2h15mins the new high-speed service takes.

A spokesman for London and Continental Railways, which made the High Speed 1 line between London St Pancras and the British end of the Channel tunnel, said the faster trains were an exciting prospect for European rail travel - particularly after EU railways are liberalised in 2010.

"Rail competes most effectively against air travel in Europe when a trip takes under four hours. With faster trains like these, a whole range of attractive European destinations, from Amsterdam to southern France and even Spain suddenly become viable out of Saint Pancras", he said.

While interested, Eurostar said it would not be replacing its fleet of modified TGVs for at least another ten years.

France's national rail operator, SNCF is expected to choose the futuristic trains made by Alstom to replace at least part of its ageing single-decker TGVs. Germany's Siemens and Canada's Bombardier also in contention for up to nine billion euros in contracts.

The first AGVs, described as looking like a "wild cat ready to pounce", will run in 2011 in Italy, which bought 25 of them last month. France is expected to implement them in 2014.

Unlike the TGV, the AGV needs no dedicated locomotives at the head and tail of the train.

Instead, power is distributed throughout all its coaches, thus freeing up more passenger space. Capacity will increase from 485 to 650 passengers, and energy consumption will be cut by 15 per cent. The trains will also be quieter.

Last year, a TGV incorporating some of the technology from the new AGV, broke the fixed fail train speed world record, at 357 mph.

But AGV is facing stiff competition from Bombardier's Zefiro model and Siemens, which already uses distributed propulsion and whose Velaro train, due to connect Madrid to Barcelona this year, will run at 217 mph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.../wtrain104.xml

[Callufrax]

It'll be interesting to see which platform will be used, for the eventual Eurostar replacement.

[velaro]

Wild cat? I don't know about that ...

http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/0,5538,28720,00.html

[Metroland]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7227807.stm

[gordonthemoron]

Originally Posted by Metroland

But AGV is facing stiff competition from Bombardier's Zefiro model and Siemens, which already uses distributed propulsion and whose Velaro train, due to connect Madrid to Barcelona this year, will run at 217 mph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.../wtrain104.xml

The Velaro is basically an ICE-3, which is a very nice train and does already have distributed propulsion, as does the ICE-T tilting train which has a lower top speed

[Nym]

Originally Posted by gordonthemoron

The Velaro is basically an ICE-3, which is a very nice train and does already have distributed propulsion, as does the ICE-T tilting train which has a lower top speed

Do you think if they where going to run services on the WCML in the short term before this stupid goverment pulls it's fingers out of various orafaces, well in basic terms, could an ICE-T run on the WCML? Theres some rather nice areas of Manchester Piccadilly Station, and Crewe Station, even stockport station that could be easily converted to include a HMRC terminal and imigration points, or they could go mad and convert mayfeild, run 2 half sets from say erm, Manchester, Preston, Glasgow, Liverpool, etc. Join them up at crewe to run non stop through the tunnel, maybe with a stop off at St Pancras... Then it's not taking up as much space on the WCML, and it can run at the EPS speeds, just the loading gauge to worry about now, and getting them turbostars out of the LCR depot at Longsight

[Doorslammer]

What happen's to the European railways in 2010? (Mentioned in first post of thread, but didn't fully understand...)

PS Can't say it's a very attractive looking train. And AGV doesn't sound as catchy as the original...

[Sir_Clagalot]

ugly looking thing isnt it! (mind you, the little video on the right is entertaining!!)

[class 313]

Originally Posted by Sir_Clagalot

(mind you, the little video on the right is entertaining!!)

Though I have seen that myself too