High-speed rail

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Image:Shinkansen 500 Kyoto 2005-03-19.jpg

This page is about high-speed rail in general. For Britain's InterCity 125 or HST, see High Speed Train.

High-speed rail is public transport by rail at speeds in excess of 200 km/h (124 mph).

Typically, high-speed trains travel at top service speeds of between 250 km/h and 300 km/h (150 mph and 185 mph). The world speed record for a conventional wheeled train was set in 1990 by a French TGV that reached a speed of 515,3 km/h (320,2 mph), and an experimental Japanese magnetic levitation train (maglev) JR-Maglev MLX01 has reached 581 km/h (361 mph).

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Definition

The International Union of Railways' high-speed task force provides definitions of high-speed rail travel [1]. There is no single definition of the term, but rather a combination of elements—new or upgraded track, rolling stock, operating practices—that lead to high-speed rail operations. The speeds at which a train must travel to qualify as 'high-speed' vary from country to country, ranging from 160 km/h (100 mph) to over 300 km/h (185 mph). The countries that have developed high-speed rail technology include: Japan, France, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and Korea.

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History

Railways were the first form of mass transportation, and until the development of the motorcar in the early 20th century had an effective monopoly on land transport. In the decades after World War II, improvements in automobiles, highways, and aircraft made those means practical for a greater portion of the population than previously. In Europe and Japan, emphasis was given to rebuilding the railways after the war. In the United States, emphasis was given to building a huge national interstate highway system and airports. Urban mass transport systems in the US were largely neglected. The US railways have been less competitive partly because the government has tended to favour road and air transportation more than in Japan and European countries, and partly because of lower population density in the US. Travel by rail becomes more competitive in areas of higher population density or where petrol is expensive, because conventional trains are more fuel efficient than cars (though sometimes less fuel efficient than buses). Very few trains consume diesel or other fossil fuels but the power stations that provide electric trains with power do consume fuel, usually natural gas or coal. However, in Japan and France, a large proportion of the electricity comes from nuclear power. Even using electricity generated from coal or oil, trains are more fuel efficient per passenger per kilometer travelled than the typical automobile. Upgrading rail networks require enormous fixed investments and thus require high population densities to be competitive against airplanes and automobiles.

Image:Tgv sud est.jpg

The world's first "high-speed train" was Japan's Tokaido Shinkansen, officially launched in 1964. The "Series 0" Shinkansen, built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, achieved speeds of 200 km/h (125 mph) on the Tokyo–Nagoya–Kyoto–Osaka route.

High-speed rail was conceived as an attempt to win back railway passengers who had been lost to other means of travel; in most cases it has been quite successful to this end.

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High-speed trains versus automobiles or airplanes

There are constraints on the growth of the highway and air travel systems, widely cited as traffic congestion, or capacity limits. Airports have limited capacity to serve passengers during peak travel times, as do highways. High-speed rail, which has potentially very high capacity on its fixed corridors, offers the promise of relieving congestion on the other systems. Prior to World War II conventional passenger rail was the principal means of intercity transport. Passenger rail services have lost their primary role in transport since, due to the small proportion of journeys made by rail.

High-speed rail has the advantage over automobiles in that it can move passengers at speeds far faster than those possible by car, while also avoiding congestion. For journeys that do not connect city centre to city centre, the door to door travel time and the total cost of high-speed rail can be comparable to that of driving, a fact often mentioned by critics of high-speed trains. However, supporters argue that journeys by train are less strenuous and more productive than car journeys.

While high-speed trains generally do not travel as fast as jet aircraft, they have advantages over air travel for relatively short distances. When traveling less than about 650 km, the process of checking in and going through security screening at airports, as well as the journey to the airport itself makes the total journey time comparable to HSR. Trains can be boarded more quickly in a central location, eliminating the speed advantage of air travel. Rail lines also permit far greater capacity and frequency of service than what is possible with aircraft.

