French SNCF and Alstom broke the world rail speed record today, pushing a three-car TGV Duplex to 574,8 km/h. The train almost equalled the maglev record of 581 km/h set in Japan in 2003. The previous record for trains with steel wheels on steel rail was 515, set in France in 1990. The new record is official, in contrast to the unofficial 553 km/h record set in February. The tests have been conducted on the new Paris-Strasbourg high-speed line, phase one of which opens later this spring for service at 320 km/h.

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