High-speed rail

Automotrice à grande vitesse (AGV) being tested in Velim, Czech Republic

E5 Series Shinkansen in Japan

German designed third generation ICE on Cologne-Frankfurt high-speed rail line

High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions by the European Union include 200 km/h (120 mph) for upgraded track and 250 km/h (160 mph) or faster for new track.^[1] In Japan Shinkansen lines run at speeds in excess of 260 km/h (160 mph) and are built using standard gauge track with no at-grade crossings.^[2] In China, high-speed conventional rail lines operate at top speeds of 350 km/h (220 mph),^[3] and one maglev line reaches speeds of 431 km/h (268 mph). The world record for conventional high-speed rail is held by SNCF's TGV which clocked 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph) on a test run.

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

The Italian ETR 200 in 1939 was the first high speed service train. It achieved the world mean speed record in 1939, reaching 203 km/h (126 mph) near Milan

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), soon after increased to 220 km/h (140 mph).

Railways were the first form of mass transportation on land and until the development of the motorcar in the early 20th century had an effective monopoly on land transport. Both streamlined steam locomotives and high-speed EMUs were used for high speed services.

The modern high-speed rail era started 6 October 1903. An electrical railcar from Siemens & Halske sped away at 203 km/h (126 mph) on the military railway track between Marienfeld and Zossen in Germany. It showed that high-speed rail was possible, and that the future was electrical. For scheduled trains, however, such a speed still was more than 60 years away. For rail speed records, see Land speed record for rail vehicles.

The high-speed interurbans

The electrical streetcar (tram) was born as an urban transportation medium, but already before 1890 the first urban lines or networks were connected. The interurban, the remarkable hybrid between a streetcar and a conventional train, was created. Interurbans were built (and do still exist) both in Europe and Asia, but the high-speed interurban was a U.S. invention, and their constructors were the first to implement several HSR technologies. Interurbans were especially popular the Midwest (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin). Another stronghold was the Philadelphia area. Two essential HSR properties – streamlining to reduce air resistance, and tracks with no grade crossing – were introduced more than hundred years ago on the interuban scene. In 1903 the officials of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition organized the Electric Railway Test Commission to conduct a series of tests to develop a carbody design that would reduce wind resistance at high speeds. After a couple of years’ research with speeds up to 70 mph (above 110 km/h), several streamliners were built – but for this time’s service speeds and heavy equipment, no significant operating economies were realized, and streamlining was soon discarded for another quarter century. In 1907 Philadelphia & Western Railroad (P&W) opened their double-track Strafford–Upper Darby line without a single grade crossing, and the first absolute block signal system ever installed on an interurban.^[4]

The interurban development culminated with high-speed railcars like the Red Devils (which were inaugurated in 1929), the Bullets from J.G.Brill & Company (1931), and the Electroliners which in 1941-63 ran between Chicago and Milwaukee and in 1963–1976 in the Philadelphia area. These lightweight constructions weighed only about 500 kg per seat; today’s high-speed trains are heavier. Their commercial top speed was about 145 km/t (90 mph), but they able to about 160 km/t in test runs – the Electroliners even almost 180 km/h (110 mph), a respectable speed for a “tram”. Station-to-stations speeds at 70 mph (more than 110 km/h) were not infrequently attained on Samuel Insull’s interurbans in the Chicago area.^[4] The Bullets were the first rail equipment made after windtunnel research to reduce the air resistance;^[5] they are called ‘very first high-speed “Super” trains; ancestors of the TGV, ICE, Shinkansen, and the Acela Express’ .^[6]

The diesel-electric hegemony

In most of the U.S., the rail passenger transport deteriorated because of the fierce competition from cars and buses, which ran on subsidized streets and highways – at many places also because of infiltration from the automaker companies (Great Streetcar Scandal). The electrical trams (streetcars) and interurbans were especially sensitive to the competition, partially because the were clogged in the streets’ car jams. Yet the P&W survived, and survived very well; their successor SEPTA serves the Philadelphia area very well even today. After the Electroliners’ introduction, however, the interurbans didn’t contribute to the high-speed development.

