Paris | One of France's famed fast trains will try to break the world speed record on rails today, officials said.
The train, made up of three double-decker cars between two engines and outfitted to reach at least 335.5 mph, will whiz down a stretch of a new line linking Paris to eastern France, starting the journey from the French capital. It will try to break the 1990 rail record, also held by a French train, of 320.2 mph.
The TGV, short for "train a grande vitesse," as France's bullet trains are called, has been equipped with larger wheels than the usual TGV to cover more ground with each rotation and a stronger, 25,000-horsepower engine, said Alain Cuccaroni, in charge of the technical aspects of testing.
Adjustments also have been made to the new track, which opens June 10, notably the banking on turns. Rails were also treated for perfect contact, Cuccaroni said. The electrical tension in the overhead cable was beefed up, from 25,000 volts to 31,000.
Japan holds the absolute speed record for a train, with its magnetically levitated Maglev train that skims over a guideway on powerful magnetic fields without ever touching the track.
The Maglev set a record of 361 mph in 2003.
"Will the TGV, with what we call a classic wheel-on-rail solution, break the record set by (Japan's) magnetic suspension? We'll know by tomorrow night," said Pierre-Louis Rochet, former international director of the state-run rail company SNCF.
The French train's double-decker cars were transformed into a laboratory for the event so technicians from SNCF and Alstom, which makes the fast trains, can gather data during the run, expected to reach the approximate speed of a short-distance freight propeller plane.
The goal of the operation is more than "simply breaking a record," Cuccaroni said. Data from the test should help improve the security and comfort of passengers in the future, he said.
Danger is not really an issue, despite the double-decker cars and the high speed, said Rochet, now with the private engineering firm Arcadis.
There is a "very large security margin," he said. "We're far from the (safety) limits. Tomorrow, there will not be safety issues."
