In the Czech countryside, not far from Prague, a ghostly white train is speeding around and around a huge loop of track.
From the air, the single circuit looks like a giant model railroad. Only this one isn’t being used for fun. It’s one of Europe’s few dedicated facilities where new trains can be intensively tested away from public tracks.
For six months, the anonymous white train will make endless laps of the circuit at up to 125 miles per hour (200 kph), allowing technicians to monitor every aspect of its performance.
Meanwhile, a second train will be sent to Vienna in Austria, to be tested in temperatures ranging from minus 20 C to 40 C (minus 4 F to 104 F), blasted with snow and ice, and put through a wind tunnel of speeds of up to 100 mph in Europe’s only specialist climatic testing center.
Why is this important? Well, for French National Railways (SNCF) it marks the beginning of a new era: a reboot for its iconic TGV trains.
This latest generation of 200 miles per hour (320 kph) TGVs will be tested to its limits for more than two years before it can start carrying passengers in 2024. (CNN)
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