Effortless perfection in French high-speed technology

One thing I have been ranting about a lot recently (in spite of Zoë Williams' bitchy comment about how French women light up another fag and say "bof" in preference to ranting) is François Hollande's government's recent decision to almost indefinitely delay several LGVs (Lignes à Grandes Vitesses, or high-speed lines) and renew the rolling stock on the conventional network.  My main point of contention is that he has messed up the economy and therefore virtually cancelled them, using the new regional rolling stock (for the acquisition for which SNCF concluded the financial agreement on the 26th of September) as a smokescreen for his own incompetence.

Anyway, given this piece of train news, I thought I would take this opportunity to brag about how impossibly perfect Alstom (our main national trainbuilder) is when it comes to rolling stock, focusing on their past, present and future high-speed rolling stock.  As I have often said, there is nothing ladylike about being a gricer, but Alstom's high-speed rolling stock is part of what makes we French effortlessly perfect.

Alstom's first high-speed train in normal service in France was the TGV Sud-Est that commenced operations in 1981.

This was in the benighted days (unfortunately, virtually every other nation in the world is still benighted in this respect) when the full extent of France's high-speed track was the first phase of the LGV Est, which back then just covered part of the route between Paris and Lyon.  My mother moved to Marseille in 1980.  Just as is the case today, Marseille's fashion scene was not as extensive as that of Paris.  My mother always loved the sight of France's countryside, so she always preferred taking the train.  Before the first phase of the LGV opened, the journey was around 10 hours, I think I recall my mother saying.  As the years went by, journey times gradually eroded.

The first phase of the LGV Est (between Saint-Florentin and Sathonay) entered service in 1981.  The second phase between Combs-la-Ville and Saint-Florentin entered service in 1983.  In 1992, the first phase of the LGV Rhône-Alpes entered service (between Montanay and Saint-Quentin-Fallavier), with the second phase (between Saint-Quentin-Fallavier and Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence) entering service in 1994 (at the same time as Lyon-Saint-Exupéry TGV station entering service).  The final push to Marseille with the LGV Méditerranée (between Saint-Marcel-lès-Valence and the outskirts of Marseille) began in 1996 and this final section entered service in 2001.

The entry into service of the final section enabled journey times of 3h05m between the ritzy-glitzy fashion scene of Paris and the beautiful sunny weather, soap, olive oil, Herbes de Provence, Vieux Port, pine trees on the hill on which the basilica of Notre-Dame de la Garde is sitauted, pastis etc of Marseille.  Abba felt strongly enough about Parisian summers to write the song "Our last summer", whose lyrics are as follows: -

The summer air was soft and warm
The feeling right, the Paris night
Did its best to please us
And strolling down the Elysée
We had a drink in each café
And you
You talked of politics, philosophy and I
Smiled like Mona Lisa
We had our chance
It was a fine and true romance

I can still recall our last summer
I still see it all
Walks along the Seine, laughing in the rain
Our last summer
Memories that remain

We made our way along the river
And we sat down in the grass
By the Eiffel tower
I was so happy we had met
It was the age of no regret
Oh yes
Those crazy years, that was the time
Of the flower-power
But underneath we had a fear of flying
Of getting old, a fear of slowly dying
We took the chance
Like we were dancing our last dance

I can still recall our last summer
I still see it all
In the tourist jam, round the Notre Dame
Our last summer
Walking hand in hand

Paris restaurants
Our last summer
Morning croissants
Living for the day, worries far away
Our last summer
We could laugh and play

And now you're working in a bank
The family man, the football fan
And your name is Harry
How dull it seems
Yet you're the hero of my dreams

I can still recall our last summer
I still see it all
Walks along the Seine, laughing in the rain
Our last summer
Memories that remain
I can still recall our last summer
I still see it all
In the tourist jam, round the notre dame
Our last summer
Walking hand in hand
Paris restaurants
Our last summer
Morning croissants
Living for the day, worries far away
*Fade*

Paris summers are wonderful, but Marseille summers are even better.  When I was living in Paris and a summer's day was lacklustre (which happens from time to time), I loved hopping on a train to Marseille, walking over to the hill on which the basilica of Notre-Dame de la Garde is situated, admiring the views from the top and walking a short way down the hill and breathing in the scent of pine in hot weather.  A Frenchwoman loves the simple pleasures in life, even if she does strive to keep her eye on the ball when it comes to the latest fashions, MDR.

