High-speed rail

Eurostar and Thalys PBA TGVs side-by-side in the Paris-Gare du Nord. Eurostar trains connect London with Brussels and Paris through the Channel Tunnel. Thalys trains connect Paris with Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne.

World speed record holding (581 km/h) JR-Maglev in Yamanashi, Japan

High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions include 200 km/h (125 mph) and faster — depending on whether the track is upgraded or new — by the European Union, and above 90 mph (145 km/h) by the United States Federal Railroad Administration, but there is no single standard, and lower speeds can be required by local constraints.^[1][2]

While high-speed rail is usually designed for passenger travel, some high-speed systems also carry some kind of freight service. For instance, the French mail service La Poste owns a few special TGV trains for carrying postal freight.

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. Railway companies in Europe and the United States used streamlined trains since 1933 for high speed services with an average speed of up to 130 km/h (80 mph) and top speed of more than 160 km/h (100 mph). With this service they were able to compete with the upcoming airplanes. World War II stopped these services. In 1957, the Odakyu Electric Railway in Greater Tokyo launched its Romancecar 3000 SSE. This set a world record for narrow gauge trains at 145 km/h (90 mph) , giving Japanese designers confidence they could safely build even faster trains at standard gauge. Desperate for transport solutions due to overloaded trains between Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, the idea of high speed rail was born.

The world's first "high-speed train" was Japan's Tōkaidō Shinkansen, officially opened in October 1964, with construction commencing in 1959.^[3] The 0 Series Shinkansen, built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, achieved speeds of 200 km/h (125 mph) on the Tokyo–Nagoya–Kyoto–Osaka route. In Europe, high-speed rail started during the international Munich traffic exposition, when DB Class 103 hauled a total of 347 demonstration trains at 200 km/h between Munich and Augsburg. The first regular service at this speed was the TEE "Le Capitole" between Paris and Toulouse with specially adapted SNCF Class BB 9200 locomotives.

Definition of high-speed rail

See also: Passenger rail terminology

There is no globally accepted standard separating high-speed rail from conventional railroads; however a number of widely accepted variables have been acknowledged by the industry in recent years. Generally, high-speed rail is defined as having a top speed in regular use of over 200 km/h (125 mph). Although almost every form of high-speed rail is electrically driven via overhead lines, this is not necessarily a defining aspect and other forms of propulsion, such as diesel locomotives, may be used. A definitive aspect is the use of continuous welded rail which reduces track vibrations and discrepancies between rail segments enough to allow trains to pass at speeds in excess 200 km/h. Curve radius will often be the ultimate limiting factor in a train's speed, with passenger discomfort often more imminent than the danger of derailment. Depending on design speed, banking and the forces deemed acceptable to the passengers, curves often exceed a 5 kilometer radius. Although a few exceptions exist, zero grade crossings is a policy adopted almost worldwide, with advanced switches utilizing very low entry and frog angles. Magnetic levitation trains fall under the category of high-speed rail due to their association with track oriented vehicles; however their inability to operate on conventional railroads often leads to their classification in a separate category.

Rationale

Mount Fuji with Shinkansen and Sakura trees in the foreground, Japan.

German designed 3rd generation InterCityExpress on Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed rail line

In both Japan and France the initial impetus for the introduction of high speed rail was the need for additional capacity to meet increasing demand for passenger rail travel. By the mid-1950s, the Tōkaidō Main Line in Japan was operating at full capacity, and construction of the first segment of the Tōkaidō Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka started in 1959. The Tōkaidō Shinkansen opened on October 11964, in time for the Tokyo Olympics. The situation for the first line in Japan was different than the subsequent lines. The route was already so densely populated and rail oriented that highway development would be extremely costly, and that one single line between Tokyo and Osaka could bring service to over half the nation's population. In 1959 that was nearly 45 million people; today it is well over 65 million. The Tokaido Shinkansen line is the most heavily traveled high speed line in the world, and still transports more passengers than all other high speed rail lines in the world combined, including in Japan. The subsequent lines in Japan had a rationale more similar to situations in Europe.

In France the main line between Paris and Lyon was projected to run out of capacity by 1970, so it was decided to build a new line. In both cases the choice to build a completely separate passenger-only line allowed for the much straighter higher speed lines. The dramatically reduced travel times on both lines bringing cities within three hours of one another caused explosions in ridership.^[4] It was the commercial success of both lines that inspired those countries and their economies to expand or start high speed rail networks.

