The SNCF TGV Réseau (TGV-R) is a TGV train built by

Alstom Alstom SA () is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer which operates worldwide in rail transport markets. It is active in the fields of passenger transportation, signaling, and locomotives, producing high-speed, suburban, regional ...

between 1992 and 1996 for

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (, , SNCF ) is France's national State-owned enterprise, state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the Rail transport in France, country's national rail traffic along with th ...

, the French national railway for use on high-speed

TGV The TGV (; , , 'high-speed train') is France's intercity high-speed rail service. With commercial operating speeds of up to on the newer lines, the TGV was conceived at the same period as other technological projects such as the Ariane 1 rocke ...

services. The Réseau trainsets are based on the earlier TGV Atlantique. The first Réseau () sets entered service in 1993.

Design

Fifty dual-voltage trainsets were built in 1992–1994, numbered 501-550. A further 40 triple-voltage trainsets, numbered 4501-4540, were built in 1994–1996. The last ten of these triple voltage units are known as Thalys PBA (

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

–

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

–

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

) sets and were built for

Thalys Thalys (French: ) was a brand name used for high-speed rail, high-speed train services between Paris Gare du Nord and both Amsterdam Centraal and German cities in the Rhein-Ruhr, including Aachen, Köln Hauptbahnhof, Cologne, Düsseldorf Hauptba ...

services, now branded as

Eurostar Eurostar is an international high-speed rail service in Western Europe, connecting Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The service is operated by the Eurostar Group which was formed from the merger of Eurostar, ...

. As well as using standard French voltages of and (also used in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

), the triple voltage sets can operate under the Belgian and Italian supplies. They are formed of two power cars ( under 25 kV—like the TGV Atlantique) and eight

carriages A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. In Europe they were a common mode of transport for the wealthy during the Roman Empire, and then again from around 1600 until they were replaced by the motor car around 1 ...

, giving a capacity of 377 seats. They have a top speed of . They are long and are wide. The dual-voltage sets weigh , and owing to axle-load restrictions in Belgium the triple-voltage sets have a series of modifications, such as the replacement of

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

with

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

and hollow axles, to reduce the weight to under per axle. Owing to early complaints of uncomfortable pressure changes when entering tunnels at high speed on the

LGV Atlantique The LGV Atlantique (; ) is a high-speed rail line running from Gare Montparnasse in Paris towards the Atlantic coast of France. It opened in 1989–1990 and has two intermediate stations: Massy TGV station and Vendôme-Villiers-sur-Loir TGV s ...

, the Réseau sets are pressure-sealed. In 2006 the carriages of nineteen sets were used to form TGV POS sets by using new TGV POS power cars for services on the

LGV Est The Ligne à Grande Vitesse Est européenne (East European High Speed Line), typically shortened to LGV Est, is a French high-speed rail line that connects Vaires-sur-Marne (near Paris) and Vendenheim (near Strasbourg). The line halved the tra ...

to Germany and Switzerland. The 38 Réseau power cars were slightly modified and joined to new Duplex carriages, forming nineteen TGV Réseau Duplex units. They now operate as part of the TGV Duplex fleet, being numbered 601-619.

SNCF Refurbishment

After some ten years of successful service, the interior of TGV Réseau sets became outdated and needed a refurbishment. This refurbishment was part of the TGV Est project, as the dual-voltage sets were to assure the domestic services there. The same interiors would also be used in the coaches for POS sets. Three possible interiors were presented to the public between 2002 and 2003 in different stations: *Recaro which teamed up with Brand Company (designer of the "snail" TGV logo) *MBD Design (designer of the noses of Alstom's Prima locomotives and the TGV Duplex) which teamed up with fashion designer

Christian Lacroix Christian Marie Marc Lacroix (; born 16 May 1951) is a French fashion designer. The name may also refer to the company he founded. Lacroix's designs combine luxury and insouciance. He prefers artisanal trades, fringe, bead, and embroidery. He's ...

. *Antolin which teamed up with Kenzo. At the end of the Train Capitale exposition in Paris, MBD Design and Christian Lacroix were announced as the winning design. Work started on the first dual-voltage sets in 2004 at SNCF's Hellemmes workshops, near Lille. In 2006 the last dual-voltage set was finished. Between 2008 and 2009 the three-voltage sets will also be refurbished in the same design. The refurbished sets can be distinguished from the non-refurbished ones by: the slightly changed livery; the fittings in the coaches, which are in new colours (red for 2nd class, yellow-green for 1st class and silver for the bar) and the reflecting stripes on the sides of the motorcars. Although SNCF announced in July 2007 that the Lacroix-design would not be continued because some materials vibrated at , this was later changed: the Lacroix-design will be applied to all TGV Réseau sets.

Fleet details

Gallery

File:Thalys.JPG, Thalys (Now Eurostar) PBA alongside PBKA at Paris Gare du Nord File:Tgv sud est.jpg, Triple-voltage TGV-R set 4510 at Marseille St-Charles station File:TGV Lacroix first class interior.JPG, 1st class interior of a refurbished TGV-Réseau set File:TGV Lacroix first class interior detail.JPG, 1st class interior of a refurbished TGV-Réseau set File:TGV Lacroix second class interior.JPG, 2nd class interior of a refurbished TGV-Réseau set File:TGV R-SG-LH5.JPG, Cab view riding at 313 km/h. File:TGV R-SG-LH6.JPG, A TGV Reseau trainset stops at Champagne Ardennes TGV.

References

External links