Comments by "John D" (@johnd8892) on "American Reacts to TGV World record: 574.8 km/h!!" video.

There was also rarely seen film of the track damage caused by one of the two "Record" setting runs of 1955. The force of the locomotive and train moving from side to side even on nominally straight tracks pushed the tracks out of straight alignment. It took something like a month to repair kilometres of the record track back to usable condition. A more recent TV documentary pointed out that the two competing locomotive companies did not exactly match each other with the top speed but it was just announced that way for both the CC and BB locomotive. There is more available film from a plane showing the overhead power supply catenary being melted and a shower of sparks trailing and then the locomotive coasting for many kilometres with pantographs down so as not to cause any further damage to the catenary. Lucky I saw the track damage film when I did because the poster said be quick as this suppressed film will not be allowed to be shown when the owners find out. Damages the 1955 legend as well as the track.
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The daily commercial top speed is 320 kph. Much slower than the record run so as to keep damage to the equipment and electricity consumption to reasonably affordable levels. Even so many in France will say the fares charged to use them are too much. But the fares barely cover the operating costs.
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@KyrilPG the average speed of all these high speed trains, or any train, is well below the maximum speed possible. Yet so many uneducated people, like politicians, do calculations of journey times possible based entirely on the top speed they have heard. Like this record stunt speed. Much more informative but harder to find are the average speeds achieved in reality and what sort of track route is needed to achieve it.
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