Alstom and SNCF have unveiled the first complete TGV M power car at Alstom’s Belfort workshops – marking the next step forward for their fleet renewal.
The TGV-M Power Car – Image, Alstom
The new trains are due to enter service in 2024. It has been designed in collaboration with SNCF and Alstom. The power car features more compact, simplified, and streamlined architecture, the TGV M boasts reduced acquisition and maintenance costs whilst gaining 20% extra capacity.
The 4th Generation of TGV trainsets will offer several new features. These include unprecedented modularity for the type, making it possible to adjust the number of carriages according to precise market needs (7, 8, or 9), to transform 1st class seating areas into 2nd class areas and reconfigure them by adding or removing seats or bicycle and baggage storage areas.
It is a little angry… – Image, Alstom
This marks a major design change – with the carriages of the train using articulated bogies (where two adjacent carriages sharing a bogie) as opposed design that calls for two sets of bogies per carriage.
The train when complete will offer 20% more seats – from 600 seats to 740 seats. There will be on-board WiFi, as well real-time train information.
In terms of accessibility, Alston and SNCF are promising 100% accessibility across carriage areas for all passengers, with the TGV M designed with wheelchair user associations to provide fully autonomous train accessibility for people with reduced mobility.
To improve its eco-credentials, the train itself will be 97% recyclable and will feature energy to the catenary during braking, eco-driving and the increasingly aerodynamic shape of the nose allow overall energy savings of around 20%. These stack up to 32% CO2 reductions and 30% reduced maintenance costs.
Head on – Image, Alstom
Entry into service
Trials of the TGV M will be conducted both in France and the Czech Republic in 2022, whilst the trains are due to enter service with SNCF in 2024.
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