Alstom Unveils Prototype 224 MPH AGV Train and Its First Customer
05 February 2008
Alstom has unveiled the prototype of the AGV (Automotrice Grande Vitesse), its fourth-generation very high speed electric train. This single-deck train features the Alstom’s articulated architecture used on the TGV combined with a new distributed drive system based on permanent magnet motors (the train’s motors being located on the bogies, under the train), an innovation which considerably increases the potential number of seats onboard the train by eliminating the need for locomotives.
The AGV is designed to reach a commercial speed of 360 kph (224 mph), and already has its first customer: Italy’s new railway operator, Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori.
The articulated architecture involves positioning the bogies (axles and wheels) between the carriages of a train, contrary to their traditional positioning under the carriages. This technology eliminates most of the vibrations and noise caused inside the carriages by the train running on the tracks, as well as damping any movement between the carriages.
The architecture also provides a safety advantage—the carriages being tightly meshed together renders the train as a whole more rigid. Thus in case of a derailment, it does not deform (unlike a non-articulated train which will have a tendency to fold up like an accordion); the AGV will remain upright and in one piece.
The main innovation for the AGV involves combining this articulation technology with a distributed drive system. The train’s motors are located under the floor of the carriages rather than concentrating them in dedicated locomotives at the front and back of the train. The removal of the locomotives increases the capacity of the train. For an equal train length, AGV trains have 20% more space than traditional trains.
Another innovation in the AGV is the use of synchronous permanent magnet motors to provide electro-dynamic traction and braking. When fitted with six drive bogies in an 11-car configuration (360 kph), the AGV generates power of 22.6 kW/ton, 23% higher than its main competitor.
The permanent magnet motors provide:
A power/weight ratio greater than 1 kW/kg versus 0.8 kW/kg for previous generations of motors and greater compactness for more convenient installation on the bogies;
Simpler ventilation circuits making maintenance easier and providing greater reliability;
Lower energy consumption, due to an efficiency ratio which is greater than that of an asynchronous electric motor and thanks to a highly simplified drive train.
The new architecture enables operators to vary the length of their trains (from 7 to 14 carriages, and from 250 and 650 seats) depending on demand.
With the AGV, 25% less bogies are needed than on non-articulated trains: in its 11-carriage configuration, the AGV only has 12 bogies versus 16 in competing trains. The cost of maintaining bogies accounts for around 35% of the total cost of maintaining a very high speed train. Another development example which is designed to reduce the cost of ownership: the wheels of the AGV were designed to provide 15% greater resistance to wear than those of the other trains on the market. This all means that overall, the maintenance costs of an AGV train are around 15% lower than those of its main competitors.
The AGV consumes 15% less energy than its main competitors, according to Alstom. The AGV emits 2.2 grams of CO2 per passenger km, 13 times less than a bus (30 grams), 50 times less than a car (115 grams) and 70 times less than a plane (153 grams), based on the rate of CO2 emissions per kWh of electricity produced in France.
The train’s motors are equipped with power electronics that enable the AGV to operate on all four types of railway electricity supplies in use in Europe: 1,500 Volts, 3,000 Volts, 15,000 Volts, and 25,000 Volts, the latter being more extensively used in the rest of the world.
The AGV is also capable of producing and using its own electricity. Its braking system consists of a combined rheostat brake and energy recovery brake. When the energy generated by the motors during the braking phase is not being consumed by the train, it can be fed back into the electric grid. During braking phases, the power which is fed back into the grid can reach 8 MW.
The AGV’s traction system has already been tested under extreme conditions, since it was used in the train which set the world rail speed record on 3 April 2007: 574.8 kph. (Earlier post.)
We have developed this train using our own funds, a very unusual approach in the railway industry, because we understood that the market for very high speed rail travel was about to diversify. In order to maintain our leadership, we needed to broaden and update our range of products. The AGV has arrived on the market just at the time when very high speed rail travel is undergoing a new expansion phase, not only in its traditional markets, but also in many developing countries.
