In 1981, these are the fastest trains in the world.
But French engineers want to see just how fast they can go.
Reaching 380 kilometers an hour, the TGV smashes past a world record that’s held for over 25 years.
The French have something to prove.
Because 40 years ago amid controversy and doubt, this train took on the plane and won.
Only a few decades earlier, it seemed that trains had reached their limit. In experimental runs,
railway engineers had pushed them to incredible speeds. But in actual service, trains around the
world weren't anywhere near as fast. Nore were they weren’t getting any faster.
The problem was, engineering a faster locomotive would only get you so far.
With many rail lines having been built a half century earlier, they had sharp curves,
steep grades to climb, and outdated signaling that just couldn’t handle higher speeds.
Getting trains to go faster would mean having to rebuild the tracks they ran on. Which was
not only expensive, many were convinced it was pointless. Because the 1960’s was the dawn of
the jet age. Air travel offered unparalleled speed, while the automobile promised unmatched
freedom and convenience. The train was no match for either. Around the world, billions were spent
building new superhighways. Short haul air routes were growing in popularity. And just around the
corner, new technologies and radical transport solutions promised to reshape travel entirely.
Many saw trains as an antiquated 19th century technology. But halfway around the world,
the Japanese were about to change everything.
When everyone else had given up on railways,
the Japanese had just completed one of the most ambitious rail projects of the century.
Building more than five hundred kilometers of near perfectly straight track,
tunneling through mountains, and constructing over a thousand bridges.
The Japanese called it the Shinkansen. And when it opened in 1964, the trains on this
new railway ran at over two hundred kilometers per hour. Faster than anywhere else in the world. The
Shinkansen was a new kind of railway, one reserved exclusively for high speed trains. Taking the most
direct route possible, it cut the travel time between Japan’s two largest cities in half.
But it wasn't just its speed that was impressive, it was the scale. The Shinkansen could move a huge
volume of people. A single train carried nearly a thousand passengers. And over
one hundred and twenty trains ran every single day, one every 15 minutes. In just
the first three years, the Shinkansen moved more than a hundred million passengers.
And two cities, located nearly five hundred kilometers apart,
were seemingly pulled closer together. But as the world looked on in admiration,
railway engineers in France were dismayed.
The French were no strangers to getting their trains to go fast. Only a few years earlier,
French engineers had set a remarkable train speed record, putting themselves
at the forefront of railway technology. In areas of acceleration, braking, and electric
pickup at high speeds, they were world leaders. But none of that seemed to matter. Because the
top brass running France's railways, the SNCF, lacked vision. Facing record deficits, they were
obsessed with short-term fixes. Cutting costs, reducing service, and closing down rail lines.
But the opening of the Shinkansen sparked a profound shift in thinking.
Up until then, the fastest trains in France had almost always been luxurious trains. Scheduled
to run maybe once or twice a day, with all first class seating and expensive fares.
But the Japanese had shown how speed and frequency were commodities that could be sold to an eager
public. And that got them thinking.
In the preceding years, French domestic air travel had exploded in popularity.
A trend that was only expected to continue.
But the irony was that an ever-increasing share of the time flying to a destination was actually
spent on the ground, stuck on congested roads or in crowded airports. Turns out,
going faster didn't always mean saving time. And SNCF could use that to their advantage.
At a distance of up to a thousand kilometers, a high speed train scheduled to run frequently,
could go head-to-head with the airplane. And if it was made
affordable, it could win back passengers. Within months, SNCF went on the offensive
with a bold plan for high-speed point to point connections between major cities.
But where the Japanese had spent enormous
sums building an entirely new rail network right down to all new stations, that wasn't going to
work for the French. SNCF would have to keep costs down, utilizing as much of their existing network
as possible. Instead, they'd focus their efforts on developing a new kind of train, experimenting
with locomotives powered by gas turbines taken straight from military helicopters.
Using aircraft technology had a few key advantages. Gas turbines were
light and powerful and would allow trains to run on steeper grades, so tracks could
be built with fewer tunnels and bridges. And Kerosene-fueled gas-turbines would eliminate
the need to build expensive overhead lines. And the French were prepared to take it a step
further than the Japanese, aiming for dramatically higher speeds.
In 1972, SNCF unveiled the TGV-001. An experimental train with cutting
edge technologies and a top speed of more than three hundred kilometers per hour.
This was a train designed to sell high-speed rail to a skeptical public.
World-renowned designer Jacque Cooper was hired to design a train that didn’t look like a train.
Taking inspiration from his earlier work on sports cars, Cooper gave the TGV bold sleek lines that
were undeniably cool.Gone were the opulent railcars of earlier French express trains,
replaced with modern aircraft-like cabins. Gas turbines produced an impressive 5,000
horsepower, and powered electric motors that drove each of the train's wheels.Articulated
bogies reduced weight, improved stability and offered a smooth, quieter ride.
In testing, the prototype racked up over half a million kilometers and accelerated beyond
three hundred kilometers per hour more than a hundred and seventy-five times.