In addition to their own Bullets, P&W bought the used Electroliners and made the Philadelphia area a refugium for old interurbans. They held a couple of Bullets almost 60 years in a commuter service; the last Bullets were phased out after surviving six generations of «modern» buses.

Some few years, diesel-electrics dominated among the high-speed trains, or proto-high-speed trains if the HSR limit is set to 200 km/h (in 1931, Franz Kruckenberg’s gasoline-driven Schienenzeppelin reached 230 km/h, but didn’t come into regular service). In 1933, Germany’s Fliegender Hamburger – a train with two wagons and 102 seats – sped at 160 km/h in commercial traffic on the route Hamburg–Berlin. The average speed, 124 km/h, was faster than the interurbans, mostly because the train ran non-stop and without running at snail’s pace through congested city streets – though not much faster. A few similar trains were inaugurated on other mainlines. However, the Nazi regime preferred motorways and planes to railways.

The U.S. railways still haven’t given up the race. In 1934, a diesel-electric streamliner, the legendary Pioneer Zephyr from the Budd Company, was inaugurated on the Kansas City (Missouri)–Omaha–Lincoln (Nebraska) route. It had 72 seats (later expanded to 112). It was one of the first articulated trains with Jacobs bogies and was followed by several similar Zephyrs, which served U.S. railways till about 1960. In 1939, the Wisconsin people could say good morning to the first train reaching the 100 mph mark (161 km/h) in regular service. Its name was Morning Hiawatha – the last steam engine in the record books. This record should survive a quarter of a century. Yet the Italian ETR 200 sped at up to 203 km/h between Florence and Milan, but only on a test run.

The stagnation

In the USA, the passenger traffic by rail became marginally, at least outside the Northeast Corridor (Boston–Washington) and the Chicago area. Not so in Europe, even if the high-speed development stagnated here, too, and a lot of rural branch lines were given up. Yet the sluggish steam locomotives were substituted by not-so-sluggish diesels; a few countries like Switzerland, Sweden and Norway also electrified their mainlines. This brought the journey times down. In 1957, some countries introduced the TEE (Trans-Europe Express) service – but with first class only, and none of them surpassed Fliegender Hamburger’s speed before much later. In 1964, France upped the ante with its “Mistral” between Paris and Dijon – but with a very small margin.

The turbotrain siding

In the 1960es, several jet-powered and gas turbine trains appeared on the high-speed scene. These sorts of engines had a much higher power-to-weight ratio than diesels, and the fuel was cheap – which made them well fit to nonelectrified service. At least, some railway companies thought so.

In 1966, the M-497 Black Beetle was born. Two second-hand General Electric J47-19 jet engines (designed as boosters for the Convair B-36 intercontinental bomber) were mounted atop an existing Budd Rail Diesel Car body which had received a streamlined front cowling. On an arrow-straight track in Indiana and Ohio this “Jet Zephyr” set a still valid North American speed record at 296 km/h (183 mph) – but with exception of the record books, both the train and the data were ignored. In 1970, a similar train was built in the USSR.

The most innovative gas turbine train was the UAC TurboTrain from the Canadian United Aircraft Corporation. It was a sleek, articulated train with Jacobs bogies like the Pioneer Zephyr and the Electroliners, with an alumium carbody, and with a tilting mechanism. The turbines were small and light compared to diesel engines, too. The turbines were downrated from 600 to 300 hp or 447 to 224 kW (probably because the noise from a turbine usually increases much more than the rotation speed) and weighed only 136 kg; each power car had up to six turbines for propulsion, and one which run a generator for lighting etc. On a high-speed stretch in the Northeast Corridor it sped away at 275 km/h, still U.S. record for any commercial train. More important, the train was able to run at high speed on mediocre tracks – in theory. Canadian and U.S. railroads bought five and two, respectively, and they were inaugurated in 1968 though the Canadian ones paused till 1973 after problems during the cold winter 1969. In service, they were limited to 161 km/h (100 mph). They reduced the journey time from about five to about four hours on the Toronto–Montreal line; with an availability rate of over 97% they offered two departures each way a day in the years 1973-82. After that, the last UAC TurboTrain was parked.

