France's Alstom launches faster high-speed train

By Marcel Michelson

LA ROCHELLE, France (Reuters) - France's Alstom unveiled a new generation of faster high-speed trains on Tuesday in a bid to keep ahead of rivals Siemens and Bombardier in the multi-billion dollar rail transport market.

The prototype "AGV", a successor to France's hallmark TGV fast trains, will have a commercial speed of 360 kilometres (223.7 miles) per hour versus 320 for current models, the manufacturer said.

The train was unveiled in the historic French port town of La Rochelle at a ceremony attended by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who as finance minister in 2004 had played an important in a state-orchestrated bail-out of Alstom.

"That we are here today is testimony to the courage of Alstom because during its worst period it decided not to sacrifice its research and development," Sarkozy said in front of the new train.

With a sleek aerodynamic design, the AGV train resembles a Concorde plane, with the nose down, on rails.

High-speed trains compete with regional airline destinations in travelling time, while the electric trains emit far less CO2 greenhouse gases than kerosene-burning aircraft.

Alstom said it has made 70 percent of the trains in the world that run faster than 300 km per hour.

Alstom has won high-speed train contracts recently in Italy, Argentina and Morocco, while there are big projects on the horizon in California, Brazil and in China for the Shanghai-Beijing link.