—Patrick Kron, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alstom
The company has produced 70% of the very high speed trains which are currently running worldwide at speeds of 300 kph and above. Since the launch of the first TGV in 1981, Alstom has sold 650 very high speed trains.
Italy’s NTV, has placed firm orders worth €650 million (US$953 million) for 25 trains (with options for 10 more), and has signed a maintenance contract with Alstom. Production of the first trains will begin in mid-2008, and they will be delivered from 2010 onwards.
Don't get me wrong - I love TGVs. But why do companies always have to sneak gems like this one into their PR:
"The AGV emits 2.2 grams of CO2 per passenger km, 13 times less than a bus (30 grams), 50 times less than a car (115 grams) and 70 times less than a plane (153 grams), based on the rate of CO2 emissions per kWh of electricity produced in France."
What's wrong with these stats? Well, some 80% electricity generation in France is nuclear. Which is great. But also rather unique compared to the rest of the world. So these numbers are not real useful for, say, Italy...
BTW: I wonder how many of those 650 trains Alstom sold since 1981 are operated outside of France?
Michael
Posted by: Michael Chomiczewski | 05 February 2008 at 07:28 AM
Michael, you make a fine point. In an effort to enhance what is already a decent product, they appear to deliberately slant things in their favor by comparing two widely diverse energy production forms, nuclear vs coal perhaps. The development of a highly efficient mode of transport is fine, but why muddy the water with this irrelevancy? Great insight & well said. How many might be used outside of France? No idea. I'd guess not too many. Here in the US, I don't think our existing rail systems would support speeds of this magnitude, but maybe some would, perhaps some of the very straight lines out west. Great comments.
Posted by: Richard | 05 February 2008 at 10:06 AM
If you assume all the electricity used by the AGV is part of the non-nuclear 20%, it still only accounts for 11 gm/passenger-km. How is this not an improvement?
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 05 February 2008 at 10:56 AM
I heard a report today, that Siemens - currently engaged in a tender for the ICE 4 with deutsche bahn - is not pleased with this announcement. The ICE only operates in germany plus a few neighbor countries - DE, AT, (CH), (NL), whereas the TGV operates in many more countries (including high profile Thalys and EuroStar trains - FR, BE, NL, (UK), (DE), IT, LU, CH, ES plus Korea.
Interestingly, this rail-bound train can travel as fast as the Transrapid (maglev), while being "downward" compliant with legacy rail tracks (tracks not allowing speeds in excess of 250 kph).
Some few ICE trains were modified to operate with two voltage systems, but having all-voltage compatibility built in from the start is definitely a bonus (note that voltage is only one "minor" aspect; with all the national rail operators in europe, the safety systems are all different, and in order for a train to be able to drive in two countries - even with the same voltages - requires at least two different safety systems. The relevant EU regulation doesn't seem to make any significant headway (well, national railroads used to be operated by civil servants...)
Posted by: realarms | 05 February 2008 at 10:59 AM
@ Michael -
Spain bought a number of TGV trains in the early 90s and built a track for them between Madrid and Sevilla, host of the World Expo in 1992. The purported quid pro quo was that France cracked down on ETA terrorists hiding out in its three Basque departements. The French, Belgian, Dutch and German rail operators jointly funded the Thalys rolling stock used on the Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam and Paris-Brussels-Cologne routes. There is also the special EuroStar service between London and Paris, which now supports high-speed travel on the English side as well.
Other than that, there haven't been any foreign sales that I am aware of. Since all of the major European passenger rail operators are state-owned and either losing money or barely breaking even, politicians generally prefer that equipment be purchased from domestic sources. There are, however, a number of efforts at the EU level to enable entire high-speed trains to cross the national borders of Schengen countries without slowing down much at all.
http://www.railteam.eu/en/
One of the big problems is that Europe features a wide range of track gauges, voltages, rotary current frequencies and signals specifically designed to halt the rapid advance of foreign armies by rail - back when that was still considered a real risk. Presently, the upshot is that both locomotives and drivers must still be changed at each national border, which imposes a severe time penalty on cross-border operations. There are now some locomotives that can operate on multiple voltages and, some drivers have been trained to deal with the signaling in multiple countries, but progress is painfully slow.