The more mundane French turbotrains and their derivatives (Turboliners etc.) were the most successful of all passenger turbotrains, both in North America and in France itself. The French RTG Turbotrain ran till 2005 and survived all other turbotrains in regular service. Their commercial speed didn’t surpass 160 km/h, but their follow-up, the very first TGV, reached 318 km/h, which is still world record for turbotrains. SNCF got valuable experiences with this experimental train, and the commercial TGVs were very similar to the TGV-001 – but rising oil prices made SNCF switching to electricity. The turbotrains were noisy, too, especially when starting at the stations.

In 2002, Bombardier tried to blow new life into the turbotrain technology with its JetTrain. In was an experimental train, and it didn’t be more than an experiment.

Shinkansen

The true HSR breakthough started in Japan. In this densely populated country, especially the 45-million-people area between Tokyo and Osaka, the traffic during the 1950es congested to reach maximum capacity. Both the roads and the narrow-gauge railways were jammed. In 1957, the Odakyu Electric Railway in Greater Tokyo area had launched its Romancecar 3000 SE. Again the train designers were inspired by the U.S. interurbans, in this case the last of them – the Electroliners. The Romancecars set a world record for narrow gauge trains at 145 km/h (90 mph), giving Japanese designers confidence they could safely and reliably build even faster trains at standard gauge. The idea of high speed rail was born. Yet a new, dedicated high-speed line was calculated to be very expensive – and so it was. But it would be even more expensive not to build it. The construction started in April 1959, and test runs in 1963 hit top speeds at 256 km/h. And in October 1964, just in time for the Olympics, they opened the first Shinkansen, Tōkaidō Shinkansen, between the two cities.^[7]

The first Shinkansen trains, the 0 Series Shinkansen, built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries^[7] – in English often called ‘’Bullet’’ Trains – outclassed the earlier fast trains in commercial service. They ran the 515 km distance with a top speed at 210 km/h and an average speed at 162.8 km/h with stops at Nagoya and Kyoto; the records before Shinkansen were 161 and 132.8 km/h, respectively. But the speed was only a part of the Shinkansen revolution. The earlier high-speed or proto-high-speed trains and railcars were few and far between (ten Red Devils, 15 Brill Bullets, a few Zephyrs with different forenames, two Elelectroliners, one Morning Hiawatha, one Fliegender Hamburger, etc., each with 150 seats at best). While these services were very limited (in the U.S., express trains were often called just so), Shinkansen offered HSR for the masses. The first Bullet trains had 12 cars; later versions have up to 16, and there are double-deck trains too, to increase the capacity.

After three years, more than 100 million passengers had used the trains, and the first billion was passed in 1976. Later, the Shinkansen system has grown to a 2459 km network, and the Tōkaidō Shinkansen still is the world's busiest high-speed rail line. Up to ten trains per hour with 16 cars each (1,300 seats capacity) run in each direction with a minimum of 3 minutes between trains. Though largely a long-distance transport system, the Shinkansen also serves commuters who travel to work in metropolitan areas from outlying cities. But it doesn’t only substitute a lot of car travelling; it also substitutes much of the air traffic.

The world's first contemporary high volume capable (initially 12 car maximum) "high-speed train" was Japan's Tōkaidō Shinkansen, which officially opened in October 1964, with construction having begun in April 1959.^[7] The 0 Series Shinkansen, built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, achieved maximum passenger service speeds of 210 km/h (130 mph) on the Tokyo–Nagoya–Kyoto–Osaka route, with earlier test runs hitting top speeds in 1963 at 256 km/h.^[7]

Introduction in Europe

Japan’s Shinkansen success contributed to a revival for the HSR idea in Europe – together with rising oil prices, a growing environmental interest, and rising traffic congestions on the roads.