In the United States the decades after World War II, improvements in automobiles and aircraft, severe antitrust restrictions on railroads, and government subsidization of highways and airports 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 United States were largely eschewed in favor of road expansion. The U.S. 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 United States, but as energy costs increase, rail ridership is increasing across the country.^[5]

Travel by rail becomes more competitive in areas of higher population density or where gasoline is expensive, because conventional trains are more fuel efficient than cars . Very few high-speed trains consume diesel or other fossil fuels but the power stations that provide electric trains with power can consume fossil fuels. In Japan and France, where the most extensive high speed rail networks exist, a large proportion of electricity comes from nuclear power.^[6] Even using electricity generated from coal or oil, trains are more fuel efficient per passenger per kilometer travelled than the typical automobile because of efficiencies of scale in generator technology. Rail networks, like highways, require large fixed capital investments and thus require a blend of high density and government investment to be competitive against existing capital infrastructure for aircraft and automobiles. Urban density and mass transit have been key factors in the success of European and Japanese railway transport, especially in countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and France.

High-speed rail by country

High-speed lines in Europe.      320–350 km/h      300 km/h      250–280 km/h      200–230 km/h

High speed lines in Asia.

Main article: High-speed rail by country

See also: Planned high-speed rail by country

For the purposes of this table, high speed rail is defined as passenger rail running at a top speed of 125 mph (200 km/h) or higher. Countries with scheduled services at 300 km/h or faster are highlighted in blue.

Comparison with other modes of transport

High speed rail is often viewed as an isolated system and simply as advantageous or disadvantageous as compared to other transport systems, but all transport systems must work together to maximize benefits. A good HSR system has capacity for non-stop and local services, and has good connectivity with other transport systems. HSR, like any transport system, is not inherently convenient, fast, clean, nor comfortable. All of this depends on design, implementation, maintenance, operation and funding. Operational smoothness is often more indicative of discipline than technological prowess.

Due to current infrastructure designs in many nations, there are constraints on the growth of the highway and air travel systems. Some key factors promoting HSR is that airports and highways have no room to expand, and are often overloaded. High-speed rail has the potential for high capacity on its fixed corridors (double decked E4 Series Shinkansen can carry 1634 seated passengers, double that of an Airbus A380 in all economy class, and even more if standing passengers are allowed), and has the potential to relieve congestion on the other systems. Well established high speed rail systems in use today are more environmentally friendly than air or road travel. This is due to:

• displaced usage from more environmentally damaging modes of transport.
• lower energy consumption per passenger kilometer
• reduced land usage for a given capacity compared to motorways

Automobiles

Shinkansen First High speed train design in 1964, the 0 Series at Fukuyama Station, April 2002 (retired). The first Shinkansen trains ran at speeds of up to 210 km/h (130 mph)[1], soon after increased to 220 km/h (135 mph).

High-speed rail has the advantage over automobiles in that it can move passengers at speeds far faster than those possible by car. The lower limit for HSR (200 km/h, 125 mph) is substantially faster than the highest road speed limit in any country. Ignoring the few countries without a general speed limit, the speed limit is rarely higher than 130 km/h (80 mph). For journeys that connect city center to city center, HSR's advantage is increased due to the lower speed limits within most urban areas. Generally, the longer the journey, the better the time advantage of rail over road if going to the same destination.

Moreover, train tracks permit a far higher throughput of passengers per hour than a road the same width. A high speed rail needs just a double track railway, one track for each direction. A typical capacity is 15 trains per hour and 800 passengers per train (as for the Eurostar sets), which implies a capacity of 12,000 passengers per hour in each direction. By way of contrast, the Highway Capacity Manual gives a maximum capacity for a single lane of highway of 2,250 passenger cars per hour (excluding trucks or RVs). Assuming an average vehicle occupancy of 1.57 people,^[8] a standard twin track railway has a typical capacity 13% greater than a 6-lane highway (3 lanes each way), while requiring only 40% of the land (1.0/3.0 versus 2.5/7.5 hectares per kilometer of direct/indirect land consumption). This means that typical passenger rail carries 2.83 times as many passengers per hour per meter (width) as a road. Some passenger rail systems, such as the Tokaido Shinkansen line in Japan, have much higher ratios (with as many as 20,000 passengers per hour per direction). Congested roadways tend to be commuter – these carry fewer than 1.57 persons per vehicle (Washington State Department of Transportation, for instance, uses 1.2 persons per vehicle) during commute times. Congestion also causes the maximum throughput of a lane to decrease.

South Korea's KTX train can speed up to 300 km/h. French TGV type.

