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High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised
rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles ca ...
and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines built to handle speeds above or upgraded lines in excess of are widely considered to be high-speed. The first high-speed rail system, the
Tōkaidō Shinkansen The is a Japanese high-speed rail line that is part of the nationwide Shinkansen network. Along with the Sanyo Shinkansen, it forms a continuous high-speed railway through the Taiheiyō Belt, also known as the Tokaido corridor. Opened in 19 ...
, began operations in Japan in 1964 and was widely known as the bullet train. High-speed trains mostly operate on standard gauge tracks of
continuously welded rail A railway track (British English and UIC terminology) or railroad track (American English), also known as permanent way or simply track, is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties (sleepers, ...
on
grade-separated In civil engineering (more specifically highway engineering), grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights (grades) so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other tr ...
rights of way with large radii. However, certain regions with wider legacy railways, including
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
and
Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...
, have sought to develop a high speed railway network in Russian gauge. There are no narrow gauge high-speed trains; the fastest is the Cape gauge Spirit of Queensland at . Many countries have developed, or are currently building, high-speed rail infrastructure to connect major cities, including
Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
,
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
,
Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...
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Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...
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France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
,
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
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Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
,
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
,
Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...
, the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
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Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...
,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
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Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...
,
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
,
Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...
,
Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...
,
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
,
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...
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Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
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Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
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Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
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Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
,
Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...
, the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
, the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
, and
Uzbekistan Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...
. Only in continental Europe and Asia does high-speed rail cross international borders. High-speed rail is the fastest and most efficient ground-based method of commercial transportation, however due to requirements for large track curves, gentle gradients and grade separated track the construction of high-speed rail is more costly than conventional rail and therefore does not always present an economical advantage over conventional speed rail. China currently accounts for over two-thirds of the world's total high speed rail, with over of high speed rail on their networks.


Definitions

Multiple definitions for high-speed rail are in use worldwide. The European Union Directive 96/48/EC, Annex 1 (see also Trans-European high-speed rail network) defines high-speed rail in terms of: ; Infrastructure: track built specially for high-speed travel or specially upgraded for high-speed travel. ; Minimum speed limit: Minimum speed of on lines specially built for high speed ''and'' of about on existing lines which have been specially upgraded. This must apply to at least one section of the line. Rolling stock must be able to reach a speed of at least 200 km/h to be considered high speed. ; Operating conditions: Rolling stock must be designed alongside its infrastructure for complete compatibility, safety and quality of service. The International Union of Railways (UIC) identifies three categories of high-speed rail: ; Category I: New tracks specially constructed for high speeds, allowing a maximum running speed of at least . ; Category II: Existing tracks specially upgraded for high speeds, allowing a maximum running speed of at least . ; Category III: Existing tracks specially upgraded for high speeds, allowing a maximum running speed of at least 200 km/h, but with some sections having a lower allowable speed (for example due to topographic constraints, or passage through urban areas). A third definition of high-speed and very high-speed rail (Demiridis & Pyrgidis 2012) requires simultaneous fulfilment of the following two conditions: # Maximum achievable running speed in excess of , or for very high-speed, # Average running speed across the corridor in excess of , or for very high-speed. The UIC prefers to use "definitions" (plural) because they consider that there is no single standard definition of high-speed rail, nor even standard usage of the terms ("high speed", or "very high speed"). They make use of the European EC Directive 96/48, stating that high speed is a combination of all the elements which constitute the system: infrastructure, rolling stock and operating conditions. The International Union of Railways states that high-speed rail is a set of unique features, not merely a train travelling above a particular speed. Many conventionally hauled trains are able to reach in commercial service but are not considered to be high-speed trains. These include the French
SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffic ...
Intercités and German DB IC. The criterion of is selected for several reasons; above this speed, the impacts of geometric defects are intensified, track adhesion is decreased, aerodynamic resistance is greatly increased, pressure fluctuations within tunnels cause passenger discomfort, and it becomes difficult for drivers to identify trackside signalling. Standard signaling equipment is often limited to speeds below , with the traditional limits of in the US, in Germany and in Britain. Above those speeds positive train control or the European Train Control System becomes necessary or legally mandatory. National domestic standards may vary from the international ones.