Note that high-speed trains do consume substantial amounts of electricity but that capacity utilization between e.g. Paris and Lyon - a distance of roughly 300km - is generally high. Indirect CO2 emissions are indeed low only if the electricity comes from nuclear plants (e.g. France) or renewable sources such as hydroelectric dams (e.g. Austria).
Hydro dams, supercapacitor banks and banks of stationary superflywheels would all be well suited for buffering the energy fed back into the grid during recuperative braking. To some extent, this is already being done, but the conventional way to manage the voltage spikes associated with recuperative braking remains dissipating the energy in stationary snubber circuits unless another nearby train happens to be accelerating at the same time. An alternative option would be to reduce the load on the power plant(s) feeding the grid for the duration of the recuperation event, but the dynamics involved could destabilize the grid.
Posted by: Rafael Seidl | 05 February 2008 at 11:00 AM
Rafael,
Hopefully, the EU can help "standardize" high-speed rail specifications across Europe so we could have few-stop high-speed train service all over Europe with few technical limitations. The very idea of Paris to Barcelona in about 4.5 to 5 hours is very tempting.
Posted by: Raymond | 05 February 2008 at 12:56 PM
@ Raymond -
if rail were profitable, that would have happened by now. However, Spain and Portugal pose special integration problems because they each have their own track gauge, separate from the standard 1430mm. There is one fancy Talgo train whose rolling stock features variable-width bogies. Everyone else has to get out of the train, baggage and all, and board another at the borders.
The situation will be getting a lot better through 2020. However, as you can see on the following map, the high-speed network will still be patchy even then. Moreover, Eastern Europe isn't even shown on the map even though 10 of the EU's 27 members are there with Croatia on track to membership as well.
http://www.railteam.eu/en/high-speed-rail.php
According to
http://raileurope.typepad.com/info/renfe/index.html
"Over the next 15 years, 9,000 km of high-speed, double-track, “standard gauge” (i.e. size of train tracks) electrified lines will be built. This is an ambitious plan compared with the 1,031 km built in the past 15 years." So, the plan is to have the standard (1430mm) and the wider Spanish gauge coexist on the same lines.
Posted by: Rafael Seidl | 05 February 2008 at 01:57 PM
Enginner-Poet:
where did your figure of 11gm/person.km come from? I was wondering what train speed the figures were based on.
Posted by: DavidJ | 05 February 2008 at 02:03 PM
Engineer-Poet:
where did your figure of 11gm/person.km come from? I was wondering what train speed the figures were based on.
Posted by: DavidJ | 05 February 2008 at 02:03 PM
I agree with most of your comments Rafael except "if rail were profitable, that would have happened by now". Rail has been massively underfunded for fifty years in most western countries and your comments indicate that this is true to a lessser extent in Europe . The rail line between Sydney and Melbourne, the two biggest cities in Australia, is on a nineteenth century alignment and the signalling system is not much newer.It's not possible to make a valid statement about rail's profitability in these circumstances.
A state of the art passenger rail system will be more than competitive with road because of technology improvements in rail and the fact that rail will have a competitive advantage through efficiency as energy cost continue to rise. The public under-investment that has held back the sector will surely turn around. Governments will wake up to the fact that we need a new age of rail to address peak oil and climate change.
This new AGV train is the most exciting transport news I have read each week.
