RFF, Alstom and SNCF achieve their target

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 TGV POS  power cars, 3 TGV 
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 TGV Atlantique trainset, which reached a
speed of 515.3km/h at PK 166 on the TGV Atlantique line
near to Vendôme.

For further information about the rail speed record and the
French Excellence in Very High Speed Rail Transport programme,
visit:

www.record2007.com

1 - POS : Paris-Ostfrankreich-Süddeutschland

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

3 - AGV: Automotrice Grande
Vitesse 

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