Since June 2023, the future INOUI TGV 5th generation rolling stock, named TGV M has been undergoing tests on the French national railway network.
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This campaign, which is being stepped up with the arrival of a new test train, will last until the end of 2023, before the acceptance test phase in 2024.
The TGV M, the future INOUI TGV, from Alstom’s Avelia Horizon range, is entering a new phase of testing.
Ordered by SNCF Voyageurs for 115 trainsets at a cost of around 3.5 billion euros, it represents the 5th generation of TGVs and the realisation of a historic industrial and innovation project between SNCF Voyageurs and the French designer and manufacturer Alstom.
It will be rolled out over ten years, starting in 2025, with the first trains running on the Paris Lyon Marseille line.
In December 2022, pre validation tests began at the Velim site, in the Czech Republic. On this closed circuit, the aim was to validate for the first time the train’s overall operation at speeds of up to 200 km/h.
In March 2023, the future INOUI high speed train travelled to Vienna for climatic tests.
These trials enabled the future train to be tested at extreme temperatures (between 20°C and +40°C). They are critical in the current climate change context, as they will enable us to assess the energy efficiency of the future INOUI TGV.
The train’s resistance to climatic constraints will make an active contribution to the objective of reducing the energy consumption of the future INOUI TGV by 20%.
• The first train has been running since June 2023, enabling the shunting, energy collection through pantograph, traction, and braking functions to be assessed and validated. It is this train that ran for the first time at the maximum commercial speed of 320km/h, on 14 September 2023 at 3.47pm.
• In October 2023, the pre validation tests will accelerate with the first runs of a second
rain.
This will enable all the train’s safety equipment to be validated.
This new test train is covered with two special liveries (at each end of the train), designed by SNCF Voyageurs and Alstom staff respectively, and will be visible on the Sud Europe Atlantique high speed line until mid November.
Throughout this period, between 25 and 30 technicians and engineers will be on board to make up the train testing team: experts from SNCF Voyageurs’ Rolling Stock Engineering and Alstom teams, drivers, etc.
From January to July 2024, admission tests will be carried out, which consist of testing the operation of the trainset by reproducing the configurations and contexts that it may encounter throughout the real life of the train (single unit, multiple unit, degraded modes, weather conditions, singular points on the network, etc.).
They will be conducted by an accredited body on the French national railway network, with traffic running at up to 320 km/h. The admission tests will be used to receive the Marketing Authorisation issued by ERA (the European Railways Agency).
Finally, from autumn 2024, over an extended period prior to the start of commercial service, several trainsets will run throughout the network as part of pre operation tests. These will assess the train’s reliability under operating conditions.
All functions will be tested, in particular those relating to passenger comfort. These tests, which will be conducted with the first 4 production trains, will also be an opportunity for drivers and conductors to familiarise themselves with this new train and its innovations.
At the end of all these tests, the future INOUI TGV will have benefited from 350 weeks of cumulative testing and will have covered more than a million kilometres before the first customer experiences the SNCF Voyageurs high speed train of tomorrow. ■