Development History
The Duplex feasibility study was completed in 1987. In 1988, a full-scale mockup was built to gauge customer reactions to the bi-level concept, traditionally associated with commuter and regional rail rather than with high-speed intercity trains. A TGV Sud-Est trailer was tested in revenue service with the inside furnished to simulate the lower floor of a bi-level arrangement, and later that year another TGV Sud-Est was modified to study the dynamic behavior of a train with a higher center of gravity. Discussions with GEC-Alsthom began soon after, and in July 1990 the company won the contract to build the "TGV-2N", as it was then known. The details of the contract were not put in place until early 1991, at which point the official order was made. Since then, technological hurdles have been overcome in a four-year process that led to the first tests of a bi-level trainset in November 1994. Soon after their first run, the first rake of eight trailers was tested at 290 km/h (180 mph) on the Sud-Est line. The trainset was powered by TGV Réseau power cars at the time, as the Duplex power cars were still undergoing development. The first Duplex power car was mated to the bi-level trailers on 21 June 1995.
Read more about this topic: SNCF TGV Duplex
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