347 MPH EV

The video starts to play, but then it stops.

Anyway, I want to ride that train. Maybe I'll have to visit France one of these days.

 

Thank you! The video worked well for me, and I'll be seeing it again for sure. The TGV is my favourite train, and I won't tell you how many N scale models I have. Hey, Daniel, when do you want to go?

Congratulations, SNCF and Alstom! Magnifique!

 

Coast to coast in the US in about 10 hrs if you live.

I don't want to be anywhere near a train going that fast. If it ever comes off the tracks, there won't be anything left of the train or whatever it hits.

At about 510 feet per second... If you see it coming a mile away and you're on the tracks, you got about 1 second for decision making... and 9 seconds to get about 40 feet away so that the wind doesn't knock you down.

I'd like to see the video of that train at 350 hitting a herd of cows.. :lol:

 

The high-speed tracks are totally fenced off and there are no grade crossings. Cows would never get anywhere near the tracks, nor would anyone else. A TGV at full speed is smoother, quieter, and safer than Amtrak at 60mph. The only casualties are lots of bugs.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Apr 3 2007, 03:24 PM) [snapback]417215[/snapback]</div>

I'll bet it doesn't have to pull over to give freight trains the right of way, either...

 

Uh, no. The freights don't even run on the same tracks, and if you're 10 seconds late for the train, it's gone.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(daronspicher @ Apr 3 2007, 03:00 PM) [snapback]417191[/snapback]</div>

Oh come now, the Kow knows better than to stand on the tracks

 

All I know is that the story brings tears to my eyes; this seems to indicate to me that (whether I realize it or not), I've been moved.

Just...WOW!

I love the parts, towards the end of the video, where the train blows through that station and over the switches, the wires above zigzagging and sparking madly...when she's seen approaching an overpass (but only for a second and then she's gone!), and flying (poor choice of word, perhaps?) through the French countryside, on that lovely and well cared-for right of way...

It's nice to see national pride in projects such as these.

I wish we could rally interest around such a civil project, not just ones with a primarily military focus (or, even better, some sort of moral imperative).

 

My wife and I rode the TGV about 15 years ago, from Paris to Bordeaux. It was quite an experience. While we were in France, we were watching the news on TV and they showed the rescue of a woman who was stuck in the toilet. By coincidence, French icon Jerry Lewis was on that train and was featured on the news broadcast.

 

So what are the passenger miles per gallon (liters per kilometer) and how does it compare with the A380?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(lowlander @ Apr 3 2007, 05:24 PM) [snapback]417252[/snapback]</div>

Forgive me, lowlander. I could expound on flying crossovers and pressure-sealed cars, but I didn't want to overwhelm anyone. Railways are very different on this side of the big pond. We've yet to grasp the concept of trains leaving and arriving on time, let alone railways that compete with aircraft. Canada's premiere train was built in 1954, and was only recently modified with holding tanks so the toilets don't empty directly on to the tracks. America's Superliners were built with tanks, but the toilets are so tempermental that most of them are out of order by the time the train reaches its destination.

Things would be different if our governments were ruled by logic and a sense of the common good, instead of lobbyists only looking out for their own interests.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Apr 3 2007, 09:19 AM) [snapback]417050[/snapback]</div>

It would have to be in the fall. I won't be recovered enough for travel before summer, and my whole summer is booked for hiking in B.C. and Alberta (The Selkirk, Purcell, and Rocky Mountains).

And I still can't view the video. This time it does not even begin. I'll try again later, when Europe is asleep.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Apr 3 2007, 05:36 PM) [snapback]417289[/snapback]</div>

I'm beginning to think that that would be un-American.

You're not a liberal, are you?
[laughing]

 

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