The

SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffi ...

Class X 72500

diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...

s were built by

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...

between 1997 and 2002. They operate longer distance

Transport express régional Transport express régional (, usually shortened to TER) is the brand name used by the SNCF, the French national railway company, to denote rail service run by the regional councils of France, specifically their organised transport authorities. ...

and Intercites services, particularly in the areas south and west of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, the Paris to Laon line, around

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 ...

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

Nevers Nevers ( , ; la, Noviodunum, later ''Nevirnum'' and ''Nebirnum'') is the prefecture of the Nièvre Departments of France, department in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Regions of France, region in central France. It was the principal city of the ...

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

and the South Coast of France. They do not operate in the far north of France.

Description

The X 72500 units come in two types: *90 two car sets (both vehicles powered ) *15 three car sets (containing an intermediate unpowered trailer) Three sets can be coupled where required The maximum speed is . Units are equipped with two

MAN A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromos ...

six-cylinder engines of per motor vehicle. Each train has four engines for traction, giving a total power of . The engines drive a hydromechanical

Voith The Voith Group is a German manufacturer of machines for the pulp and paper industry, technical equipment for hydropower plants and drive and braking systems. The family-owned company, which operates worldwide and has its headquarters in Hei ...

transmission. Additionally each vehicle also includes a

Perkins Perkins is a surname derived from the Anglo-Saxon corruption of the kin of Pierre (from Pierre kin to Pierrekin to Perkins), introduced into England by the Norman Conquest. It is found throughout mid- and southern England. Another derivation com ...

/Mecalte

diesel generator A diesel generator (DG) (also known as a diesel Genset) is the combination of a diesel engine with an electric generator (often an alternator) to generate electrical energy. This is a specific case of engine generator. A diesel compression- ...

for auxiliaries (lighting, air conditioning, door controls, etc..). The braking system is provided by mechanical disc brakes coupled to a hydrodynamic engine brake. The driving position, TGV type centered in the cab, was designed to facilitate the work of the driver. It also includes elements to enable Driver Only Operation (but the absence of CCTV/mirrors require a second crew member on board) and the ATESS system, a data recorder way more advanced than those fitted to previous stock. The overall management of the equipment is insured by an onboard computer system. Failures can be quickly diagnosed by it. Check levels of oil, fuel and coolant are the same computer. Phase reliability of these railcars has also been particularly long, which earned them a bad reputation even today. Two back operations at the factory took place: Retrofit 1, 1998 to mid- 1999, aimed to security changes and installing new versions of the onboard computer system; Retrofit 2, from mid- 1999 to late 2000, where more than 200 modifications were made, mainly at the level of passenger comfort. In 2006, recurrent problems still existed at the level of generators and devices for opening and closing doors.

Gallery

File:SNCF Class X 72500.JPG, X 72500 at

Royan station Royan (; in the Saintongeais dialect; oc, Roian) is a commune and town in the south-west of France, in the department of Charente-Maritime in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. Its inhabitants are known as ''Royannais'' and ''Royannaises''. Capi ...

. File:Départ d'un TER de Valence-Ville.JPG, An X 72500 leaving

Valence-Ville station Valence-Ville station ( French: ''Gare de Valence-Ville'') is a railway station serving the town Valence, Drôme department, southeastern France. It is situated on the Paris–Marseille railway, and is the southern terminus of a branch line to Gr ...

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X 72700 as IC 4506 / 07 Lyon - Nantes arriving at St. Germain-des-Fosses on February 9th, 2017Interior of X 72 700 on February 9th, 2017
Video
X 72 700 at YouTube (second part of Video)
72500 Diesel multiple units of France {{France-rail-transport-stub