UPDATED - The TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) - Great transport, well located far from Le Gros Chigy!

UPDATE

I now see that I forgot the thing that I found most fascinating about the TGV last night!

In amongst all this technology, high speed travel, communication, public address systems that work, online ticketing and fast living the departure of the train from the station was still controlled by two conductors with whistles at the front and the back of the train!

While looking for a house we ended up at several where the agent had forgotten to say that the house was close to a TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse, Frances world leading high speed train) track - given that possibly our first criteria was quite this was a bit disturbing. Some of the people with us made comments like it wasn't that close or the trains weren't that frequent, but there is absolutely no hint of the TGV from the House at Le Gros Chigy!

However, its a fantastic means to travel the length of France and the closest stations are only around 40 km away. Today I drove a traveller who caught the TGV to Paris to the Le Creusot TGV station.



Watching the through trains roaring through on the centre tracks showed that our decision had been right. The autumn colours alongside the track

are hidden by the blue of the TGV flashing past.



The sight 100s of tons of steel dashing through at hundreds of kilometers an hour (operation speed on recent tracks is up to 320 km/h) only meters away is awe inspiring and scary if one thinks of the consequences of a problem! However, in twenty years of operation there has not been a single fatality connected with a TGV running at high speed.

Some interesting points about the TGV:

Tracks have larger radius turns to protect the passenger from centripetal force felt by the passenger

Tracks can accommodate higher gradients (slopes) than conventional tracks

It is expected that the 2 billionth passenger will be carried during 2010

In 2007, SNCF generated profits of €1.1 billion (approximately US$1.75 billion or £875 million) driven largely by higher margins on the TGV network.

Tracks are welded rather than jointed like older tracks so there is no clickety-clack

The focus on increasing capacity and speed in the future is based on equipping carriages with motors to allow the number of passengers per train to be increased