Aircraft

Optimal distance

While commercial high-speed trains have maximum operating speeds much slower than jet aircraft, they have advantages over air travel mostly for relatively short distances, and can be an integral part of any good transportation system. They also connect city center rail stations to multiple other city center rail stations (with an intermediate stop passenger loading/unloading time of 3-8 minutes), while air transport necessarily connects airports outside city centers to other airports outside city centers (with a stop time for intermediate destinations of 30 minutes to 1 hour.) Both systems complement each other if they are well designed and maintained.

HSR is best suited for journeys of 2 - 3 hours (150-600 km or about 100-400 miles), for which the train can beat both air and car in this range. When traveling less than about 650 km (400 mi), the process of checking in and going through security screening at airports, as well as the journey to the airport itself makes the total air journey time no faster than HSR. However, anecdotally, competition authorities in Europe treat HSR for city pairs as competitive with passenger air at 4-4.5 hours, allowing on a 1-hour flight at least 40 minutes at each point for travel to and from the airport, checkin-security-boarding, disembarcation-baggage retrieval and other waits.

However, unless air travel is severely congested, merely providing a comparable service is often not a compelling financial basis for build an HSR system from scratch. As a rule of thumb, rail journeys need to be four hours or thereabouts to be competitive with air travel on journey time. One factor which may have a further bearing on HSR's competitiveness is the general lack of inconvenience when using HSR, for example the lack of a requirement to check baggage, or repeated queuing for checkin, security and boarding as well as the typically high on-time reliability as compared to air. Separately, from a business traveler's perspective, HSR can offer amenities such as cellular phone network availability and on for example Franco-German TGV-Est wireless internet broadband.

There are routes where high-speed trains have totally beaten air transport, so that there is no air connection anymore. Examples are Paris-Brussels and Cologne-Frankfurt. If the train stops at a big airport, like Paris and Frankfurt, these short distance airplanes lose an extra advantage for the many travellers who want to go to the airport for a long-distance journey. Air plane tickets can include a train segment for the journey, with guaranteed rebooking if the connection is missed, like normal air travel.

Other considerations

Although jet travel has a speed advantage, with multiple boarding points trains can typically be boarded more quickly, and stations can be located closer to, if not within, urban centers. This can mostly – or completely – offset the speed advantage of air travel for mid-distance trips. Travelers commuting from suburbs of large cities and drive their own car to the airport when they want to fly. In a hub-and-spoke air system like in the USA, large airports are heavily favored by airlines because using them can increase load factor and thus profitability. Airlines do not want to commit to non-hub areas, which if along the route have the potential for benefit from supplementation with high speed rail. However, in a point-to-point air system like in Europe (where population density is somewhat higher), major air hubs are discouraged by low-cost carriers due to congestion and high landing costs. Therefore, travel between two minor cities is already better served by air.

Weather

Rail lines also permit far greater capacity and frequency of service than what is possible with aircraft, and rail schedules find fewer weather-related interruptions than do airline schedules. Although comfort over air travel is often believed to be a trait of high speed rail, it is not inherent, it depends on the specific implementation. From the operator's point of view, a single train can call in at multiple stops, often far more stops than aircraft, and each stop takes much less down time. One train stopping pattern can allow a multitude of possible journeys, increasing the potential market.

Energy Efficiency

High speed trains are more energy efficient than aircraft on a same load factor basis, as trains consume less energy per passenger kilometer. This may result in less carbon dioxide emissions, however this depends on each implementation's actual usage patterns and their indirect effects. Short-haul energy requirements for transporting people are generally more competitive on trains than long haul. (where rail competes best on time), because takeoff and landing have proportionately high energy requirements per km versus cruising.

Safety

From the point of view of required traffic control systems and infrastructure, high-speed rail has the added advantage of being much simpler to control due to its predictable course, even at very high passenger loads; this issue is becoming more relevant as air traffic reaches its safe limit in busy airspaces over London, New York, and other large centers. However, it must be noted that high speed rail systems eliminate the possibility of traffic collisions with automobiles (adding cost, simplicity, and safety), while other systems do not.

Maximum speed records

Maximum speed in service

The term "maximum speed" has many meanings here. It can reflect:

• maximum scheduled speed between two scheduled stops
• maximum speed at which a train is allowed to run safely or by set by law or policy on a straight section with minimal contraints (MOR)
• the maximum speed at which an unmodified train is capable of running
• the maximum speed a specially modified train is capable of running.

A one time specially modified system and trainset record (see land speed record for railed vehicles) was set by the manned TGV's 574.8 km/h run, however it is far from a typical situation. The sheer amount of smoke emitted from the train is evidence that it was meant for proof of concept and not for passenger runs. Safety, cost, reliability, mass production are major concerns for high speed rail engineers and designers, which would not allow such conditions in a scheduled passenger run. The record for railed vehicles however is 10,400 km/h (6,462 mph) (rocket propulsion, unmanned, test of missiles etc, done in the USA).

