Patrick, the first TGV withdrawn from circulation in December after nearly forty years of service, will complete its farewell tour with a presentation to the general public at Paris-Gare de Lyon and Lyon-Perrache over the next two weekends, by reservation.
Leaving Alstom’s workshops in Belfort in June 1978, the TGV 01 train was used for testing the TGV before it entered service between Paris and Lyon in 1981. At 260 km / h at the time, then at 270 km / h a year later. Modernized – to pass at 300 km / h – and repainted several times, it ended its career on a Paris-Lille on December 14 with 13,478,014 km on the clock. And with them the last original oars.
“This train is legendary. It has dreamed generations and generations of children, and also of parents. (…) It is a skill, it is a French pride”, explained to the AFP Antoine Leroy, an SNCF driver who, along with a few colleagues, took the initiative to set up a farewell tour.
“We said that we could not let these trains go anonymously after forty years of history. It is also our DNA,” he added Tuesday during a presentation at the technicentre of Landy, near Paris.
For its farewell tour, the oar 01 was repainted with its bright orange power cars as in the 1980s, the cars sporting the following liveries, predominantly blue and gray. Inside, an exhibition tells the story of the French TGV, from conception to the next generation.
“The TGV 01 is called Patrick because it was the first name of the son of the first driver,” noted Antoine Leroy. Train 02, which was also used for the TGV tests, is also called Sophie. Among the 109 trains originally built by Alstom for the south-east network, the 16 is that of the record of February 26, 1981 (380 km / h) and the inauguration of the new Paris-Lyon line by President François Mitterrand, the September 22, 1981.
Faced with the media success of the tour dedicated to railway workers in several TGV maintenance centers, the SNCF decided to present Patrick to the general public Gare de Lyon, in Paris, on Saturday February 29 and Sunday March 1 from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. . Patrick will then stop at Lyon-Perrache on Saturday March 7 from 10:20 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Sunday March 8 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The event is free, but those interested must register from Wednesday on the website registrations-aurevoirpatrick.com.
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