AGV.italo put through its paces on the Rhine-Rhone high-speed line:
Successful test campaign thanks to exemplary cooperation between an industrial firm, an infrastructure owner and EURAILTEST
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Between 26 October and the beginning of December 2011, test runs were carried out with an ALSTOM AGV.italo trainset on the Rhine-Rhone high-speed line, a line representing the ultimate in European railway technology and belonging to Réseau Ferré de France (RFF). These tests followed on from an earlier series conducted in Italy with this new ALSTOM transport trainset and were organised by Eurailtest: general organisation of test runs, coordination among the different partners, supply of records of the measurements conducted with respect to current collection, interference currents, acoustics, pressure waves, etc.
Réseau Ferré de France has made the new line available to industry and French and other European railway operators since its inauguration on 8 September 2011 by the President of the French Republic Nicolas Sarkozy, in advance of its official opening to revenue service on 11 December 2011.
It was against this backdrop that RFF was able to offer Alstom the possibility of carrying out a series of intensive tests at 300 km/h with the AGV.italo over a section of the Rhine-Rhone HSL reserved for such tests.
For several weeks, the 5th of the 25 AGV.italo trainsets ordered by the Italian operator NTV was put through its paces during a test programme designed to obtain the final type approval certificates and demonstrate trainset behaviour and reliability in endurance tests in sustained use before its commissioning in revenue service in Italy in early 2012. The trainset submitted to these tests was already in its final revenue service configuration.
In all, during these several weeks of tests, nearly 30 engineers from different branches of Alstom and Eurailtest took part in the proceedings, 19 partners were coordinated by Eurailtest and more than 20,000 km were covered by the AGV.italo trainset.
The data collected via the Traintracer remote maintenance system fitted on the train was transmitted to Alstom’s engineering divisions for analysis and for suggestions as to the final settings and adjustments required.
Réseau Ferré de France was responsible for masterminding the 1st phase of the new Rhine-Rhone HSL between Villers-les-Pots (to the East of Dijon) and Petit-Croix (to the North-East of Belfort) over a distance of 140km. The line, which is symbolic of French railway excellence, has already been used for tests at speeds in excess of 350 km/h.
In the run-up to this test campaign, Eurailtest contributed to the process of commissioning the Rhine-Rhone HSL in service: in partnership with INEXIA, during the line certification phase for speeds up to 350 km/h, Eurailtest supplied a high-speed trainset specially fitted with instruments to collect and record a variety of safety parameters. From the analysis of the data recorded it was then possible to demonstrate that the new infrastructure was fully compliant with the most demanding European safety standards and requirements.