History

Railways were the first form of rapid land transportation and had an effective monopoly on long-distance passenger traffic until the development of the motor car and airliners in the early-mid 20th century. Speed had always been an important factor for railroads and they constantly tried to achieve higher speeds and decrease journey times. Rail transportation in the late 19th century was not much slower than non-high-speed trains today, and many railroads regularly operated relatively fast ''express'' trains which averaged speeds of around .


Early research


First experiments

High-speed rail development began in Germany in 1899 when the Prussian state railway joined with ten electrical and engineering firms and electrified of military owned railway between Marienfelde and Zossen. The line used three-phase current at 10 kilovolts and 45 Hz. The Van der Zypen & Charlier company of
Deutz, Cologne The Cologne borough of Deutz (german: Köln-Deutz ; ), is a part of central Cologne, Germany, and was once an independent town. History Deutz was established under Roman Emperor Constantine I in 310 AD, when he established ''Castrum Divitia'' ...
built two railcars, one fitted with electrical equipment from Siemens-Halske, the second with equipment from ''
Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, A ...
'' (AEG), that were tested on the MarienfeldeZossen line during 1902 and 1903 (see
Experimental three-phase railcar The Three-phase railcar (German language, Ger: '' Drehstrom-Triebwagen'') was an experimental railcar built in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century to assess the possibilities in using electric motive power for rail transport. Background ...
). On 23 October 1903, the S&H-equipped railcar achieved a speed of and on 27 October the AEG-equipped railcar achieved .Sith Sastrasinh,
Electrical Train Marienfelde–Zossen in 1901
", 21 January 2000, WorldRailFans. Accessed 23 January 2013.
These trains demonstrated the feasibility of electric high-speed rail; however, regularly scheduled electric high-speed rail travel was still more than 30 years away.


High-speed aspirations

After the breakthrough of electric railroads, it was clearly the infrastructure – especially the cost of it – which hampered the introduction of high-speed rail. Several disasters happened – derailments, head-on collisions on single-track lines, collisions with road traffic at grade crossings, etc. The physical laws were well-known, i.e. if the speed was doubled, the curve radius should be quadrupled; the same was true for the acceleration and braking distances. In 1891 the engineer
Károly Zipernowsky Károly Zipernowsky (born as Carl Zipernowsky, 4 April 1853 in Vienna – 29 November 1942 in Budapest) was an Austrian-born Hungarian electrical engineer. He invented the transformer with his colleagues ( Miksa Déri and Ottó Bláthy) at ...
proposed a high-speed line Vienna–Budapest, bound for electric railcars at . In 1893 Dr. Wellington Adams proposed an air-line from Chicago to St. Louis of , at a speed of only . Alexander C. Miller had greater ambitions. In 1906, he launched the '' Chicago-New York Electric Air Line Railroad'' project to reduce the running time between the two big cities to ten hours by using electric locomotives. After seven years of effort, however, less than of arrow-straight track was finished. A part of the line is still used as one of the last interurbans in the US.


High-speed interurbans

In the US, some of the
interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 ...
s (i.e. trams or streetcars which run from city to city) of the early 20th century were very high-speed for their time (also Europe had and still does have some interurbans). Several high-speed rail technologies have their origin in the interurban field. In 1903 – 30 years before the conventional railways started to streamline their trains – the officials of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition organised the Electric Railway Test Commission to conduct a series of tests to develop a carbody design that would reduce wind resistance at high speeds. A long series of tests was carried. In 1905, St. Louis Car Company built a railcar for the traction magnate Henry E. Huntington, capable of speeds approaching . Once it ran between Los Angeles and Long Beach in 15 minutes, an average speed of . However, it was too heavy for much of the tracks, so Cincinnati Car Company, J. G. Brill and others pioneered lightweight constructions, use of aluminium alloys, and low-level bogies which could operate smoothly at extremely high speeds on rough interurban tracks. Westinghouse and
General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable ene ...
designed motors compact enough to be mounted on the bogies. From 1930 on, the Red Devils from Cincinnati Car Company and a some other interurban rail cars reached about in commercial traffic. The Red Devils weighed only 22 tons though they could seat 44 passengers. Extensive
wind tunnel Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft ...
research – the first in the railway industry – was done before J. G. Brill in 1931 built the Bullet cars for
Philadelphia and Western Railroad The Philadelphia and Western Railroad was a high-speed, third rail-equipped, commuter-hauling interurban electric railroad operating in the western suburbs of the U.S. city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is now SEPTA's Norristown High Speed ...
(P&W). They were capable of running at . Some of them were almost 60 years in service. P&W's Norristown High Speed Line is still in use, almost 110 years after P&W in 1907 opened their double-track Upper Darby–Strafford line without a single grade crossing with roads or other railways. The entire line was governed by an absolute block signal system.


