There was much excitement in France yesterday as Alstom unveiled its fourth generation TGV.
This was at Alstom’s Belfort plant and Alain Krakovitch, MD of Voyages-SNCF, tweeted a photo of this new TGV’s power car nose.
A Belfort, nous découvrons le « nez » de la première motrice du #TGVM et je voulais partager ce moment avec vous !
Une forme toujours plus aérodynamique, pour une meilleure pénétration dans l’air permettant une économie d’énergie de 20 %.
Un éco #TGV -4ème génération-pour 2024! pic.twitter.com/DheevkZs6F— Alain Krakovitch (@alainkrakovitch) May 26, 2021
Branded the TGV M, it will eventually be operating on the main high-speed routes and corporate travellers will gain access to the latest facilities.
SNCF has ordered 100 of these TGV Ms at a cost of €2.7 billion. The plan is to have some units in service for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The carriages will be duplex (double-deck). They are being assembled at Alstom’s La Rochelle plant.
M stands for modular and the latest TGV’s selling point is that the number of carriages can easily be changed to suit demand.
Previously this wasn’t so easy for an articulated train like the TGV. More TGV M information can be found here.
Meanwhile, despite yesterday’s news regarding France’s quarantine requirements for UK visitors , Eurostar (majority owned by SNCF) will be launching double-daily London-Paris service today (Thursday May 27).
However given the current uncertainty during the pandemic readers must check the latest situation before travel.