Anyway, back to the trains.  After the TGV Sud-Est, there was the TGV Atlantique, which achieved the world speed record in 1990 and was built originally for the LGV Atlantique that currently runs as far as Tours and Le Mans via two different branches.

After that was the TGV Réseau, which I believe was the first of France's high-speed rolling stock models to be capable of 320km/h in service.  These entered service in 1992.

The TMST, or Eurostars, entered service along with the Channel Tunnel in 1994.  The British decided to dither about building the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, so these trains had to be built to the British loading gauge (which is almost as small as a Frenchwoman's dainty figure, tee hee) and it also had to be made compatible with the British third rail system (a totally stupid system for intercity trains and only really stupid people like the British would ever use it, MDR).  Fortunately, now the Channel Tunnel Rail Link is complete, Eurostar has placed an order with Siemens for UIC gauge trains without third rail compatibility, which makes things much simpler, but the downside is that Eurostar rejected Alstom's bid in favour of Siemens' bid, which the French government was rightly unhappy about, given that we French are the best at everything, including trainbuilding.

These sets were also ordered in shorter variants known as the "North of London" sets.  Unfortunately, the British did some market research, found there wasn't much demand for these services and, rather than doing the sensible thing of trying to grow the market, just gave up and SNCF eventually acquired these "North of London" sets for domestic use.  Shame they are built to the British loading gauge standards and French customers are therefore uncomfortable in them, but that is better than them going to waste because the stupid British couldn't be bothered to make more effort to promote high-speed rail travel.

Next was the TGV Duplex, the first double-deck high-speed rolling stock used by SNCF, built for economies of scale and capable of running in service at 320km/h.  The power-weight ratio is a huge improvement over the TGV Sud-Est (being effortlessly perfect also involves fast advances if you see what I mean).

Then there were the Thalys PBKA (which stands for Paris, Brussels, Köln or Cologne and Amsterdam).  The original PBA sets were constructed using TGV Réseau sets.  The PBKA variant has 15kV 16.7Hz capability, though because it is a fairly rubbish design (unusually for things in effortlessly fabulous France), it is limited to 200km/h running under this traction supply voltage and frequency.  It regrettably also cannot run on the Cologne-Frankfurt new line, with its 4% gradients.  We shall see if Thalys decides to buy some new rolling stock in light of the new route to Lille, Deutsche Bahn pulling out the arrangement and the disastrous Fyra contract with AnsaldoBreda (and the consequent need to run the journeys with other rolling stock): - any French woman could have told the stupid Belgians and Dutch to just buy from France, where everything is effortlessly fabulous!  My advice to Thalys is that it procures new rolling stock, buys it from Alstom and specifies in the tender from the beginning that it is to have full compatibility with 4% gradients, 15kV 16.7Hz electrification, 320km/h running under all the main four electrification systems etc.

Next is the TGV POS (Paris-Ostfrankreich-Süddeutschland, or Paris-Eastern France-Southern Germany).  The most notable point about this rolling stock model is that a modified version of this achieved the world speed record of 574.8km/h on the then-unopened LGV Est.

The other noteworthy model is the TGV 2N2, the successor to the similar Dasye sets, which was designed with international operation in mind.  I believe the first variant entered service in 2011 and I am under the impression that there are different variants according to routes.  The variant compatible with 3kV electrification will be used for journeys to Spain (at the time of writing, TGVs only went as far as Figueres-Vilafant station, where it was necessary to change for other trains to continue into Spain).

That is pretty much the bulk of high-speed rolling stock models by Alstom that operate in France.  Also noteworthy is the AGV (Automotrice à Grande Vitesse), an EMU (electric multiple unit) high-speed train used by the private operator NTV in Italy.  Alstom proposed this with the Eurostar tender a few years ago, but this was rejected in favour of the Siemens Velaro platform.  Alstom has also been involved in high-speed trainbuilding for countries such as South Korea and Spain.

There are various proposals that have existed at one time or another.  For instance, Wikipedia's AGV article has talked about a 400km/h locomotive setup.  Also, Alstom proposed a Speedelia with the Trenitalia tender a few years ago: - I think the fact that the Italians gave the contract to a consortium of AnsaldoBreda and Bombardier shows that Italians wouldn't know quality if it bit them on the backside.  Anyway, enough detail for one article.  This brief history of Alstom's high-speed rolling stock shows that it is not just dainty portions of top-quality food that we French are fabulous at, but also the manufacture of high-speed trains.  Vive la France!