http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/ Engadget Comments for http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 3rd 2007 11:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 3rd 2007 8:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 3rd 2007 8:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 3rd 2007 11:36PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 3rd 2007 8:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 3rd 2007 8:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 3rd 2007 9:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Jul 3rd 2007 3:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 3rd 2007 9:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/


]]>Apr 3rd 2007 9:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
Indeed it was an effort to get from my seat to the canteen car without ending up on someones lap, so this train must have some awesome suspension. That or teh track is dead straight, lol

God help them if a cow wandered onto the track]]>Apr 3rd 2007 11:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/I've ridden the Eurostar many many times. Never once had a bumpy ride.

I've even ridden the new TGV between Paris and Avignon (not the record breaking one, this one tops up at 550 km/h) and it's very very smooth. Smooth enough to hold a cup of smouldering hot tea and not spill a drop. The train just hums along.]]>Jan 2nd 2008 2:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 3rd 2007 9:27PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 3rd 2007 11:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Jan 1st 2008 3:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
I'll tell you what though, I would much have that state-of-the-art avatar than useless features such as comment editing. Glad engadget has its priorities straight.]]>Jan 1st 2008 3:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
http://www.ILikePeopleWhoLeaveUselessCommentsAndThenTryToPromoteTheirStupidWebsites.com]]>Apr 3rd 2007 9:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Jan 1st 2008 7:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 3rd 2007 10:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 3rd 2007 10:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
Ouch.

And yeah, I'm getting really sick of the self-promoting website hawkers on engadget comments too.]]>Apr 3rd 2007 10:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
This is cool. I just fear for the first pup that puts his head out the window. YIP! *woosh* ;-)]]>Apr 3rd 2007 10:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
Oh yeah .... thats right ... oil for food scam .... forgot

And wait ... how exactly were they right ?]]>Apr 4th 2007 10:15AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 3rd 2007 10:20PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
Just my two cents : this train exists for a while now in France (and a derivative travels to Belgium and Netherland) and it is very fast, very silent, and incredibly punctual, plus it departs from the center of the cities and not an airport 30mn at least from downtown.

That is why it is faster to take that train than a plane to travel inside France (from Paris to Cote d'Azur in less than 3 hours... a lot of people work in Paris and go to the Riviera every week end thanks to this train).

Basicaly, to summarize, this thing is to regular train what the Concorde was to a 747 :-)]]>Apr 3rd 2007 10:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 4th 2007 9:54AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
As for non-wheel railroad, Japan's linear motor train has the world record of 581km/h from 2003.]]>Apr 3rd 2007 10:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 3rd 2007 11:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 3rd 2007 11:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 3rd 2007 11:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/default.asp]]>Apr 4th 2007 12:50AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
It's been a long time!
Still in the Bay?

m]]>Apr 4th 2007 3:03AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
- yes mighty, iTunes meddling, EU birocracy did speak out on the issue and they actually prefere this types of trains to short haul EU flights. This year a specially built and cordoned-off track (cow-proof) track will be opened between Belgium broder and Amsterdam in Netherlands connecting NL to the rest of TGV network. Travel time Amsterdam - Paris will be 3 hours and 13 mins (flying time by airplane is 1 hour and 15 minutes). Speed will be standard TGV speed of 320km/hour - almost 200 miles/hour.

- TGV track (the trains are called Eurostar there) is currently being extended to London as well (will be finished in 2007) cutting the travel-time between London and Paris to 2 hours and 15 minutes. Trains will go 320 km/hour except through chunnel-tunnel where they will go half that speed.

- When TGV travels I have not noticed ANY rocking motion from left to right, the suspension on those trains is excellent. However there is a just a slight discomfort involved when one walks through the train and a track is going down or up, then you can feel a gravity shifting similar when plane is slightly climbing or going down at a slight angle.

- The only problem - and it is in my opinion a VERY annoying one when travelling with TGV is a quite laud "thump" and a bit of the shuddering EVERY 15 minutes. This is happening when another TGV passes along in the opposite direction and creates a considerable air pressure between the trains. The trains are designed to handle this but the first time is very unnerving. It was scaring the wits out of my american friend who was in the TGV for the first time.

