Conversation

Not very widely known funfact: twice during the 90s TGV trains arrived in Poland.

The first time it happened in 1991 when the record-braking TGV Atlantique unit 325 (the one that ran 515 km/h) was brought to Warsaw for a HSR conference. It couldn't run on its own because of incompatible power mode.

Then in 1995, for the 150th anniversary of railways in Poland, courtesy of SNCF and Alstom PKP borrowed TGV Réseau 4522 (which was not in service yet).
Because it was multi-mode and supported 3kV DC, it ran a bunch of special rides between 12 and 19 June 1995, stopping in multiple cities and attracting a lot of interest.

The train was operated by the SNCF staff, with Polish crew present in the driver's cabin.

#trains #train #railway #railways #history #poland #tgv #sncf #pkp