High speed trains also have the advantage of being much more environmentally friendly especially if the routes it serves are competing against clogged highways.

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Target areas for high-speed trains

The early target areas, identified by France, Japan, and the U.S., were connections between pairs of large cities. In France this was Paris–Lyon, in Japan Tokyo–Osaka, and in the U.S. the proposals are in high-density areas. The only high-speed rail service at present in the U.S. is in the Northeast Corridor between Boston, New York and Washington, D.C.; it uses tilting trains to achieve high speeds (though lower than those of their European and Asian counterparts) on existing tracks, since building new, straighter lines was not practical given the amount of development on either side of the right of way. The California High Speed Rail Authority is currently studying a San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento to Los Angeles and San Diego line.

Five years after construction began on the line, the first Japanese high-speed rail line opened on the eve of the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, connecting the capital with Osaka. The first French high-speed rail line (LGV) was opened in 1981 by SNCF, the French rail agency, planning starting in 1966 and construction in 1976. The opening ceremonies were significant events, being reported internationally, but not associated with a major showpiece such as a World's Fair or Olympic Games.

Market segmentation has principally focused on the business travel market. The French focus on business travelers is reflected in the nature of their rail cars (including the all-important bar-car). Pleasure travel is a secondary market, though many of the French extensions connect with vacation beaches on the Atlantic and Mediterranean, as well as major amusement parks. Friday evenings are the peak time for TGVs (Metzler, 1992). The system has lowered prices on long distance travel to compete more effectively with air services, and as a result some cities within an hour of Paris by TGV have become commuter communities, thus increasing the market while restructuring land use. A side effect of the first high-speed rail lines in France was the opening up of previously isolated regions to fast economic development. Some newer high-speed lines have been planned primarily for this purpose, such as the Madrid–Sevilla line and the proposed Amsterdam–Groningen line.

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Countries with high-speed rail networks in operation

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Europe

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France

France has perhaps the most developed high-speed network in Europe. The TGV network started in 1981 with the opening of the line between Lyon and Paris. The TGV network gradually spread out to other cities, and into other countries such as Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and UK Trains that cross national boundaries may need to have special characteristics, such as the ability to handle different power supplies and signalling systems. This means that not all TGVs are the same, and there are interoperability considerations.

Later the TGV network was also extended with LGVs towards Bordeaux, Marseille, and Lille and faster trains were introduced. Rather than have separate lines from Paris, towns in Britanny are reached via a relatively short detour—it being argued that the trains run fast enough that the extra distance causes little real delay on the long distance travel between Paris and Bordeaux, and this routing allows additional service to Brittany.

Image:ICE THA Koeln.jpg A new generation of TGV Automotrice à grande vitesse (AGV) with an operational speed of 350 km/h (220 mph) is currently under development.

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Germany

Construction on first German high-speed lines began shortly after that of the French LGVs. Legal battles caused significant delays, so that the InterCity Express (ICE) trains were deployed ten years after the TGV network was established. The ICE network is more tightly integrated with pre-existing lines and trains as a result of the different settlement structure in Germany, which has almost twice the population density of France. ICE trains reached destinations in Austria and Switzerland soon after they entered service, taking advantage of the same voltage used in these countries. Starting in 2000, multisystem third-generation ICE trains entered the Netherlands and Belgium. The third generation of the ICE reaches a speed up to 363 km/h. Admission of ICE trains onto French LGVs was applied for in 2001, but trial runs have only just been completed in 2005. Unlike the TGV or Shinkansen, a first generation ICE has had a fatal high speed crash, following numerous complaints of excessive shaking. Since the crash, the ICE wheels have been redesigned.

Germany is also developing Transrapid, a magnetic levitation train system. The Transrapid reaches speeds up to 550 km/h. A test track with a total length of 31.5 km is operating in Emsland. In China, Shanghai Maglev Train, a Transrapid technology based maglev built in collaboration with Germany, has been operational since March 2004.

