Alstom offers France’s high-speed train for India’s private rail ops

Alstom India has held discussions with the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and Megha Engineering, the only two bidders for private train operations in bids called by the railway ministry.

According to Alain Spohr, managing director of

Alstom India, talks Eyes ^1-bn were also held with revenue from one more player that the country did not put in a bid. next year “We have decided to support private train operations as a partner if the opportunity comes back. We are proposing a special train based on the high-speed technology that is used in France,” Spohr told Business Standard.

Spohr said the proposed train is based on TGV, a highspeed train that operates all over France. TGV stands for Train à Grande Vitesse (simply translated, high speed train in English). A certain type of TGV, called V150, holds the world record for the highest speed on any national rail system. The current world speed record for a commercial train on steel wheels, held by the French TGV, is 574.8 kilometres per hour. This record has been in place since April 2007. “We have developed a local solution corresponding to the speed segment in India...we have also started to talk to the Indian Railways if it would be interested in adding this to its fleet of long-distance (above 1,000 kilometres) high-speed trains,” Spohr said.