- Another "problem" is that cellular towers alongside the TGV route are specially designed with high speed switching in mind. Imagine a full train (say 300-400 people) all with mobile phones - at any time say 15% of them happily talking with someone zipping from one cell tower to the next. This WILL be a problem at 570km/hour because at present cell towers are NOT designed to do this. At first they were not able to handle TGV normal speeds (320km/h) either. That is now fixed as I have done number of GSM and even UMTS video calls from within the TGV at 320km/hour - no problem. I have not measured the download speed with new HSDPA network, but I plan to do it next time I am on my way with TGV.

]]>Apr 4th 2007 2:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
Wouldn't that be one crazy ride, if it still rolls on wheels?]]>Apr 4th 2007 2:51AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 4th 2007 1:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
see video here:
http://edition.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/world/2007/04/03/bittermann.france.tgv.record.ap]]>Apr 4th 2007 4:29AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 4th 2007 4:54AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
Of course, you'll not gonna be sick, it feels absolutely normal to travel. In fact from Paris, no way to use planes to travel to London, because Eurostar (the TGV under the English Channel) takes you from central Paris to Waterloo Station in London (also in the city center) in 4 hours. No waiting, no check in, nothing. (An this is a "slow" line.)

so it rocks, although its very expensive, like non-discount airlines.]]>Apr 4th 2007 5:09AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
Check out airliners.net on this discussion
http://www.airliners.net/discussions/general_aviation/read.main/3299861/]]>Apr 4th 2007 5:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
;)]]>Apr 4th 2007 4:47PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
Still it's nothing to sneeze at. Beat's walkin', huh?]]>Apr 4th 2007 1:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 4th 2007 4:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 4th 2007 2:17PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 4th 2007 4:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/
For technical issues :
- TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse = High Speed Train) tracks are obviously special tracks. They cost more than regular tracks, but are very, very straight and well-made, so that the train doesn't meet any "disagreement" when he travels high-speed (usually 300-320 kph on those tracks, and around 200 kph on regular tracks).

- To be able to reach that speed, people had to increase voltage in lines from 25,000 volt to 31,000 volt. This was the same train you could use tomorrow (well, as soon as the Paris-Francfort connection is open), but don't worry about comfort issues, it won't go any faster than 350 kph (planned).

Also, I heard that some of these trains were used in the North of the US, has anyone heard of it too ?]]>Apr 4th 2007 6:03PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/Apr 4th 2007 7:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/The stations themselves were an architectural tour! Milano is like a cathedral. I rode from Alassio to see Milano and Genoa, and to have lunch because I didn't want to waste my last available day on the Railpass. I must admit to a personal love of train travel here, and I realize that what works well i Europe cannot work here in US for a number of reasons. What a shame!
LITERALY! I noticed that europe is light years ahead of the US in conservation, alternative energy. An interesting juxtaposition was a nuclear plant I passed in France, followed by mile after mile of wind farms all the way down into Spain. The train is the best way to travel in Europe. Cautionary note for visitors-don't over-estimate the number of countries you have time for when purchasing a Railpass. Also, the Italian and Euromed trains are Not high speed. SOME trains require a reservation-check at the station. Some of the happiest hours of my journey were on the trains and I won't hesitate to ride them again on my next visit. Boomer


]]>Apr 17th 2007 10:46PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/03/french-train-breakes-rail-speed-record/I'm French, so I thought maybe my opinion would be appreciated. We, in France are very proud of this record. And also it warms our hearts to see how the international community congratulates us nicely about this performance. We would like to thank you all for you nice comments and congratulations. I'm particularily proud because after all France is just a 60 milion people country, so we don't stand the chance to hold a world record just everyday. I admit that the Maglev is faster. But considering it is not in contact with the railway, it means less friction, so less speed reduction. I think that if we build an electromagnetic train with what horse power there was in this one, we would set an incredible record. Once again, thank you everyone for you apreciation of that event which without a doubt makes me proud of my nation. I hope the US can get such high speed trains. Because, let's be honest, they need them more than France does. The distance to cover for Americans are simply on another level, so it would be nice for everyone if they got trains to go rapidly from a city to an other. Not to mention that although the 'TGV' HST (High Speed Train) is more expensive than a regular train, it is far more conveniant (when there is no checking) and still far less expensive than planes. In France people do not use planes for internal travels. We consider it too much of an expense and use our cars for hours to cover distances whenever we do not use our TGV. Thanks everyone for you comments. France says hi to you all =) We are proud to be on the same planet as you guys are.]]>May 10th 2007 12:36PM