Early German high-speed network

On 15 May 1933, the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft company introduced the diesel-powered "
Fliegender Hamburger The DRG Class SVT 877 Hamburg Flyer – sometimes also Flying Hamburger or in German ''Fliegender Hamburger'' – was Germany's first fast diesel train, and is credited with establishing the fastest regular railway connection in the world in its ...
" in regular service between Hamburg and Berlin (), thereby achieving a new top speed for a regular service, with a top speed of . This train was a streamlined multi-powered unit, albeit diesel, and used Jakobs bogies. Following the success of the Hamburg line, the steam-powered Henschel-Wegmann Train was developed and introduced in June 1936 for service from
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
to
Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
, with a regular top speed of . Incidentally no train service since the cancelation of this express train in 1939 has traveled between the two cities in a faster time . In August 2019, the travel time between Dresden-Neustadt and Berlin-Südkreuz was 102 minutes. See Berlin–Dresden railway. Further development allowed the usage of these "Fliegenden Züge" (flying trains) on a rail network across Germany. The "Diesel-Schnelltriebwagen-Netz" (diesel high-speed-vehicle network) had been in the planning since 1934 but it never reached its envisaged size. All high-speed service stopped in August 1939 shortly before the outbreak of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.


American Streamliners

On 26 May 1934, one year after Fliegender Hamburger introduction, the
Burlington Railroad The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. Commonly referred to as the Burlington Route, the Burlington, or as the Q, it operated extensive trackage in the states of Colorado, Illin ...
set an average speed record on long distance with their new streamlined train, the Zephyr, at with peaks at . The Zephyr was made of stainless steel and, like the Fliegender Hamburger, was diesel powered, articulated with Jacobs bogies, and could reach as commercial speed. The new service was inaugurated 11 November 1934, traveling between Kansas City and Lincoln, but at a lower speed than the record, on average speed . In 1935, the Milwaukee Road introduced the Morning Hiawatha service, hauled at by steam locomotives. In 1939, the largest railroad of the world, the Pennsylvania Railroad introduced a duplex steam engine Class S1, which was designed to be capable of hauling 1200 tons passenger trains at . The S1 engine was assigned to power the popular all-coach overnight premier train the Trail Blazer between New York and Chicago since the late 1940s and it consistently reached in its service life. These were the last "high-speed" trains to use steam power. In 1936, the Twin Cities Zephyr entered service, from Chicago to Minneapolis, with an average speed of . Many of these streamliners posted travel times comparable to or even better than their modern
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...
successors, which are limited to top speed on most of the network.


Italian electric and the last steam record

The German high-speed service was followed in Italy in 1938 with an electric-multiple-unit ETR 200, designed for , between Bologna and Naples. It too reached in commercial service, and achieved a world mean speed record of between Florence and Milan in 1938. In Great Britain in the same year, the streamlined
steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...
'' Mallard'' achieved the official world speed record for
steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...
s at . The external combustion engines and boilers on steam locomotives were large, heavy and time and labor-intensive to maintain, and the days of steam for high speed were numbered.


