French train beats conventional rail record
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While it didn’t quite mash the land speed record of 581 km/h set by a Japanese mag lev in 2003, a French train just broke the record for conventional rail by reaching 574.8 km/h on fresh-laid track. The previous record was 515 km/h, set in 1990 by another fast French train. Regular runs begin June 10. Alstom Transports, the manufacturer of the “train a grande vitesse” or TGV, expects to sell the trains to China. California is also considering a bullet train line from Sacramento in the north to San Diego, in the south, via San Francisco and Los Angeles. [GT]
