February 06, 2008	Wednesday	Muharram 27, 1429

LA ROCHELLE (France): French engineering giant Alstom, creator of the high-speed TGV train, unveiled on Tuesday a new-generation, super-fast prototype: quicker, cleaner, bigger — and tailored specially for export.

President Nicolas Sarkozy helped cut the ribbon on the AGV, which stands for Automotice Grande Vitesse, or High-Speed Railcar — a bullet-train designed with a cruise speed of up to 360 kilometres per hour.

The TGV’s top cruise speed is currently 320 kph (190 mph).

“We wanted this train because we had understood that the ultra high-speed market was going to evolve,” Alstom chairman Patrick Kron told some 500 guests gathered at a rail test centre in the Atlantic city of La Rochelle.

“To answer that challenge, we had to expand and modernise our offer,” he said before unveiling the slick black-and-grey prototype, which shunted forwards in a pool of blue light.

The AGV’s key innovation is a system of motorised carriages spread along the length of the train, instead of the front and rear only, which constructors say slashes both energy and maintenance costs.—AFP