In Europe, high-speed rail started during the International Transport Fair in Munich in June 1965, 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.

Great Britain introduced Europe’s first regular above-200 km/h-service, albeit with a small margin, and without building new lines. In the years 1976-82 they made 95 dieselecetric train sets of the type InterCity 125 – called so because of their maximum speed at 125 mph (201 km/h), compared to 100 mph (161 km/h) for their forerunners. Their acceleration was better, too. Thus they reduced the journey times, e.g. by an hour on the London–Edinburgh-line, and the passenger numbers soared. The IC 125 was planned to be followed by a tilting train, APT, to maximize the speed on twisted lines from the Victorian times – but the tilting mechanisme made some of the passengers nausea, and the APT project was shelved. This prolonged the IC 125’s lifetime, and even today they serve the nonelectrified mainlines.

In the Continental Europe, several countries started to build new high-speed lines during the 1970s – Italy’s ‘’Direttissima’’ between Rome and Florence, Western Germany’s Hannover–Würzburg and Stuttgart–Mannheim lines, and France’s Paris–Lyon TGV line (LGV Sud-Est). The latter was the world’s fastest when it was fulfilled in 1983 (the Paris–Dijon partition was opened in 1981), with a maximum speed at 260 km/t and average at 214 km/h. In addition, the tickets weren’t more expensive than the man in the street could afford them. The line became immensely successful, and the air route between the cities was practically de-invented when the trains’ journey times shrunk from about 3½ to two hours. France became Europe’s leading HSR nation. They started to build a high-speed network which also expanded into the neighbouring countries and, via the Channel Tunnel, even into England and to London. France’s eastern neighbour, Germany, followed up with its own high-speed network, and after Germany was re-united in 1990, the Hamburg–Berlin line again became a mainline.

Spain’s first high speed line opened in 1992 between Madrid and Seville. In 2005 a huge plan of infrastructures (PEIT 2005-2020-Plan Estratégico de Infraestructuras y Transporte)^[8] includes providing a high speed connection (50 km from the station) to 90% of the population by 2020. Since then Spain is leading the construction of HSR in Europe: four new lines have been opened (Madrid-Zaragoza-Lleida-Tarragona-Barcelona, Córdoba- Malaga, Madrid-Toledo, Madrid-Segovia-Valladolid) and other 2219 km are currently under construction to be finished between 2010 and 2012.^[9]

Definition of high-speed rail

There are a number of different definitions for high-speed rail in use worldwide and there is no single standard. Additionally, lower speeds can be required by local constraints.^[1] UIC (International Union of Railways) and EC Directive 96/58 define high-speed rail as systems of rolling stock and infrastructure which regularly operate at or above 250 km/h on new tracks, or 200 km/h on existing tracks.^[1]

In the United States high-speed rail is defined as having a speed above 110 mph (180 km/h) by the United States Federal Railroad Administration^[10]

In Japan, high speed Shinkansen lines use standard gauge track rather than narrow gauge track used on most other Japanese lines. These travel at speeds in excess of 260 km/h (160 mph) without level crossings.^[2]

In China there are two grades of high speed lines. Firstly slower lines that run at speeds of between 200 and 250 km/h (120 and 160 mph) and have freight as well as passenger trains. Secondly, passenger dedicated high speed rail lines operate at top speeds of up to 350 km/h (220 mph).^[3]

A definitive aspect of high speed rail 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 of 200 km/h (120 mph). Depending on design speed, banking and the forces deemed acceptable to the passengers, curves radius is above 4.5 kilometers, and for lines capable for 350 km/h running, typically at 7 to 9 kilometers.

There are also a number of characteristics common to most high-speed rail systems. Almost all are electrically driven via overhead lines and have in-cab signalling as well as no level crossings, although there are some exceptions like the Great Western Main line in United Kingdom. Advanced switches using very low entry and frog angles are also often used.

