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Article: Test running starts on TGV mediterranee. (High speed).
- Article from:
- International Railway Journal
- Article date:
- March 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Simmons-Boardman Publishing Corporation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Test running officially started on January 17 on France's fifth high-speed line: the 250km TGV Mediterranee linking Valence with Marseille and Nimes. When the line opens in June it will transform rail travel between northern and southern France.
THE French transport minister, Mr Jean-Francois Gayssot, took the controls of the first TGV Mediterranee test train which reached a maximum speed of 354km/h on a dash from Aix-en-Provence to Valence. Mr Louis Gallois, president of French National Railways (SNCF), and Mr Jean-Francois Benard, managing director of RFF, the French track authority, were also on board the inaugural TGV. The FFr 25 billion ($US 3.6 billion) ...