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Italy

The earliest high-speed train deployed in Europe was the Italian "Direttissima" that connected Rome with Florence (254 km) in 1978. The maximum speed of this line was 250 km/h (150 mph). The journey time between the two cities is just over 90 minutes and the trains average about 200 km/h (125 mph). The service is carried out by Eurostar Italia (ETR 4xx and 500 series) trains (not related to the Eurostar trains operating to the United Kingdom). Italy makes extensive use of tilting train technology, "Pendolino" (ETR 4xx series), based on research work undertaken in the 1970s by Fiat Ferroviaria.

Treno Alta Velocità is building a new high speed network on the routes Milan - Bologna - Florence - Rome - Naples and Turin - Milan - Verona - Venice - Trieste. Some lines are already opened while international links with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia are underway.

Rome-Naples line opened to service in december 2005, Turin-Milan partially opened in february 2006. Both lines with speed up to 300kph.

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Netherlands and Belgium

High-speed TGV-derived Thalys trains already operate between Belgium, France and The Netherlands. They are a variant of the French TGV. The German ICE also operates between Brussels and Frankfurt

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Netherlands

The Dutch HSL-Zuid line is currently under construction. Connecting the Netherlands with Belgium and France, it will carry both the TGV-derived Thalys and domestic high-speed trains.

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Belgium

Belgium is building a network of four high speed lines:

In practice, HSL 2 and HSL 3 will be treated as one line to the German border. Trains will use regular network lines between the high speed sections; these are being upgraded to handle higher speeds.

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Portugal

The Portuguese government has approved the construction of two high-speed lines from the capital Lisbon to Porto and Madrid from 2007. They will essentially be extensions of the Spanish AVE network, and it will bring the countries' capital cities within three hours of each other. There has been an intense public debate on these plans. Since the late 1990s, the Italian tilting train, the Pendolino, has been used between Portugal's two major cities.

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Russia

Track between Saint Petersburg and Moscow is being updated to allow German ICEs, bought by Russia, to reach 250 km/h (150 mph) by 2008.

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Spain

Image:AVE 350 385835 7954.jpg The Alta Velocidad Española (AVE) high-speed rail system in Spain is currently being constructed. High-speed trains have been running on the Madrid–Sevilla route since 1992. Should the aims of the ambitious AVE construction program be met, by 2010 Spain will have 7000 km of high-speed trains linking all provincial cities to Madrid in under 4 hours and Barcelona within 6 hours.

By 2007, the fastest long-distance commercial trains in operation will be moving passengers between Barcelona and Madrid at a top speed of 350 km/h, traveling the 600 km between the two cities in only 2.5 hours. Three corporations have or will build trains for the Spanish high-speed rail network: Spanish Talgo, French Alstom and German Siemens AG. Bombardier Transportation is a partner in both the Talgo-led and the Siemens-led consortium.

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Switzerland

Switzerland has no high-speed trains of its own yet. French TGV and German ICE lines extend into Switzerland, but given the dense rail traffic and the short distances between Swiss cities they currently do not attain speeds higher than 160km/h there.

The fastest Swiss trains are the ICN tilting trains, operated by the Swiss Federal Railways since May 2000 and capable of 200 km/h even on the curve-intensive Swiss network. The Cisalpino consortium owned by the Swiss Federal Railways and Trenitalia uses Pendolino tilting trains on two of its international lines.

AlpTransit project is building faster north-south rail tracks across the Swiss Alps by constructing base tunnels several hundred metres below the level of the current tunnels. The 35 km Lötschberg Base Tunnel will open in 2007 where new Pendolino 4 trains will run at 250 km/h. The 57 km Gotthard Base Tunnel (Top speed 250 km/h) is scheduled for opening in 2015.