Introduction of the Talgo system

In 1945, a Spanish engineer,
Alejandro Goicoechea Alejandro Goicoechea Omar (his first surname is also spelled Goikoetxea) (23 March 1895 - 30 January 1984) was a Spanish engineer. Biography Goicoechea worked for the remote coal narrow gauge railway of La Robla (León), the longest narrow gau ...
, developed a streamlined, articulated train that was able to run on existing tracks at higher speeds than contemporary passenger trains. This was achieved by providing the locomotive and cars with a unique
axle An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, beari ...
system that used one axle set per car end, connected by a Y-bar coupler. Amongst other advantages, the centre of mass was only half as high as usual. This system became famous under the name of
Talgo Talgo (officially Patentes Talgo, SAU) is a Spanish manufacturer of intercity, standard, and high-speed passenger trains. Corporate history TALGO, an abbreviation of Tren Articulado Ligero Goicoechea Oriol (English: ''Lightweight articulated tr ...
(Tren Articulado Ligero Goicoechea Oriol), and for half a century was the main Spanish provider of high-speed trains.


First above 300 km/h developments

In the early 1950s, the French National Railway started to receive their new powerful CC 7100 electric locomotives, and began to study and evaluate running at higher speeds. In 1954, the CC 7121 hauling a full train achieved a record during a test on standard track. The next year, two specially tuned electric locomotives, the CC 7107 and the prototype BB 9004, broke previous speed records, reaching respectively and , again on standard track. For the first time, was surpassed, allowing the idea of higher-speed services to be developed and further engineering studies commenced. Especially, during the 1955 records, a dangerous hunting oscillation, the swaying of the bogies which leads to dynamic instability and potential derailment was discovered. This problem was solved by '' yaw dampers'' which enabled safe running at high speeds today. Research was also made about "current harnessing" at high-speed by the pantographs, which was solved 20 years later by the Zébulon
TGV The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...
's prototype.


Breakthrough: Shinkansen


Japanese research and development

With some 45 million people living in the densely populated Tokyo–
Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
corridor, congestion on road and rail became a serious problem after
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, and the Japanese government began thinking seriously about a new high-speed rail service. Japan in the 1950s was a populous, resource-limited nation that for security reasons did not want to import petroleum, but needed a way to transport its millions of people in and between cities.
Japanese National Railways The abbreviated JNR or , was the business entity that operated Japan's national railway network from 1949 to 1987. Network Railways As of June 1, 1949, the date of establishment of JNR, it operated of narrow gauge () railways in all 46 pre ...
(JNR) engineers then began to study the development of a high-speed regular mass transit service. In 1955, they were present at the
Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the No ...
's Electrotechnology Congress in France, and during a 6-month visit, the head engineer of JNR accompanied the deputy director Marcel Tessier at the DETE (
SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffic ...
Electric traction study department). JNR engineers returned to Japan with a number of ideas and technologies they would use on their future trains, including alternating current for rail traction, and international standard gauge.


First narrow-gauge Japanese high-speed service

In 1957, the engineers at the private Odakyu Electric Railway in
Greater Tokyo Area The Greater Tokyo Area is the most populous metropolitan area in the world, consisting of the Kantō region of Japan (including Tokyo Metropolis and the prefectures of Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Tochigi) as well as the ...
launched the Odakyu 3000 series SE EMU. This EMU set a world record for narrow gauge trains at , giving the Odakyu engineers confidence they could safely and reliably build even faster trains at standard gauge. The original Japanese railways generally used narrow gauge, but the increased stability offered by widening the rails to standard gauge would make very high-speed rail much simpler, and thus standard gauge was adopted for high-speed service. With the sole exceptions of Russia, Finland, and Uzbekistan all high-speed rail lines in the world are still standard gauge, even in countries where the preferred gauge for legacy lines is different.