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 'rails' often leads to their classification in a separate category.

Rationale

500 Series Shinkansen in Japan

Siemens Velaro in Barcelona, Spain

Class 395 high-speed train at London St Pancras International

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 1, 1964, in time for the Tokyo Olympics. The situation for the first line in Japan was different from the subsequent lines. The route was already so densely populated and rail oriented that highway development would be extremely costly and 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 Tōkaidō 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. 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. 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.^[11] 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 in the decades after World War II, improvements in automobiles and aircraft, anti-trust 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. The U.S. railway had been less competitive as a means of transportation. The lower population density in North America allowed easier construction of a national highway network, but mass highway construction would not have been as easy in the high population densities of the European nations and Japan. Presently, however, as energy costs continue to increase, rail ridership is now increasing across the United States.^[12]

In China, the plans for the largest high-speed railway network in history were driven by a combination of capacity constraints on existing lines and a desire to shorten journey times across the nation, whilst promoting development along the route. The construction schedule was significantly accelerated due to additional funding in the 4 trillion CNY stimulus package of 2008 and a number of lines are due to be completed by 2013.

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 when ridership is high, similar to other forms of mass transit. 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, with very extensive high speed rail networks, a large proportion of electricity comes from nuclear power.^[13] Even using electricity generated from coal or oil, high speed trains are significantly more fuel efficient per passenger per kilometer traveled than the typical automobile because of economies of scale in generator technology.^[14] for example on the Eurostar emissions from travelling by train from London to Paris are 90% lower than by flying.^[15] 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.

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 largest of the Japanese system's cost is related to the boring of 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 track. The record speed for an unmodified commercial trainset is 403.7 km/h, held by Deutsche Bahn's Class 403, the German Type classification for the Siemens Velaro. 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, night-time high-speed trains are even diverted to lower speed lines in favour of freight traffic.

High-speed railways by region

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

High-speed lines in East Asia      300+ km/h      250–299 km/h      200–249 km/h      Under Construction      Other railways

The following table shows all high speed dedicated lines (speed over 250 km/h) in service and under construction (updated 21 May 2010), listed by country. Source: UIC (International Union of Railways). Since the purpose is to convey updated information with unified criteria, planned lines are not included.

Maximum speed records

Maximum speed in service

MLX01 maglev train 581 km/h (current world record holder)

World speed record holding (574.8 km/h/357mph) TGV — the V150

The Shanghai Maglev Train reaches top speeds of 431 km/h, the fastest high-speed train in service in the world.

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

• maximum average speed between two scheduled stops based on the running times in timetables - daily operation.
• maximum speed at which a train is allowed to run safely as set by law or policy on a straight section in daily service with minimal constraints (MOR)
• the maximum speed at which an unmodified train is proved to be capable of running
• the maximum speed a specially modified train is proved to be 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. This run was for proof of concept and not for normal passenger service.

The record for railed vehicles is 10,325 km/h (6,416 mph) by an unmanned rocket sled by the United States Air Force.

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 Shanghai Maglev Train reaches 431 km/h during its daily service between Longyang Road and Pudong International Airport, holds the speed record of any commercial train services. Besides maglev, the fastest maximum operating speed (MOR) of any segment of any high speed rail line is currently 350 km/h (217 mph), a record held by multiple lines in China, first achieved by the Beijing–Tianjin Intercity Rail in August 2008. The trains 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.^[17]

The highest scheduled average speed between two scheduled stops is held by China Railway High-speed service on Wuhan-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway.^[18] Starting from December 26, 2009, until January 29, 2010, non-stop trains on this line cover the 922-km journey in 2 hours, 57 minutes, at an average speed of 312.5 km/h from Wuhan to Guangzhou North. The average speed slowed down to 309 km/h for a longer 968 km journey when Guangzhou South, the new terminal of the line, was opened on January 30, 2010. Since July 1, 2010, all non-stop trains were canceled and the fastest trains run at an average speed of 296 km/h with one stop in Changsha South. The trains cover Guangzhou South and Changsha South section in 02h02m, hold the speed record at 305 km/h.