Just about anyone with political sway was invited to ride the train of the future and
hear SNCF’s vision for a high speed-rail. With proven technology, the French were on
the verge of putting the world's fastest trains into service.
But many leaders wanted nothing to do with the TGV. There were fears that it would be a Concorde
on rails, another massively expensive vanity project without hope of ever turning a profit.
Others dismissed it as benefiting the wealthy, with new lines skipping past
smaller cities to serve the Paris elite. And there were still competing visions for
the future of French Transport. The Aerotrain, a radical tracked hovercraft that ran on an elevated
concrete guideway, was also making headlines. With a promised speed of up to 400 kilometers an hour,
it stole some of the TGV’s thunder, and gained considerable support. Meanwhile,
the Civil Aviation Administration pushed for the development of airliners capable of short
takeoff and landings, and even the construction of compact runways right in the center of Paris.
Support for the TGV wasn't anywhere near what the SNCF hoped for,
and things would only get worse. In 1973, the price of oil began to skyrocket,
rising nearly 300% in a single year. Oil exporting nations in the Middle East had
imposed an embargo on the West, sending shockwaves throughout the global economy,
and causing widespread fuel shortages. France was among the worst hit,
where almost three quarters of the country's energy needs depended on imported oil.
After years of development, SNCF found itself having gone all in on fuel-thirsty gas-turbines,
right as the era of cheap oil was ending. But for the TGV, the energy crisis would turn
out to be a blessing in disguise. In 1974, The French Prime Minister
launched an ambitious plan to meet the country’s energy needs with Nuclear power,
pledging to build over a hundred and fifty nuclear plants under the slogan:
"In France, we do not have oil, but we have ideas.” For SNCF the decision was a game-changer
They began working on an electric version of the TGV.
Switching from gas-turbine to electric traction was a huge undertaking,
calling for the development of new pantographs, suspension and braking systems. But French railway
engineers, who had a history of pushing electric locomotives to their limits,
managed to complete the modifications in just two years. And the switch from gas to electric would
soon pay off in a big way. Cars, airliners, and Aerotrains depended on imported oil, while the
TGV could run on French nuclear energy. The optics were powerful, but the energy crisis
also forced leaders to prioritize public transport. And by March 1976,
the necessary approvals were in place for the construction of a new line connecting France’s two
largest cities. And it would largely be paid for with private capital, not government subsidies.
Soon large swaths of countryside bore witness to a massive construction project,
the first major Western European rail line in nearly a half century.
With a sleek new look for the 1980s, the TGV was set to debut as the fastest train in the
world. But just months before its opening in 1981, French railway engineers would do what they did
best. Find out just how fast it could go. In a highly publicized event, they pushed the
TGV well beyond its initial operating speed, all the way up to 380 kilometers per hour,
smashing the world record they set decades earlier. But while the 1955 record had pushed
railway technology to its literal breaking point, 380 kilometers per hour was achieved with the very
same train that would soon go into service. Paving the way for even higher speeds in the future.
From its opening in September 1981, the success of the TGV surprised even the SNCF. Only two
months after opening, it had already carried its millionth passenger. And within a year,
France’s largest domestic airline saw a 60% decline in passengers between Paris and Lyon.
Many of the public’s criticisms faded as the price of a ticket wasn’t any higher than
on a regular train, and an aggressive marketing campaign promoted the TGV’s
efficiency, time savings and accessibility. And as if on cue, politicians who had vehemently
opposed the TGV in the 1960’s and 70s now proudly proclaimed their support for it all along
Almost immediately, SNCF began to plan for new lines connecting more French cities.
Over the years, service speeds also increased. And in experimental runs,
French railway engineers continued to push the limit, ultimately reaching 574 km/h in 2007. A
rail speed record that holds to this day. Like the Shinkansen, the TGV was an immediate
technical and commercial success. And by the mid 1980s, it had become a symbol of
national pride. A nearly two-decade-old vision had finally been confirmed. The
train had taken on the plane and won. And as a testament to the forward thinking
of railway engineers, today high-speed rail is more relevant than ever.
The 1991 Gulf War was a defining moment in modern warfare, a showcase of advanced military
technology on a massive scale. And In the opening hours of the conflict, Iraq commanded the fourth
largest military in the world, with an Air Force of nearly seven hundred combat-ready aircraft.
Among these was the Soviet-built MiG-25 Foxbat. A Cold-War era interceptor that was by many
accounts too heavy, too unmaneuverable and too outdated to put up much of a fight,
But the Iraqis would push the aircraft to its limit, leveraging any advantage they could find,
in a daring plan to ambush state of the art American F-15s as they patrolled the
skies over Baghdad. The outcome wasn't what anyone would have expected.
You can learn more about the incredible Samurra Air Battle in my latest video,
now on Nebula. Nebula is home to a growing number of exclusive Mustard videos,
whether it’s the stories behind iconic machines or bringing unrealized concepts to life.
And it’s where you can expect to see a lot more exciting projects in the near
future. Including reimagining what the world would
have looked like if mass supersonic air travel had become a reality.
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