A new train on a new line

The new service, named Shinkansen (meaning ''new trunk line'') would provide a new alignment, 25% wider standard gauge, continuously welded rails between Tokyo and Osaka using new rolling stock, designed for . However, the
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...
, whilst supporting the project, considered the design of the equipment as unproven for that speed, and set the maximum speed to . After initial feasibility tests, the plan was fast-tracked and construction of the first section of the line started on 20 April 1959. In 1963, on the new track, test runs hit a top speed of . Five years after the beginning of the construction work, in October 1964, just in time for the
Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...
, the first modern high-speed rail, the
Tōkaidō Shinkansen The is a Japanese high-speed rail line that is part of the nationwide Shinkansen network. Along with the Sanyo Shinkansen, it forms a continuous high-speed railway through the Taiheiyō Belt, also known as the Tokaido corridor. Opened in 19 ...
, was opened between the two cities; a 320-mile stretch between Tokyo and Ōsaka. As a result of its speeds, the Shinkansen earned international publicity and praise, and it was dubbed the "bullet train." The first Shinkansen trains, the 0 Series Shinkansen, built by
Kawasaki Heavy Industries (or simply Kawasaki) is a Japanese Public company, public multinational corporation manufacturer of motorcycles, engines, Heavy equipment (construction), heavy equipment, aerospace and Military, defense equipment, rolling stock and ships, headq ...
—in English often called "Bullet Trains", after the original Japanese name —outclassed the earlier fast trains in commercial service. They traversed the distance in 3 hours 10 minutes, reaching a top speed of and sustaining an average speed of with stops at Nagoya and Kyoto.


High-speed rail for the masses

Speed was not only a part of the Shinkansen revolution: the Shinkansen offered high-speed rail travel to the masses. The first ''Bullet trains'' had 12 cars and later versions had up to 16, and double-deck trains further increased the capacity. After three years, more than 100 million passengers had used the trains, and the milestone of the first one billion passengers was reached in 1976. In 1972, the line was extended a further , and further construction has resulted in the network expanding to as of March 2020, with a further of extensions currently under construction and due to open in stages between March 2023 and 2031. The cumulative patronage on the entire system since 1964 is over 10 billion, the equivalent of approximately 140% of the world's population, without a single train passenger fatality. (Suicides, passengers falling off the platforms, and industrial accidents have resulted in fatalities.) Since their introduction, Japan's Shinkansen systems have been undergoing constant improvement, not only increasing line speeds. Over a dozen train models have been produced, addressing diverse issues such as tunnel boom noise, vibration, aerodynamic drag, lines with lower patronage ("Mini shinkansen"),
earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...
and
typhoon A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...
safety, braking distance, problems due to snow, and energy consumption (newer trains are twice as energy-efficient as the initial ones despite greater speeds).


Future developments

After decades of research and successful testing on a test track, JR Central is now constructing a Maglev Shinkansen line, which is known as the Chūō Shinkansen. These Maglev trains still have the traditional underlying tracks and the cars have wheels. This serves a practical purpose at stations and a safety purpose out on the lines in the event of a power failure. However, in normal operation, the wheels are raised up into the car as the train reaches certain speeds where the magnetic levitation effect takes over. It will link Tokyo and Osaka by 2037, with the section from Tokyo to Nagoya expected to be operational by 2027. Average speed is anticipated at . The first generation train can be ridden by tourists visiting the test track. China is developing two separate high speed maglev systems. * the ''CRRC 600'', is based on the Transrapid technology and is being developed by the CRRC under license from
Thyssen-Krupp ThyssenKrupp AG (, ; stylized as thyssenkrupp) is a German industrial engineering and steel production multinational conglomerate. It is the result of the 1999 merger of Thyssen AG and Krupp and has its operational headquarters in Duisburg ...
. A test track has been operating since 2006 at the Jiading Campus of Tongji University, northwest of Shanghai. A prototype vehicle was developed in 2019 and was tested in June 2020. In July 2021 a four car train was unveiled. A high speed test track is under development and in April 2021 there was consideration given to re-opening the Emsland test facility in Germany. * An incompatible system has been developed at
Southwest Jiaotong University Southwest Jiaotong University () is located in national central city Chengdu, Sichuan Province, affiliated to the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. It's a national key university co-supported by the Ministry of Educatio ...
in Chengdu, the design uses high-temperature super conducting magnets, which the university has been researching since 2000, and is capable of . A prototype was demonstrated in January 2021 on a test track.