The maximum speed an unmodified train is capable of running was set by the non-wheeled 581 km/h JR-Maglev MLX01 run in 2003. However, even this is not necessarily suitable for passenger operation as there can be concerns such as noise, cost, deceleration time in an emergency, etc.

The fastest maximum operating speed (MOR) of ANY segment of any high speed rail line, currently 350 km/h (217 mph), a record held by China. It is Beijing–Tianjin Intercity Rail which links Beijing to neighbouring Tianjin (117 km in 30 minutes). The train have shown an unmodified capability of running 394 km/h in tests, and thus have been set to run 350 km/h in normal operation. That rail line went into operation on August 1, 2008.^[9]

The highest scheduled average speed between two scheduled stops is held by TGV and ICE service on part of the TGV Est Line in France. at 279.4 km/h from Lorraine-TGV to Champagne-Ardennes-TGV (167.66 km in 36 min) and Nozomi Shinkansen at 261.8 km/h (162.7 mph) from Hiroshima to Kokura according to the last official Railway Gazette International World Speed Survey study in 2005. With the introduction of the new N700 Shinkansen on July 1, 2007, the Kokura to Hiroshima time may have decreased further.^[10]

Records in trial runs

Main article: Land speed record for railed vehicles

• 1963 - Japan - Shinkansen - 256 km/h
• 1965 - West Germany - Class 103 locomotives - 200 km/h (demonstration runs, scheduled service starting 1968)
• 1967 - France - TGV 001 - 318 km/h (gas turbine type)
• 1972 - Japan - Shinkansen - 286 km/h
• 1974 - West Germany - EET-01 - 230 km/h
• 1974 - France - Aérotrain - 430.2 km/h (high speed monorail train)
• 1975 - West Germany - Comet - 401.3 km/h (steam rocket propulsion)
• 1978 - Japan - HSST-01 - 307.8 km/h (Auxiliary rocket propulsion)
• 1978 - Japan - HSST-02 - 110 km/h
• 1978 - Italy - Pendolino - 250 km/h
• 1979 - Japan - Shinkansen - 319 km/h
• 1979 - Japan - ML-500R (unmanned) - 504 km/h
• 1979 - Japan - ML-500R (unmanned) - 517 km/h
• 1981 - France - TGV - 380 km/h
• 1985 - West Germany - InterCityExperimental - 324 km/h
• 1987 - Japan - MLU001 (manned) - 400.8 km/h
• 1988 - West Germany - InterCityExperimental - 406 km/h
• 1988 - West Germany - TR-06 - 412.6 km/h
• 1989 - West Germany - TR-07 - 436 km/h 　
• 1990 - France - TGV - 515.3 km/h
• 1992 - Japan - Shinkansen - 350 km/h
• 1993 - Japan - Shinkansen - 425 km/h
• 1993 - Germany - TR-07 - 450 km/h
• 1994 - Japan - MLU002N - 431 km/h
• 1996 - Japan - Shinkansen - 446 km/h
• 1997 - Japan - MLX01 - 550 km/h
• 1999 - Japan - MLX01 - 552 km/h
• 2003 - Germany - Transrapid 08 - 501 km/h
• 2003 - Japan - MLX01 - 581 km/h (current world record holder)
• 2006 - Spain/Germany - Velaro E - 404 km/h (unmodified commercial trainset)
• 2007 - France - V150 - 574.8 km/h

Target areas for high-speed trains

The TGV Sud-Est fleet was built between 1978 and 1988 and connected Paris with Lyon. Originally the sets were built to run at 270 km/h (168 mph), but most were upgraded to 300 km/h (186 mph) for the opening of the LGV Méditerranée.

Taiwan's Japanese-built 300 km/h operating, 350 km/h capable 700T series train

Main articles: High-speed rail by country and Planned high-speed rail by country

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 the Acela Express, in the Northeast Corridor between Boston, New York and Washington, D.C.; it uses tilting trains to achieve speeds of up to 240 km/h (150 mph) on existing tracks.

One notable fact is that in Europe, South Korea, and Japan, dense networks of city subways and railways connect seamlessly with high speed rail lines. Despite efforts to create high speed rail in the USA, cities that lack dense intra-city rail infrastructure will find low ridership for high speed rail, as it is incompatible with existing automobile infrastructure. (People will want to drive when traveling in city, so they might as well drive the entire trip). Since in Japan intra-city rail daily usage per capita is the highest, it follows naturally that ridership of 6 billion passengers^[11] exceeds the French TGV of 1 billion (until 2003), the only other system to reach a billion cumulative passengers.^[12] For comparison, the world's fleet of 22,685 aircraft carried 2.1 billion passengers in 2006, according to International Civil Aviation Organization.

