Friday, February 8, 2008

It's A Train


230 mph. That is the speed of the new Automotrice à Grande Vitesse (AGV) trainset, which was unveiled on Feb 5. Made by Allstom Transport in collaboration with SNCF, this new trainset is considerably lighter, and consumes less fuel than it's older sister, the famous French TGV train, which it was designed to replace.

The train is 10 years and $147 in the making, and was very proudly announced by Alstom, which is responsible for the construction of 70 percent of the world's trains capable of achieving 186mph. With a capacity large enough to carry 900 passengers per ride, the new train is expected to be operational between Milan and Naples in 2011. Existing trains today like the TGV can carry a mere 400 passengers.

The France - based company hopes to take global orders for AGV, to compete with other industry conglomerates such as Germany - based Siemens and Canada - based Bombardier. AGV already set a record before it's announcement when a test train utilizing the technology of AGV set a speed record of 357mph, which is only 3.7mph behind the world record, held by Japan's Maglev train. Find out more at: http://www.alstom.com/

Research info gathered at: http://ejacobi.newsvine.com

Now, here's a poem with lots of speed:


Categorical Imperatives


Try to imagine a small room where the only furniture is a TV.
The TV has a hundred channels and two sets of memories.
The room suffers from amnesia and has a leaky ceiling.
There’s a bowl of fruit on the TV and the room’s
floor once was the life of an oak tree. Neither
the TV nor the room has ever had a
headache or felt contempt for a
total stranger. But, the TV
does wear glasses and
the room is terrified
of the dark. The
TV wonders
what it
would be like
to have a dent in
the bridge of its nose and
the room longs to know what a
clock sounds like when it ticks. Personally,
I try not to wonder about much of anything other
than how robust this exercise in the use of your imagination
has been. I’ve provided a space below where you can
leave comments. While you scribble yours, I’ll go
stand at the window and watch the Pepsi
truck pull up to the asylum so a
bottle opener can fill the
vending machine.


Poem first published at: http://litchoas.com/
Visit my ezine: http://www.concelebratory.blogspot.com/
and personal blog: http://www.copyat5.blogspot.com/

No comments: