French train beats world high speed record

French railroads have been setting speed records since 1954, but this time they’ve really done it. On April 3rd, a French modified train, on a modified track, traveled 357mph to break the world speed record.

The train was named V150 in the hopes that it would travel 150 meters per second or 335.5mph. The train exceeded expectations when it beat the previous world speed record of 320mph, set by the French in 1990. On the day it broke the record, V150 was carrying journalists and VIPs, but the train is designed to travel at a more sedate 199mph speed to carry passengers on a route between Paris, the Champagne, Lorraine and Alsace regions of France. In addition, the train will service new direct links to Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland, cutting travel time by one third to half.

Tickets on the new train are available April 10 for travel beginning June 10.

The high speed train was built by Alstrom and features larger wheels and an engine with twice the capacity of the old high speed trains produced by France. Tests on the train with a 25,000 horsepower engine have been going on for weeks.

“This is more than something just for the record books,” explained Fabrice Morel, CEO of Rail Europe, SNCF’s North American subsidiary and largest supplier of European rail products. “The tests conducted with the V150 train have provided valuable data to ensure the safety, comfort and environmental performance of trains operating at these very high speeds.”