Records in trial runs

• 1963 - Japan - Shinkansen - 256 km/h (First country to develop HSR technology)
• 1965 - West Germany - Class 103 locomotives - 200 km/h (Second country to develop HSR technology)
• 1967 - France - TGV 001 - 318 km/h (Third country to develop HSR technology)
• 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
• 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 - Italy - ETR 500-X - 319 km/h (Fourth country to develop HSR technology)
• 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
• 2002 - Spain - AVE Class 330 - 362 km/h (Fifth country to develop HSR technology)
• 2002 - China - China Star - 321 km/h (Sixth country to develop HSR technology)
• 2003 - China - Siemens Transrapid 08 – 501 km/h
• 2003 - Japan - MLX01 - 581 km/h (current world record holder)
• 2004 - South Korea - HSR-350x - 352.4 km/h (Seventh country to develop HSR technology)
• 2006 - Germany - Siemens Velaro - 404 km/h (unmodified commercial trainset)
• 2007 - France - V150 - 574.8 km/h
• 2007 - Taiwan - 700T series train - 350 km/h
• 2008 - China - CRH3 - 394.3 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

Sapsan for Russia at InnoTrans 2008 exhibition

China Railways CRH3 in China

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 rail service at present in the U.S. using high-speed trains 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. Chicago, with its central location and metropolitan population of approximately 10 million people, is envisioned as the hub of a national high-speed rail network in the U.S. The beginning Midwest phases study a Minneapolis-Milwaukee-Chicago-Detroit link; a Kansas City-St Louis-Chicago link; and a Chicago-Indianapolis-Cincinnati-Columbus, OH link.

In Europe, South Korea, and Japan, dense networks of city subways and railways connect seamlessly with high speed rail lines. Some argue that cities lacking dense intra-city rail infrastructure, like some cities in the USA, would find low ridership for high speed rail. The argument is that 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). However, others contend that this does not square with the high use of rail transport currently in the Northeast Corridor, where many people living in cities outside the rail link, drive to the commuter train and then commute by train the rest of the way, similar to the way many people drive to an airport, park their cars and then fly to their final destination. Car rentals and taxis can also supplement local public transportation. Increased commercial development is also projected near the destination stations.

Since in Japan intra-city rail daily usage per capita is the highest, it follows naturally that ridership of 6 billion passengers^[19] exceeds the French TGV of 1 billion (until 2003), the only other system to reach a billion cumulative passengers.^[20] 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 planning lines from the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento to Los Angeles and Irvine via the Central Valley, as well as a line from Los Angeles to San Diego via the Inland Empire. 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 Texas T-Bone and Brazos Express corridors to link Central Texas.^[21] 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.^[22]

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 popular 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.' (Levinson, D.)

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, Argentina has already assigned the construction of a high speed railway connecting the cities of Buenos Aires, Rosario and Cordoba.^[23] The Brazilian government is currently studying a high speed rail line connecting the cities Campinas and São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro. This high speed rail line will also connect these airports: Viracopos (Campinas), Guarulhos (São Paulo) and Galeao (Rio de Janeiro).^[24]

As of October 2009, China is constructing a 13,000 km high speed railway network comprising of 42 passenger lines. When this is completed by 2012, it will be larger and technologically more sophisticated than the rest of the world's HSR track combined. See also High-speed rail in China

Road rail parallel layout

Road Rail Parallel Layout is an approach that uses the land around the road to pass the railway lines, like the HSR line from Paris to Lyon started in 1981 with 15% of its stretch along highway and Cologne to Frankfurt with 70%.^[25]

Comparison with other modes of transport

Construction of the route through the Kösching forest, north of Ingolstadt, had a large environmental impact but with Road Rail Parallel Layout this would be less than using multiple routes.

