574,8 km/h : new world rail speed record set at 13h13 on 3
April 2007

Technical performance that bears witness to a
collective achievement


Hubert du Mesnil, President of Réseau Ferré de
France, Philippe Mellier, President of Alstom Transport and
Anne-Marie Idrac, SNCF Chief Executive Officer, representatives
of the three partners in the French Excellence in Very
High-Speed Transport programme, celebrate the new world record
achieved thanks to the commitment of their staff.


The speed record that has been set today evidences
French excellence and expertise in the domain of very high
speed, which enables the quality of the railway system to be
improved to the benefit of passenger comfort and safety. I
would like to pay homage to all those who have made this
achievement possible and, in particular, those who have worked
in our companies and who, under the guidance of RFF, have
produced the East European LGV, a masterpiece in terms
of infrastructure and which provided the stage for
todays events, says Hubert du Mesnil,
President of Réseau Ferré de France.


Beyond the technical performance, I salute the human
performance. This is the culmination of a project that has
drawn on the best of the expertise that ALSTOM, RFF and SNCF
can provide, over a 14-month period. Todays achievement
offers countries and operators, wishing to make very high-speed
rail transport one of their strategic levers of growth, proof
of its reliability, adds Philippe Mellier,
President of Alstom Transport.


This speed record represents a major technological
and human achievement. The results of tests conducted on board
the V150 trainset enable us to envisage a highly promising
future in the domain of very high-speed rail transport, based
around 4 priority areas: life on board, safety &
performance, journey and environment, says
Anne-Marie Idrac, SNCF Chief Executive Officer.



Serving to crown the collaboration between RFF, Alstom
Transport and SNCF, the record follows a major programme of
tests that started on 15 January 2007 and in which over 300
engineers and technicians were involved. 40 trial runs were
conducted at speeds exceeding 450km/h, making for a total of
over 200 hours of tests and 3,200 kilometres covered.



The V150 trainset is made up of 2 TGVTM POS power cars, 3 TGVTM
Duplex (double-decker) coaches and 2 latest-generation very
high-speed train motorized bogies developed by Alstom: the
AGVTM . In total, this system develops an output of 19.6MW
(25,000 horsepower).


Thousands of items of data recorded and
analyzed


Beyond the technical achievement, the programme has served to
shape the future of high-speed rail transport. An on-board
measurement laboratory has made it possible to analyse data
recorded by 600 sensors with a view to assessing the behaviour
of the infrastructure and the materials at previously
unexplored speeds. These measurements have enabled the validity
of provisional models to be verified and aerodynamic, acoustic,
dynamic and vibratory validation to be performed.



This historic record will serve to durably position RFF, Alstom
Transport and SNCF as world leaders in very high-speed rail
transport.



The previous record had been held since 18 May 1990 by SNCF
with its no. 325 TGVTM Atlantique trainset, which reached a
speed of 515.3km/h at PK 166 on the TGVTM Atlantique line near
to Vendôme. 


Press contacts:

Réseau Ferré de France:

Thierry JANKOWSKI - +33 (0) 1 53 94 31 57
thierry.jankowski@rff.fr


Lorène THIEBAUT - +33 (0) 1 53 94 30 82 -
lorene.thiebaut@rff.fr


Alstom Transport:

Clotilde PROVOST - +33 (0) 1 41 66 91 43 -
clotilde.provost@transport.alstom.com


SNCF:

Philippe MIRVILLE - +33 (0) 1 53 25 68 29
philippe.mirville@sncf.fr


TBWA\Corporate:

Jennifer ATTIAS - +33 (0) 1 49 09 25 73 /
jennifer.attias@tbwa-corporate.com


Camille JORCIN - +33 (0) 1 49 09 27 05 / camille.jorcin@
tbwa-corporate.com 



POS : Paris-Ostfrankreich-Süddeutschland


TGV, Train à Grande Vitesse, is a trademark of the
SNCF


AGV : Automotrice Grande Vitesse