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United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, Eurostar trains, which run through the Channel Tunnel between the UK and both France and Belgium, are substantially different versions of the TGV trains, with support for multiple voltages, both pantograph and third–rail power collection, the ability to adapt to multiple platform heights, and to cope with no fewer than seven different signalling modes. Like the TGVs, Eurostar trains are articulated with bogies between the carriages, and typical operating units have 18 carriages. A fully loaded train of 794 passengers is roughly equivalent to seven Boeing 737s (the aircraft typically used by low-cost airlines). These trains operate at the highest scheduled speeds of any in the UK, using specially-built track between the Channel Tunnel and London. The Channel Tunnel Rail Link currently supports high speed trains between Dover to Fawkham Junction, and the extension to London St Pancras is due to open in 2007.

The remainder of Britain's railway network is determinedly slower—nominal top speeds on some lines of 225 km/h (140 mph) have yet to be run, and most inter-city traffic is restricted to a maximum speed of 200 km/h (125 mph) using track largely built in the middle years of the nineteenth century. Much of this traffic is still handled by diesel-powered High Speed Trains which are around three decades old, however GNER trains on the East Coast Main Line between London and York still achieve an average point-to-point speed that puts them in the world top ten.

An attempt was made in the 1970s and 1980s to introduce a high-speed train that could operate on Britain's winding infrastructure—British Rail developed the Advanced Passenger Train using active tilting technology. While this was, ultimately, technically successful, the project was closed down following a series of high-profile failures. The technology was widely sold, and is used in today's Pendolino trains developed in Italy. In 2004, following a large investment in the West Coast Mainline, tilting Pendolinos were introduced. These trains are currently limited to a top speed of 125 mph (200 km/h) although they were designed to run faster—cost over-runs on the track and signalling refurbishment project led to the line being rebuilt with the lower speed limit rather than the 140 mph (225 km/h) originally planned. The Pendolinos are operated by Virgin Trains, on services from London Euston to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow (with occasional services to Holyhead).

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Asia

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China

Image:Shanghai Transrapid 002.jpg

Shanghai Maglev Train, a Transrapid maglev capable of an operational speed of 430 km/h and of a top speed of 501 km/h, has connected Shanghai and Pu Dong International Airport since March, 2004.

China has decided to build a second Transrapid maglev rail with a length of 160 km from Shanghai to Hangzhou (Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev line). Talks with Germany and Transrapid Konsortium about the details of the construction contracts have started. On March 7th, the Chinese Minister of Transportation was quoted by several Chinese and Western newspapers as saying the line was approved. Construction will probably start towards the end of 2006 and is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2010 Shanghai Expo, becoming the first inter-city Maglev rail line in commercial service in the world.

A conventional high-speed line based on InterCity Express technology between Beijing and Tianjin is expected to open in 2007. Beijing-Shanghai Express Railway is in advanced phase of construction but it will only allow speeds of 200 km/h.

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Israel

A new high-speed rail line between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, cutting travel time between the two cities to 28 minutes (currently about 75 minutes), is under construction by Israel Railways and expected to begin service in 2011. In addition, the entire railway system is currently undergoing extensive upgrades and electrification, the result of which mean that by early in the next decade, all three major metropolitan areas (Haifa, Jerusalem, and Beer Sheva) which are located outside the center of the country will be reachable within about thirty to forty minutes of Tel Aviv.

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Japan

Image:Shinkansen-100-fukuyama.jpg Japan might be considered the spiritual home of modern high-speed railways. In 1964, after the Tokaido Shinkansen was deployed, a second line—the Sanyo Shinkansen—was inaugurated. Japan is an extremely densely populated country: more than 70% of the land surface is mountainous and thus uninhabitable or unsuitable for road travel and parking. In fact, one cannot buy a car without first proving one has a parking space. With such a population density, the only practical possibility for transport across the country is rail. The recognition of the interrelationship between land development and the high-speed rail network led, in 1970, to the enactment in Japan of a law for the construction of a nationwide Shinkansen railway network. By 1973, the Transport Minister approved construction plans for five additional lines and basic plans for twelve others. Despite the approval, financial considerations intervened; the cost of the five lines (five trillion yen, or roughly 18 billion U.S. dollars at the 1973 exchange rate), combined with the oil shock and recession of the 1970s and early 1980s resulted in some lines being cancelled and others delayed until 1982.