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 organizational 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 are 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 1,634 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

High-speed rail has the advantage over automobiles in that it can move passengers at speeds far faster than those allowed by car in most countries. The lower limit for HSR (200 km/h, 125 mph) is substantially faster than the highest road speed limit in most countries. 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 centre to city centre, 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,^[26] 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.

Aircraft

Optimal distance

Spanish high speed, AVE S-102. Maximum speed: 330 km/h (205 mph)

The ETR 500 "Frecciarossa" of the Italian Railways. Maximum speed: 300 km/h (186 mph). Takes 1 hour from downtown Milan to the centre of Bologna, while a plane+taxi takes an hour and a half to do the same 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 a transportation system. They also connect city centre rail stations to multiple other city centre rail stations (with an intermediate stop passenger loading/unloading time of one or two minutes), while air transport necessarily connects airports outside city centres to other airports outside city centres (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 to 3 hours (250–900 km or about 150–550 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 to 4.5 hours, allowing a 1 hour flight at least 40 minutes at each point for travel to and from the airport, check-in, 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 building 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 check in, 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, booth tables, more elaborate power outlets (AC mains outlet vs DC 12v outlet), more elaborate food service, no low altitude electronics ban, self service baggage storage area at end of car (eliminating checked baggage), 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 are no air connections anymore. Examples are Paris-Brussels and Cologne-Frankfurt in Europe, as well as Tokyo-Nagoya, Tokyo-Sendai and Tokyo-Niigata in Japan. If the train stops at a big airport, like Paris and Frankfurt, these short distance airplanes lose an extra advantage for the many travelers who want to go to the airport for a long-distance journey. Airplane tickets can include a train segment for the journey, with guaranteed rebooking if the connection is missed, like normal air travel.

HSR is also competitive with cars on shorter distances, like 50–150 km for example for work commuting if there is road congestion or for people who have expensive parking fees at their work. For large cities this is common. Not every HSR route has such regional high speed trains, but it is common. Introduction of them enlarges the labour market around a large city.

China Southern Airlines, China's largest airline, expects the construction of China's high speed railway network to impact on 25% of its route network in the coming years.^[27]

Other considerations

Although air travel has higher speeds, more time is needed for taxiing, boarding (fewer doors), security check, luggage drop, ticket check and more. Also rail stations are usually located nearer to urban centers than airports. These factors often offset the speed advantage of air travel for mid-distance trips.

Weather

Rail travel has less weather dependency than air travel. If the rail system is well-designed and well-operated, severe weather conditions such as heavy snow, heavy fog, and storms do not affect the journeys; whereas flights are generally canceled or delayed under these conditions. Nevertheless snow and falling trees because of wind often delay trains.

Comfort

Although comfort over air travel is often believed to be a trait of high speed rail because train seats are larger and it is easy for passengers to move around during the journey, the comfort advantage of rail is not inherent; it depends on the specific implementation. For example, high speed trains which are not subject to compulsory reservation may carry some standing passengers. Airplanes do not allow standing passengers, so excess passengers are denied boarding. Train passengers can have the choice between standing or waiting for a bookable connection.

Larger number of target areas

From the operator's point of view, a single train can call at multiple stations, 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. This increase in potential market allows the operator to schedule more frequent departures than the aircraft, and hence create another good reason for preference.

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 reduce (but do not eliminate ^[28][29]) the possibility of collisions with automobiles or people, while other lower speed rail systems that a high speed train uses to reach high speed tracks may have grade crossings.

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
• Megaproject
• Transrapid
• 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. 
• Cornolò, Giovanni (1990). Una leggenda che corre: breve storia dell'elettrotreno e dei suoi primati; ETR.200 - ETR.220 - ETR 240. Salò: ETR. ISBN 88-85068-23-5. 

External links

• Transrapid – Maglev: High-Speed in Asia (China, Shanghai), Japan (Yamanashi) and Germany (Munich; TVE)
• UIC: High Speed Rail