Le train en vitesse! C'est super, Non?!

Now this is fast! A French TGV train has broken the world speed record on the Strasbourg to Paris route with an incredible speed of 574.8 Km/H (et des poussières), equivalent to about 357.16 MPH ! An incredible 25,000 horsepower! I saw this on television a couple of days ago when it happened, but I'm glad someone has uploaded it to the internet.

This is a lengthy video (13 minutes), but worth watching, even if you don't understand a lot of the commentary. At least I now know why the overhead cable seemed to be darting back and fort across the train; it's apparently all part of the design for the cable to sweep across so that it neither overheats nor wears unduly any part of the pantograph. If such a speed could be achieved regularly (and a train built in the UK like it) then the Inverness-London journey would take only about 1 hour 34 minutes (as against the roughly 8 hours it actually does take)!

TGV intégral du Record 2007 574,8 km/h
Uploaded by Optimus03

(thru: Scott-O-Rama)