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T G V, I C E, E u r o s t a r
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Only electric high-speed Intercity day trains, more cost-efficient than exclusive 1st class or sleeper services, achieved a substantial traffic growth - in Germany initially combated by the press helping the motorcar industry and by "environmentalists", unwittingly favoring pollution, not nature. First true high-speed trains were the Japanese Shinkansen, started in 1964, followed by the French TGV "trains a grande vitesse", delayed by politics. The first TGV line Paris - Lyon opened in September 1981, the Italian Direttissima in 1988, the German Nord-Sued ICE track not before 1991, with a quarter of a century delay. The most spectacular new link became the Channel tunnel. The Paris - London Eurostar started in 1994, the British high-speed section however was built only in 2003. Insufficient financial results of the Eurotunnel Co. with a debt of 6.2 billion pound (according to Daily Telegraph July 14, 2006) became obvious, but 7 Eurostar trains, ordered for services from Paris to cities north of London, had remained stored until GNER used them at least for domestic services. There was even the idea of canceling the London - Brussels Eurostars! Then came a more logic proposal: Instead of closing down Channel tunnel services, they could be extended to Amsterdam and Germany. And the Eurostar should go also to cities north of London. In the UK however a wrong concept of privatization had hampered development of a true high-speed network, at the benefit of short-haul airlines. After long negotiations, German DB published in 2009 the intention of running ICE high-speed services to London, by the press expected already for 2012.
Links between Denmark and Sweden by tunnel and bridges were opened in 2000, but the lack of high-speed lines Sweden- and Norway - Denmark limited railways’ success. Germany introduced between Hamburg and Copenhagen the diesel-powered ICE-TD and in 2008 construction of the Fehmarn Belt bridge was concluded for completion in 2018, linking Scandinavia with the continent (opposed by environmentalism in favor of air-polluting ferries and planes). The LGV Strasbourg - Lyon could enable high-speed services Germany - Southern France. In December 2005 a TGV Geneva - Marseille was started. Expensive tunnels are necessary for connecting Italy by international high-speed lines. A new tunnel in the Alps is the modern Loetschberg tunnel, completed in 2008, to be followed by the Gotthard with 57 km length, expected for 2014. A gigantic bridge to Sicily, announced for completion in 2011 (and opposed by a shipping “mafia” and reportedly also by Italian railway authorities), should connect Palermo with the high-speed network. A high-speed line became expected to link Southern France with Italy via the Mont Cenis region and another one via the Cote d’Azur. However, Italy’s Refounded Communist Party “made a mark opposing large European infrastructure projects like the high-speed train between Italy and France” (Newsweek, April 24, 2006). In Austria the Brenner- and the Semmering-Basistunnel projects were politically combated for decades. In 2009 international negotiations about the Brenner tunnel were arranged. The success of all the expensive Alpine tunnels indeed is dependent on survival of international passenger trains. In 1988 the German ICE1 attained on tests 406 km/h and the TGV Atlantique two years later 515 km/h or 320 miles per hour. TGV Atlantique was world’s first train to run regularly at 300 km/h and in the meantime France got experience with 320 km/h in regular service. The Eurostar and other TGV derivatives proved that different current systems are no longer a problem. The TGV Thalys connects Paris with Amsterdam and Cologne from 1996 and 1997. A TGV Reseau started in 1996 services Paris - Torino - Milan. Italy’s high-speed train ETR500 got a 3-current derivative, known also as ETR500P, which became tested in France for services Milan - Torino - Paris. With the direttissima Rome - Naples, Italy changed to the 25kV ac system instead of 3kV dc. Other lines were to follow, new 3-current ETR500 trains were built and the older ones got the engine units replaced. Between Rome and Naples a speed of 300 km/h was attained. In 2000 Germany had introduced the ICE3 for 300 km/h, capable of running at 320 km/h. With “distributed power” like the Japanese Shinkansen or the earlier German 403 of 1973, it avoided the uneconomic heavy-weight power units used on TGV, Eurostar, ICE1, 2 and ETR500. The multi-current ICE3M version of the ICE3, used also by Dutch railways, opened up services Amsterdam - Cologne - Basle and Frankfurt - Brussels. In 2003 the ICE3M undertook tests in France and finally it was allowed to enter the TGV country regularly. The double-deck TGV Duplex of French Railways increased high-speed trains’ capacity. In 2007 it established a new speed record with 574.8 km/h. After the TGV, Alstom started development of the AGV, like the ICE 3 with distributed power. A speed of 350 km/h had come into consideration and it became true with the “Velaro E” version of the ICE3 for Spain, offered also to Italy, where Ansaldo-Breda joined forces with Alstom. A Velaro type version of the ICE3 is developed for Germany and for the slower IC trains a replacement by an ICX option from 2013 onwards is on the agenda. For slower lines an increase in speed was achieved by tilting “pendolino” trains. In the USA those “Pendulum Cars” had been constructed already before the war by aircraft builder “Jack” Northrop and engineer C.T. Hill. They were tested by the Santa Fe, but World War II prevented a further development. The breakthrough was achieved by Fiat engineer Andreas Parnigoni. The “Pendolino” prototype ETR 401 was built in 1975. In 1988 the ETR 450 of FS appeared on the Milan - Rome run, followed by the ETR460. With the ETR 470 the Swiss-Italian Cisalpino consortium introduced new services Switzerland - Italy. Opening of the Loetschberg - Basistunnel improves services Basle - Milan and new CIS units will be capable of running at 250 km/h. Not yet being allowed to extend the services