The fastest train on rail

Since I start writing this blog, I've mostly concentrated on the negative aspects of living in France. Of course there is not only negative thing - otherwise I wouldn't live here :)
I guess I more easily see all the negative when I am here - and when I'm back in Sweden I complain about the Swedes... :)

On the contrary I will write about one of the best things with France this time: the TGV. Yesterday's headlines in all French newpappers was the new speed record made by a train: 574.8 km/h. The news even reached Swedish Media (DN and SvD) - a B-nation in high-speed train technology.

The current high-speed train record set by a Japanese MagLev train (magnetic levitation) is 581 km/h. But as the PDG (CEO) of SNCF (the French railways systems) proudly claims -MagLev is not a real train. What he means is that since TGV runs on rails which already are in use, for using the MagLev trains expensive magnetic tracks are needed. In fact the only MagLev trains in use today is the Shanghai Airport Express (built by the German MagLev consortium). Except for airport lines and between two dense city I think it will be hard to finance building MagLev trainlines - at least during the following 10 years. However the MagLev trains have a good potential of reaching speeds over 1000 km/h so I believe it could be the transport system of the future. Until then I gladly cross "la hexagone" from Grenoble to Paris under 3 hours (in 320 km/h which is the actual maximum speed today in France). Considering the actual (average) speed between TGV and MagLev also talks in favour of the TGV - 260 km/h vs 245 km/h.

So how about the Swedish "high speed train" X2000. Comparing the line Paris-Lyon (460 km), which takes less than 2 hours (1h55) with TGV, with Stockholm-Gothembourg (465 km), which takes less than 3 hours (2h57) with X2000. One hour - and I quite important one. Whereas a business man in Stockholm still considers to take the flight to Gothembourg, noone from Paris is even thinking about taking the plane to Lyon (there are even a direct line between the airport in Paris and the airpot in Lyon).

X2000 has a top speed at 276 km/h, however Swedish regulations limit the maximum speed to 200 km/h which gives an avarage travel speed at 150 km/h. The problem is that in Sweden, in contrast to most other EU15 countries, no high-speed rails are built. And no high-speed rails are planned before 2015. However, going from Stockholm to Gothenburg with X2000 you get some advantages. You can have nice small pauses at the wonderful metropols: Alingsås, Skövde and Katrinholm. Aka Ingvar Carlsson-land, Bert Karlsson-land and Göran Persson-land. You don't get that with the TGV.