Posted by: critta | 05 February 2008 at 02:21 PM
I agree with most of your comments Rafael except "if rail were profitable, that would have happened by now". Rail has been massively underfunded for fifty years in most western countries and your comments indicate that this is true to a lessser extent in Europe . The rail line between Sydney and Melbourne, the two biggest cities in Australia, is on a nineteenth century alignment and the signalling system is not much newer.It's not possible to make a valid statement about rail's profitability in these circumstances.
A state of the art passenger rail system will be more than competitive with road because of technology improvements in rail and the fact that rail will have a competitive advantage through efficiency as energy cost continue to rise. The public under-investment that has held back the sector will surely turn around. Governments will wake up to the fact that we need a new age of rail to address peak oil and climate change.
This new AGV train is the most exciting transport news I have read this week.
Posted by: critta | 05 February 2008 at 02:21 PM
11 gm/km is 2.2 gm/km divided by 20% (roughly the non-nuclear fraction of French generation).
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 05 February 2008 at 02:47 PM
In france 80% of electricty is nuclear and 16% is hydraulic so this make the AGG near carbon free. As a french I should be proud of this technology, and I am indeed, it would really make sense to bring such a train here between Sacramento and San Diego. The problem is that it requires a special railway wich represents huge investement upfront that given the debt of california will not be made any time soon...on the other hand, for trip of less than 600 miles, fan ducted aircraft are still faster than TGV and can consume half the fuel of a jet, and requires much less investements.
Posted by: Treehugger | 05 February 2008 at 07:50 PM
Treehugger:
Plus France exports about 15% of its clean and inexpensive electricity abroad. Viva la France!
Posted by: Andrey | 05 February 2008 at 07:56 PM
Rafael, last I checked, passenger traffic on the SNCF in France was bring in a fine profit and subsidizing freight transport. I don't know about other countries, but rail transport in France is most certainly *not* "losing money or barely breaking even."
Posted by: lensovet | 05 February 2008 at 07:57 PM
I confirm that the AVG between Paris and Lyon as well as AVG Eurostar bewteen Paris and London are profitable. On overwhole SNCF is loosing money but not too much, but their debt was separated from their operational budget since the investment couldn't be covered by the sale of tickets. The infrastructure has to be supported by political choice not by profitability, just has road infrastructure.
Posted by: Treehugger | 05 February 2008 at 08:38 PM
The EU are financing new high-speed links, for example between Lisbon and Madrid, and between Italy and Slovenia. There is an EU policy to try to shift people and freight off roads and onto rail and sea routes.
I'd say the TGVs have sold extremely well in Europe, pretty much taking all there was to take. Whenever a program in Europe didn't call for high-speed tilting trains (i.e. in Switzerland, UK, Finland, Portugal, etc) the TGV seems to have won out:
http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/#High_Speed_Railways
Existing or future TGV networks abroad include South Korea, Morocco, Argentina and the US (in this case mainly the AC traction electric motors, otherwise mainly a Bombardier project):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV
We'll have to wait and see if this ambitious project with these new trains comes to fruition. The impact on transportation systems promises to be very positive, but in Italy state companies have always controlled these areas:
http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/italy/
Posted by: Karl-Uwe Strunzen | 05 February 2008 at 09:10 PM
This new AVG train is very promising ...more passengers per train....thats what its needed for rail companies to lower their train tickets to compete better with airliners.
TGV is the most successful high speed train there is ....tell me other bullet train with more sales and use?!!!
I hope this AGV will be introduced for the new lines across europe ....I bet that the new lines Madrid-Lisbon will use AGV....the US is a lost cause to TGV/AGV....the lobby from detroit is far too strong ...remember ...they killed the train transport in US when they tear down one of the biggest train stations in the world during the "new deal"...that was when car booming was just starting ...now its even more difficult to implement fast trains in US...its a shame...
Posted by: muscimol | 08 February 2008 at 05:44 AM
Concerning the sale of TGV trains outside of France, in addition to the examples listed (Eurostar, Thalys, AVE), let's not forget the Korean TGV.
Posted by: Andy M. | 12 August 2008 at 07:58 AM