While the debate continues in the UK about whether new high speed lines should be built, French train builder Alstom has unveiled a new train which can carry passengers at 225mph.

The new Automotrice à Grande Vitesse, or AGV for short, can travel 39mph faster than Eurostar’s maximum of 186mph on the 68-mile HS1 Channel Tunnel rail link.

Alstom claims that the AGV is “particularly environmentally friendly”, with a 15 per cent lower energy consumption than its main competitors.

It also incorporates the latest ERTMS signalling standards and so will be able to run on all European lines when equipped with the new technology.

The AGV’s novel traction system has already been tested under extreme conditions – it was used in the train which set the world rail speed record of 359.25mph (574.8km/h)  – on France’s new TGV Est route from Paris to Strasbourg last year.

The TGV, including Eurostar, is still driven by power cars at the front and rear of the train but the AGV, like the ICE3 train built by Germany’s Siemens conglomerate, is not driven by end cars. It has motors uniformly distributed under the individual coaches. 

Alstom says the new design creates more space for passengers and enhances the AGV’s performance. As a result, the new design can carry up to 900 passengers at a speed of 225mph (360km/h), which is 25mph (40km/h) faster than the double-decker TGV trains that today carry 400 fewer passengers on the main French high-speed line between Paris and Lyon.

Patrick Kron, chairman and chief executive of Alstom, said: “We have developed this train using our own funds, a very unusual approach in the railway industry, because we understood that the market for very high speed rail travel was about to diversify.”

The development is a massive turnaround for Alstom, which was on the verge of bankruptcy four years ago until it was bailed out by the French economics minister – now President Sarkozy, who was present at the unveiling of the AGV prototype.

Even before it unveiled the prototype, Alstom had signed a first export agreement for 25 AGV trains in a deal – worth £1.12 billion (1.5 bn euros) including the maintenance contracts – with privately-owned Italian railway operator NTV, which plans to operate services between Milan and Naples from 2011.

Alstom Transport’s sites in France and Italy will all be involved in the AGV production.

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