#4152· Franse gasturbine trein
SNCF Class T 2000
🇫🇷 France ·built by Alstom Crespin· from 1972· French Turbotrain
1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Cité du train 80: B.Zsolt· CC BY-SA 3.0
what is it?
SNCF Class T 2000 trainsets, also known under their French acronym RTG (Rame à turbine à gaz, i.e., gas turbine trainset), were the second generation of turbine-powered trains in France and saw commercial service from 1972 to 2004.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 54 years ago, in 1972.
- Top speed is 1.2× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- At full speed it would cover Amsterdam–Utrecht (≈ 40 km) in 15 minutes.
- 1.2 MW is about 14 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 38 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 129 m long: about 29 cars parked nose to tail.
multiple unit: A self-propelled train: motors are spread under the passenger cars, so no separate locomotive.
spec sheet
- built
- 1972–1976
- retired
- 2004
- status
- retired
- number built
- 13
- kind
- Autorail
- traction
- gas turbine
- origin
- 🇫🇷 France
- builders
- Alstom Crespin, Ateliers de Construction du Nord de la France
- operators
- Société nationale des chemins de fer français
- top speed
- 160 km/h
- power
- 1.2 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- length
- 129 m
- weight
- 225 t
- nicknames
- Caravelle
- Dutch name
- Franse gasturbine trein
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q265728, Wikipedia: SNCF Class T 2000 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.