to Frankfurt, an extension southward to La Spezia and Rome was considered. For the Brenner line a Cisalpino had been proposed, but it remained a matter of discussions. Switzerland started its nice tilting ICN for domestic services. Czech Railways introduced the 680 class pendolino trains, intended for joint-stock services Berlin - Prague - Vienna. Slovenia started the EC “Casanova” Lubljana - Venice with the 310 series (ETR 470/ 480). The pendolino built for Finland, the SM200, was intended to go also to St. Petersburg, but Russia refused. German DB ordered instead of its diesel-powered ICE-TD more electric ICE-T2 tilting trains. The Oresund link, Scandinavia’s connection with the continent, became served by Swedish X2K (X2000) electric units, but the Swedish-Norwegian “Linx” with the X2N vanished in 2005, being not competitive with short-haul flights. So Sweden remained without adequate train connections with the continent (only a privately owned “Berlin Night-Express” Malmo - Berlin via the Trelleborg – Mukran ferry of Scandlines provided a service). Swedish politics had considered true high-speed lines unnecessary and only very late a few new sections were built. Decades ago Sweden had abandoned development of the KLL lightweight low-gravity center day train resembling the Talgos and the German VT10, but with a new system of articulated bogies. In the UK airline pioneer Richard Branson founded Virgin Trains and introduced Fiat pendolino electric units on the West Coast Main Line, starting with London - Manchester in 2003, followed by Glasgow, Liverpool and Holyhead services, more competitive than slow conventional trains. But contrary to a widespread opinion, the tilting-technology does not improve safety and therefore it is no equivalent to new high-speed lines. Always the mixture of fast and slow services prevents efficiency and the “mixed” terminals also are unsuitable for nowadays’ security requirements. The new railway age got its new aesthetics. Traditional railway coaches were looking like furniture trucks, as the former DB design boss Schuh expressed it, caused by stringent European UIC rules. And still now they are hand-coupled, like in the 19th century! High-speed trains escaped from these restrictions. Already before WW II, Pagana in Italy had given the ETR200 a strikingly futuristic appearance. Pininfarina continued it with the ETR 500. Then their pastel/green color scheme was replaced by two-tone grey and the interiors were refurbished by Zagato. Giugiaro had re-styled the Pendolinos, beginning with the ETR460 and he created the futuristic design of the E402B locomotives. Jacques Cooper’s TGV design, originally painted orange, then grey/blue (Thalys grey/dark-red), was exceeded by DB design center’s cool “white shark” look of the ICE1. A curious feature of German ICE trains is the mixture of open saloons (Ap, Bp), offering also “window seats” without window and uneconomic old-style compartments (Av, Bv). The ICE1 included a magnificent dining- and buffet-car, conceived by Peter Lankes, DB. Then dining-cars vanished from ICE trains and even the seats in the buffet rooms were abolished. In contrast to other countries, seat reservation is not compulsory and on some days ICE trains were so crowded, that passengers were sitting on the floor, even in the buffet room. The new streamlined twin-deck TGV Duplex and TGV POS were designed by Roger Tallon. Refurbishing TGV interiors was done by fashion designer Christian Lacroix in a somewhat surprising style. The yellow/pastel/black Eurostar got a new interior, not as cozy as Philippe Starck had proposed. Aesthetic highlight is the ICE3, styled by Alex Neumeister Design in hi-tech purity like the maglev “Transrapid”, influenced by Bauhaus tradition and the Hochschule fuer Gestaltung Ulm. From a lounge passengers even can have a look into the cockpit! Then came other futuristic designs by Giugiaro and Pininfarina (some other design proposals were not as beautiful). A highlight of modern architecture is the new Berlin Hauptbahnhof, designed by Meinhard von Gerkan, inaugurated in 2006. Europe united, but for a long time high-speed trains had been barred from crossing the porous borders. Under those conditions the fast day train Hamburg - Rome, an unpublished dream on timetable conferences decades ago, probably never will materialize. When in 2008 the EC Munich – Rome was stopped (being diverted to Rimini), every illusion vanished. The outcome of discussions about using Austrian RailJet trains on the Brenner line or even a new Brenner tunnel must be waited out. But the TGV Paris - Milan had been successfully introduced, connecting with an ETR500 Milan - Rome. Years after the ETR460 on the Modane line had failed, Italy prepared an ETR500 version with 8 instead of 12 trailers for Milan - Paris services. For 2010-20 a direct TGV or ETR500 Paris - Rome became envisioned - the dream of a modern Rome-Express successor. In 2008 the International Herald Tribune informed: “Italian entrepreneurs are planning the country’s first private train service, which is set to begin in 2011 (…). The new rail company, NTV, is a 900 million euro project that would link Rome (with Italian cities). The service would run on the existing Italian rail network, using 25 11-car AGV high-speed trains made by Alstom of France”. European high-speed services Standard gauge
The year means the start of services. In the numbers of cars per train the engine units are included Spain see chapter Sud-Express Formations TGV Sud-Est L+M+6T+M+L, other ones L+8T+L, always articulated 8 cars, often 2 trains coupled:
ICE1 L+12T+L:
ICE2 L + 7T, derivative from ICE1, also 2 trains coupled. ICE3 M + T + M + T + T + M + T + M, distributed power, also 2 trains coupled:
Eurostar L + M + 8T + 8T +M + L Articulated 9 + 9 cars:
The trains which then were used by GNER had 14 cars and 2 engine units. ETR 500 L + 12T + L:
L=locomotive-like BoBo engine unit, M = car with powered axles (TGV Sud-Est, Eurostar first bogie powered), T = trailer. Literature: Thomas Meyer-Eppler: Die schnellsten Züge der Welt Jean-Pierre Malaspina: Trains d'Europe (La Vie du Rail)
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