As with other high speed rail lines around the world, some Shinkansen lines cannot handle the highest speeds. Some rails remain narrow-gauge to allow sharing with conventional trains, reducing land requirement and cost. Although Shinkansen trainsets are designed to tilt to take a curve, narrow-gauge cannot safely accommodate the highest speeds. In other cases, Tokyo and Osaka are congested, as the Shinkansen must slow down to allow other trains to keep their schedules and must wait for slower trains until they can be overtaken.

Japan's hosting of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano provided Japan with a valuable opportunity to showcase its technological skills with the opening of a new rail line extension. The Hokuriku Shinkansen (Tokyo to Nagano) line was opened just in time.

Within Japan, some of the most significant changes in the mode's growth phase have been the break-up and privatization of the rail system, begun in 1987. The hope is that restructuring leads to more efficient and profitable operations in the passenger rail sector. Incremental improvements to the high-speed rail technology are continuously being undertaken, and the network continues to be expanded. Tilting trains have been introduced to take curves faster, aerodynamic redesigns, stronger engines and lighter materials, air brakes (similar to drag racing), typhoon and earthquake safe operation, and track upgrades are among the developments. As an result of improvements, the travel time from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka (the first route opened) has decreased from 4 hours in 1964 to 2 hours 30 minutes, and is forecast to be less than 2 hours in the near future.

A Japanese consortium led by the Central Japan Railway Company have been researching new high-speed rail systems based on magnetic levitation since the 1970s. Although the trains and guidways are technologically ready and determined safe (over 100,000 people have ridden), high cost remains a barrier as cooling superconductors are not cheap. Test trains JR-Maglev MLX01 on the Yamanashi Test Line have reached speeds of 581 km/h (crewed), easily making them the fastest trains in the world. These new maglev trains are intended to be deployed on new Tokyo–Osaka Shinkansen maglev route, called the Chuo Shinkansen, though the project has no political support, due to a spiralling Japanese national debt.

A new generation of conventional steel wheeled Shinkansen trains FASTECH 360 with a top speed of 405 km/h and an operational speed of 360 km/h are currently under development. Production trains are expected to enter service in 2011.

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Korea

Image:KTX-train.jpg Korean KTX high-speed rail, which is apart from conventional railway system, became operational on April 2004. The maximum speeds of the KTX which derives its technology directly from France's Alstom TGV, is 300 km/h. A journey from Seoul to Daejeon that previous took around 1:30 to 2 hours now takes only 49 minutes, and from Daejeon to Daegu(Dongdaegu St.) that previous took around 1:30–2 hours now takes 47 minutes. So in Gyeongbu-line (from Seoul to Busan), passenger of KTX can gain 1 hour to Deajeon and 2 hours to Deagu and Busan. Since its operation, there has been many complaints with regards to the product, citing reasons of general discomfort, together with seatings that face the opposite direction. However, rail demand rose 25% in the second three months of service (April–June 2004). Rail revenue in general increased more than 91% from the previous year on a 33% increase of seats offered in the network. Recent observations indicate a growth trend and increasing public acceptance of the service. Daily ridership is now in the range of 85,000 passengers. Diversions from other modes show wide variability, according to customer surveys. KTX enticed 56% from existing rail services, 17% from air, 15% from express buses, and 12% from the highways.

As of December 2005, the South Korean government in investigating for adoption of a new South Korean high-speed technology called G-7 that probably will be selected. It runs faster than the TGV, 350 km/h instead of 300 km/h. The train is a product of near 10 years of research and development by the korean Rotem and the National Rail Technology Institute. The train uses a digital-mode for its operation, and allows passengers to rotate their seats, regardless of whether they were given a forward facing or a rear facing seat.

