The TGV test train that derailed near Strasbourg killing 11 people was carrying excessive speed coming into a corner, an initial report by SNCF has found.
On reviewing computer records, SNCF found that the test train applied its brakes a kilometre late, hitting the bend where the high-speed line meets the conventional network at 243 km/h rather than 176 km/h.
Eleven people were killed and 37 injured when the high-speed test train, which was carrying railway technicians and their families, derailed on phase two of the LGV Est between Baudrecourt and Vendenheim on November 14.
SNCF said it had found no faults with the infrastructure that could have contributed to the incident.
The train left the track on a bridge in Eckwersheim, 12 kilometres north of Strasbourg, before plunging into the canal below.
Fifty people are thought to have been on board, including the families of technicians carrying out the testing.
André Claude Lacoste has been appointed to lead an investigation into the crash.
In the meantime, SNCF plans to pause the high-speed testing programme and put stricter controls in place as to who is permitted to be on board test trains and at testing sites.
SNCF said that although no disciplinary action will be taken until further investigations have been carried out, there could be provisional suspensions for staff “given the exceptional gravity and heavy human toll”.
The first 300-kilometre phase of the LGV Est high-speed TGV line was completed in 2007. Work began on phase two in 2010.
Dynamic testing of the second phase of the LGV Est line was expected to continue until spring 2016, with the test train reaching speeds of up to 352 km/h – 10 per cent faster than the line’s 320 km/h operating speed.