The California High Speed Rail Authority is currently studying a San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento to Los Angeles and San Diego line. The Texas High Speed Rail and Transportation Corporation strives to bring Texas an innovative high-speed rail and multimodal transportation corridor. The Corporation developed the Brazos Express Corridor to link Central Texas. New York State Senator Caesar Trunzo announced a long-term plan to bring high-speed rail service between Buffalo and New York City, via Albany, to under three hours.^[13]

Later high speed rail lines, such as the LGV Atlantique, the LGV Est, and most high speed lines in Germany, were designed as feeder routes branching into conventional rail lines, serving a larger number of medium-sized cities.

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. Cities relatively close to a major city may see an increase in population, but those farther away may actually lose population (except for tourist spots), having a ripple effect on local economies.

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, or Ligne à grande vitesse (LGV), was opened in 1981 by SNCF, the French rail agency, planning starting in 1966 and construction in 1976.

Market segmentation has principally focused on the business travel market. The French original focus on business travelers is reflected by the early design of the TGV trains, including the bar car. Pleasure travel was to be a secondary market; now many of the French extensions connect with vacation beaches on the Atlantic and Mediterranean, as well as major amusement parks and also the very popullar Alpine ski resorts in France or Switzerland. Friday evenings are the peak time for TGVs (train à grande vitesse) (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.

On the Paris - Lyon service, the number of passengers grew to impressive numbers justifying the introduction of double-decks coaches on the TGV trainsets.

Other target areas include freight lines, such as the Trans-Siberian Railway in Russia, which would allow 3 day Far East to Europe service for freight as opposed to months by ship (but still slower than air), and allow just in time deliveries. High speed north-south freight lines in Switzerland are under construction, avoiding slow mountainous truck traffic, and lowering labour costs.

In South America, Brazilian government is currently studying a high speed rail line connecting the cities Campinas and Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro. This high speed rail line will also connect these airports: Viracopos (Campinas), Congonhas (Sao Paulo) and Galeao (Rio de Janeiro).

Technology

France's TGV technology has been adapted for use in a number of different countries.

Much of the technology behind high-speed rail is an improved application of mature standard gauge rail technology using overhead electrification. 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 (250–320 km/h) are maintained. Total cost of ownership of HSR systems is generally lower than the total costs of competing alternatives (new highway or air capacity). Japanese systems are often more expensive than their counterparts but more comprehensive because they have their own dedicated elevated guideway, no traffic crossings, and disaster monitoring systems. Despite this, the lion's share of the Japanese system's cost is related to boring tunnels through mountains, as was in Taiwan. Recent advances in wheeled trains in the last few decades have pushed the speed limits past 400 km/h, among the advances being tilting trainsets, aerodynamic designs (to reduce drag, lift, and noise), air brakes, regenerative braking, stronger engines, dynamic weight shifting, etc. Some of the advances were to fix problems, like the Eschede disaster. The record speed for a wheeled electric train is 574.8 km/h is held by a shortened TGV train and long straight highly modified track. The record speed for an unmodified commercial trainset is 403.7 km/h, held by the Velaro E. European high-speed routes typically combine segments on new track, where the train runs at full commercial speed, with some sections of older track on the extremities of the route, near cities.

In France, the cost of construction (which was €10 million/km (US$15.1 million/km) for LGV Est) is minimised by adopting steeper grades rather than building tunnels and viaducts. However, in mountainous Switzerland, tunnels are inevitable. Because the lines are dedicated to passengers, gradients 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.

See also

The Acela Express, currently the only high-speed rail line in the U.S., with a top speed of 150 mph (240 km/h).

• Aérotrain
• Ground effect train
• High-speed rail by country
• High speed tilting train
• Land speed record for railed vehicles
• Magnetic levitation train
• Transrapid
• Megaproject
• Planned high-speed rail by country
• Passenger rail terminology

Notes and references

Further reading

• Hood, Christopher P. (2006). Shinkansen – From Bullet Train to Symbol of Modern Japan. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-32052-6. 

External links

• California High-Speed Rail Authority
• Transrapid – Maglev: High-Speed in Asia (China, Shanghai), Japan (Yamanashi) and Germany (Munich; TVE)
• Malaysia Govt Still Considering YTL Bullet Train Proposal
• Singapore keen on KL high-speed rail service Business Times (The New Straits Times Press, Malaysia)
• Treno alta velocità (TAV)
• UIC: High Speed Rail
• High Speed Rail in Spain