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Taiwan

Taiwan High Speed Rail is Taiwan's high-speed rail under construction with completion scheduled in October 2006. It runs approximately 345 kilometers from Taipei to Kaohsiung. Adopting Japan's Shinkansen technology for the core system, the Taiwan High Speed Rail will use the 700T Series Shinkansen, produced by a consortium of Japanese companies, most notably Kawasaki Heavy Industries. When completed, trains will travel from Taipei to Kaohsiung in roughly 90 minutes as opposed to the current 4-6 hours by conventional rail.

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Countries planning high-speed rail

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North America

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Canada

Image:Turbo Train, Montreal, 1973.jpg Canada placed some early hopes in high-speed trains with the United Aircraft Turbo train, in the 1960s. Run by CN and later VIA Rail, the Talgo-inspired articulated tilt-train achieved speeds as high as 200 km/h in regular service, but for most of its service life (marred with lengthy interruptions to address design problems), it ran at a more conventional 160 km/h. A similar but shorter train was also experimented with in the United States.

Beginning in the 1970s, a consortium of several companies started to study the Bombardier LRC, which was a more conventional approach to high-speed rail, in having separate cars rather than being an articulated train. Pulled by conventional-technology diesel-electric locomotives designed for 200 km/h normal operating speed, it entered full-scale service in 1981 for VIA Rail, linking cities in the Québec–Windsor corridor, but at speeds never exceeding the 170 km/h limit mandated by line signalling.

The troublesome Bombardier LRC locomotives were eventually all retired by 2000, and replaced by more conventional diesel-electric locomotives manufactured by General Motors and General Electric. The LRC is the oldest tilt-train that is still operational to this day.

Recently, Bombardier and VIA have proposed high-speed services along the Québec–Windsor corridor using Bombardier's experimental JetTrain tilting trains, which are similar to Bombardier's Acela Express, but powered by a small jet engine rather than overhead electric wires. As yet, no government support for this plan has been forthcoming, and Bombardier appears to have stopped promoting the JetTrain. Bombardier has also recently promoted high-speed rail in the province of Alberta between Edmonton and Calgary.

Although in the U.S. Amtrak has invested enormous amounts of money in electrifying the New Haven–Boston portion of the Northeast Corridor and outfitting itself with sleek Acela Express trains, it is VIA Rail that operates the fastest scheduled passenger train in North America: train 66, which runs the 520 km between Toronto and Dorval in 3 hours 44 minutes, an average speed of 140 km/h.

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United States

Image:High-Speed Rail Corridor Designations.png Image:Acela at Boston.jpg High-speed rail in the United States is more a case of hope than reality. It is possible to trace the development of high-speed railways back to the streamliners that criss-crossed the U.S. in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s which, in turn, can be traced further back to the competing companies operating different routes between London and Scotland, and to railways in Germany and France. However, several factors contributed to the stagnation of rail transport in the U.S. just as Europe and Japan were pushing forward. There has been a resurgence of interest in recent decades, with many plans being examined for high-speed rail across the country, but current service remains relatively limited, relegated to Amtrak's Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C. (the service covers New York City and Philadelphia). Template:Further

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Mexico

After a rigorous technical and economic evaluation involving nine companies of international experience with high-speed trains, the French company Systra will be the consulting company to advise the Secretariat of Communication and Transportation of Mexico on the process of elaboration of the Basis of Auction for the Mexico City–Querétaro–Irapuato–Guadalajara high-speed train service. The action is to take place in early 2006. The estimate cost for this project is about $12 billion according to the SCT.

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Australia

Australia has no high-speed trains. The Transwa Prospector operating between Perth and Kalgoorlie is capable of reaching 210 km/h however operates at 160 km/h due to track conditions. Queensland Rail's tilting train between Brisbane and Cairns is believed to be the fastest narrow-gauge railway in the world.

