Quick Trip on French TGV Has O.C. Panel Up to Speed

Racing through the verdant French countryside toward Rennes Saturday, Orange County Supervisor Don R. Roth got to fulfill a fantasy--announcing the blistering speed of 186 m.p.h. to several hundred passengers aboard France’s TGV, the high-speed Train a Grande Vitesse.

He was thrilled.

“This is one of the greatest experiences of my life,” Roth announced over the train’s intercom.

The French National Railroad, which wants to build and operate a similar rail line between Las Vegas and Anaheim, had found a way to top its competition, the West Germans. It let Roth sit in the cab next to the engineer.

And Roth is a key person to impress because he is the vice chairman of the California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission, the panel that hopes to make a final decision later this year about which kind of train to pick.

Roth and eight other members of the 16-person commission rode the French train in shifts Friday and Saturday as part of a 10-day “technology tour” aimed at examining the French and German competitors up close. On Wednesday, they rode West Germany’s magnetically levitated high-speed train.

The commission is paying $20,000 for members’ expenses on the tour, but spouses and an entourage of 25 Orange County business executives and their spouses have paid their own way.

Saturday’s 233-mile jaunt took only two hours and four minutes. According to the Orange County passengers, the experience made Amtrak look like a throwback to the age of steam locomotives.

Still, there were mixed reactions.

“It just glides out,” said Brian Pearson, manager of planning and projects development for the Orange County Transit District. “It was the most pleasant train ride I’ve ever had by a long shot.”

“It’s smoother than a limo,” said Robert Carley, senior vice president of Robert Bein, Wm. Frost & Associates, an Irvine engineering firm.

While the train was proceeding on new tracks designed for high-speed service, there were lots of oohs and ahs among the American visitors. But then the train hit a large section of old track, and swaying increased dramatically.

“I’m getting queasy,” said Jim Erickson, a lawyer from San Juan Capistrano.

“On the maglev I felt more secure,” said Aram Keith, president of Costa Mesa-based Keith Engineering, referring to the German train.

The French train’s coaches are narrower than those used for the maglev vehicle in Germany but they are much heavier.

“It’s hard to compare the two,” said Buck Johns, a Newport Beach real estate investor who has purchased land near the proposed Las Vegas-Anaheim train route. “Maglev was on a test track and this is in the real world . . . but I think I prefer the maglev ride because it was smoother.”

“Both of them are state-of-the-art as far as moving people is concerned,” Roth added. “On the new track, the French train gives maglev a very good run for the money.”

That’s what French National Railroad officials wanted to hear him say, because until then Roth had been leaning strongly toward the maglev.

After a separate trip on Friday, commission members Nick Horn of Nevada and Angie Papadakis of California also praised the French train.

But Horn said he was concerned about a briefing that he attended with other commission members during which French railroad officials failed to answer some key questions to his satisfaction. He raised such issues as the French train’s inability to handle steep grades in mountainous terrain, financing difficulties and the lack of a specific manufacturing schedule if France wins the competition.

“I asked them where we were on their priority list, and I never did get a straight answer,” Horn said.

Meanwhile, Papadakis praised the French train as “very luxurious” and said it provided a “wonderful” ride.

“I can just see that if everyone in America could experience this ride, they would love trains. I think there is room for both the French and German technologies in America,” she said.

French officials argue that their train has a proven record of carrying millions of passengers each year at a profit while the West Germans still have their maglev confined to a test track.

They also have statistics showing that their train has reduced the growth in automobile traffic on parallel French highways and has cut in half the number of passengers using airlines along the same corridors, thus reducing the need for service at crowded airports.

There are 105 French high-speed trains in service on several routes, all built on time and on budget, according to French officials.

But such success does not come easily. French wine makers continue to object to high-speed trains cutting across their fields, with some arguing that the trains’ vibrations harm their vineyards.

French officials have studied the vibration problem and have even tunneled under one vineyard, but the farmer involved is still not satisfied, officials said. Also, France’s activist Green Party, which concerns itself with the environment, has become more worrisome and bothersome, said Claude Constant, director of international cooperation for the French National Railroad.

In one case, for example, the Green Party forced the railroad to relocate a pond to protect frogs.

And the Green Party, along with a group of homeowners near St. Arnoult Enyvelines, outside Paris, forced officials to construct a concrete sound wall next to the tracks even though they had never objected to a much noisier, heavily congested highway closer to their homes.

“Everybody wants the train service,” Constant said, “but they say, ‘Not in my garden.’ ”

French officials say their high-speed model is quieter at 270 m.p.h. than a conventional train is at 100 m.p.h.

But there are some who are skeptical, possibly including Roth.

“It remains to be seen,” he said Saturday, “whether the French train can survive the environmental problems it is likely to encounter in California.”

While the French train ride is more comfortable than that of a conventional train, some passengers--even Parisians interviewed Saturday--said they object to their ears “popping” every time the train goes through a tunnel at high speed.

The problem is that the speeding train compresses the tunnel’s air in front of it, changing the pressure in the inner ear. But others said it was no worse than the same popping experienced on an airplane.

“I take the train to Rennes almost every weekend,” said Jean Amburgey, a banker whose fiance lives in Rennes, about 250 miles from Paris. “I much prefer the train because it is so convenient.”

The fare is about $100 for a round trip.

The French, however, are used to using trains. Within the Paris area, for example, about half the commuters use public transit, mostly trains, including the Paris Metro. The commuter rail service is so cheap--less than $1 per day for unlimited use--it is virtually free by American standards.

Said Paris transit spokesman Cyrille de La Faye: “In Paris, a politician who doesn’t work for better public transport will lose his job.”

Facts About The TGV The TGV is a high-speed train made by the French firm GEM Alsthom. It can reach speeds of nearly 300 m.p.h. and has carried more than 100 million passengers since entering service n 1981. The main TGV line runs between Paris and Lyon. Additional lines in other parts of France are now being added. Pros -The TGV has a proven track record in commerical service. -It is non-polluting. -Capital costs are less than West German’s experimental magnetic-levitation train system. Cons -TGV cannot take steep grades. -It uses more energy than the maglev train. -It requires extensive earth removal for tracks to be laid. The steel-wheel train, which runs on electicity, can travel on conventional railroad tracks. TGV stands for Train a Grande Vitesse, or high-speed train. In order to keep the train stable at high rates of speed, the traction motors are suspended from the chassis, reducing strain on the tracks. TGV is also equipped with three different brake systems that allow the train to stop at high speeds.