TGV sets new speed record on run from Calais to Marseilles

TGV (Tres Grande Vitesse) number 531 travelled from the Channel to the Mediterranean in 3 hours 29 minutes in a trial run on Saturday, reaching a peak speed of 366.6 kph. Onlookers cheered the Calais-Marseilles train for much of its world record-setting journey, and a bailiff officially timed its triumphal arrival 11 minutes ahead of schedule at the Gare Saint-Charles.

France earlier set the world's record of 515.3 kph for short distance train speed, and the supremacy of French railway technology has long been a source of national pride. "This is the best example of what the state can do when it has a long-term vision," Mr Jean-Claude Maurice wrote in the Journal du Dimanche.

Mr Louis Gallois, the president of the national railway company SNCF, travelled in the second carriage of TGV 531, along with Mr Michel Moreau, the head of train production at Alstom, which manufactures the TGV. Alstom is making the carriages for Dublin's LUAS network. Representatives of British, Italian and Chinese railways were among the 250 guests on the trial run.

Critics claim that although the TGV is a marvel, it is, like the Concorde before it, unexportable. So far only Korea has bought the French train. The main difficulty is that the TGV's technology surpasses the capacity of most railway systems. The Paris-London Euro star, for example, travels at 300 kph between Paris and Calais, slowing to 120 kph in the Channel Tunnel and 90 kph between Dover and London. British tracks will not be able to accommodate it at very high speed until 2008.

The TGV epitomises the French priority on design over profitability, as well as chronic industrial action. The launch of the "TGV Med" coincides with the announcement of a Ffr 1.5 billion deficit (£180 million) at the SNCF. One third of the deficit was due to the completion of the last 225 km stretch between Valence and Marseilles. But the other Ffr 1 billion is the result of a railway strike that stranded thousands of passengers last month.

The European Commission is preparing a White Paper on transport which is expected to criticise Paris for massively subsidising the SNCF. Yet despite frequent strikes, France enjoys one of the best rail services in Europe. The SNCF promises that it will limit ticket prices on the new Paris-Marseilles route, which will take only three hours, compared with 4 hours and 10 minutes before, or 13 hours a century ago. The line will be officially inaugurated by President Chirac on June 7th - if trade unions do not sabotage the event with a threatened strike. Regular service is to begin on June 10th, and all seats are booked for the first week.

Marseilles has experienced an economic boom in anticipation of the new train line, which was a decade in planning. Unemployment in the Mediterranean port has fallen from 23 per cent to 17 per cent and 5,000 new companies have been established in the past five years.