The development of Australia's railways has always been hampered by the country's low population density; it has a population comparable to a small European country such as the Netherlands occupying an area only slightly smaller than the mainland United States. With the consequent deregulation and intense competition in the domestic airline industry, the cheapest method of travel between the major population centres is by air. While car fuel is not taxed as lightly as in the United States, it is still much less expensive than in European nations, which greatly reduces the appeal of train travel and the hope of significant expansions in the near future.

There have, however, been discussions of a high-speed railway between Sydney and Canberra, which could ultimately expand into a corridor extended from Sydney to Brisbane and from Canberra to Melbourne and Adelaide. [2]

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Asia

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India

Some projects have been developed within medium and long-term time frames. They include lines radiating from New Delhi to Amritsar, Jaipur, Agra (Taj Mahal), and Kanpur; Mumbai to Ahmedabad; Calcutta to Dhanbad; Chennai to Bangalore and Mysore; and Chennai to Hyderabad, Vijayawada, and Visakhapatnam.

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Turkey

Turkey has recently started building high-speed rail lines. The first line, between Istanbul (Turkey's largest city) and Ankara (capital of Turkey), is under construction and will open in 2007. The commercial high speed trains are expected to reach at a top speed of 250 km/h, reducing the traveling time from 6–7 hours to 3 hours 10 minutes. Several other lines between major cities are also being planned.

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Iran

There is one high-speed rail line project in Iran between Tehran and Isfahan

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Technology

Image:TGV double decker DSC00132.jpg Much of the technology behind high-speed rail is an improved application of existing technology. By building a new rail infrastructure with 20th century engineering, including elimination of constrictions such as roadway at-grade (level) crossings, frequent stops, a succession of curves and reverse curves, and not sharing the right-of-way with freight or slower passenger trains, higher speeds (250–300 km/h) are maintained. The record speed of 515 km/h is held by a shortened TGV train. The French TGV routes typically combine some sections of older track, on which they run at standard speeds, with segments on new track to provide an overall high-speed, one-seat journey to many destinations.

In France, the cost of construction is minimised by adopting steeper grades rather than building tunnels and viaducts. Because the lines are dedicated to passengers, grades of 3.5%, rather than the previous maximum of 1–1.5% for mixed traffic, are used. Possibly more expensive land is acquired in order to build straighter lines which minimize line construction as well as operating and maintenance costs. In other countries high-speed rail was built without those economies so that the railway can also support other traffic, such as freight. Experience has shown however, that trains of significantly different speeds cause massive decreases of line capacity. As a result, mixed-traffic lines are usually reserved for high-speed passenger trains during the daytime, while freight trains go at night. In some cases, nighttime high-speed trains are even diverted to lower speed lines in favor of freight traffic.

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Existing high-speed rail systems

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ETR 500 family

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ICE family

  • ICE (InterCity Express), (Germany – Netherlands – Belgium – Switzerland – Austria)
  • Renfe AVE, (Spain)
  • CRH3, (China)
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Shinkansen family

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Talgo family

  • Talgo 350 (Spain)
  • Talgo 200 (Spain) (able to travel at 200 km/h on broad and standard-gauge track)
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TGV family

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Tilting trains

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Magnetic levitation trains

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Other

  • InterCity 125 / British Rail Class 43 (HST), was introduced to Britain in 1976 by state corporation British Rail: often called the High Speed Train or HST, it was the fastest train in the country when it was introduced, operating regularly at scheduled speeds of 125 mph (200 km/h). It held the world speed record for a diesel-powered train (beaten in 2002 by Talgo XXI) after it achieved 143 mph (232 km/h) on test in 1973, and subsequently bettered it by achieving 148 mph (238 km/h) on another test in 1987; its highest speed in passenger service was 144 mph (231 km/h) achieved in 1985). It is still in regular inter-city service after three decades though will be phased out by c2015.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
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Notes and references

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See also

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Further reading

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External links

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