Europe and North America


First demonstrations at

In Europe, high-speed rail began during the International Transport Fair in
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...
in June 1965, when Dr Öpfering, the director of Deutsche Bundesbahn (German Federal Railways), performed 347 demonstrations at between Munich and
Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...
by DB Class 103 hauled trains. The same year the Aérotrain, a French hovercraft monorail train prototype, reached within days of operation.


''Le Capitole''

After the successful introduction of the Japanese Shinkansen in 1964, at , the German demonstrations up to in 1965, and the proof-of-concept jet-powered Aérotrain,
SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffic ...
ran its fastest trains at . In 1966, French Infrastructure Minister Edgard Pisani consulted engineers and gave the French National Railways twelve months to raise speeds to . The classic line Paris–
Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and fr ...
was chosen, and fitted, to support rather than . Some improvements were set, notably the signals system, development of on board "in-cab" signalling system, and curve revision. The next year, in May 1967, a regular service at was inaugurated by the TEE '' Le Capitole'' between Paris and
Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and fr ...
, with specially adapted SNCF Class BB 9200 locomotives hauling classic UIC cars, and a full red livery. It averaged over the . At the same time, the Aérotrain prototype 02 reached on a half-scale experimental track. In 1969, it achieved on the same track. On 5 March 1974, the full-scale commercial prototype Aérotrain I80HV, jet powered, reached .


US Metroliner trains

In the United States, following the creation of Japan's first high-speed Shinkansen, President Lyndon B. Johnson as part of his Great Society infrastructure building initiatives asked the
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
to devise a way to increase speeds on the railroads. Congress delivered the High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965 which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and helped to create regular Metroliner service between New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. The new service was inaugurated in 1969, with top speeds of and averaging along the route, with the travel time as little as 2 hours 30 minutes. In a 1967 competition with a GE powered Metroliner on Penn Central's mainline, the United Aircraft Corporation TurboTrain set a record of .


United Kingdom, Italy and Germany

In 1976,
British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four (British ra ...
introduced a high-speed service able to reach using the InterCity 125 diesel-electric trainsets under the brand name of High Speed Train (HST). It was the fastest diesel-powered train in regular service and it improved upon its forerunners in speed and acceleration. As of 2019 it is still the fastest diesel-powered train regular service. The train was as a reversible multi-car set having driving power-cars at both ends and a fixed formation of passenger cars between them. Journey times were reduced by an hour for example on the East Coast Main Line, and passenger numbers increased.. As of 2019 many of these trains are still in service, private operators have often preferred to rebuild the units with new engines rather than replace them. The next year, in 1977, Germany finally introduced a new service at , on the Munich–Augsburg line. That same year, Italy inaugurated the first European High-Speed line, the '' Direttissima'' between
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
and
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
, designed for , but used by FS E444 hauled train at . In France this year also saw the abandonment for political reasons of the Aérotrain project, in favour of the
TGV The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...
.


Evolution in Europe


France

Following the 1955 records, two divisions of the
SNCF The Société nationale des chemins de fer français (; abbreviated as SNCF ; French for "National society of French railroads") is France's national state-owned railway company. Founded in 1938, it operates the country's national rail traffic ...
began to study high-speed services. In 1964, the DETMT (petrol-engine traction studies department of SNCF) investigated the use of gas turbines: a diesel-powered railcar was modified with a gas-turbine, and was called "TGV" (Turbotrain Grande Vitesse). It reached in 1967, and served as a basis for the future Turbotrain and the real TGV. At the same time, the new "SNCF Research Department", created in 1966, was studying various projects, including one code-named "C03: Railways possibilities on new infrastructure (tracks)". In 1969, the "C03 project" was transferred to public administration while a contract with Alstom was signed for the construction of two gas-turbine high-speed train prototypes, named "TGV 001". The prototype consisted of a set of five carriages, plus a power car at each end, both powered by two gas-turbine engines. The sets used Jacobs bogies, which reduce drag and increase safety. In 1970, the DETMT's
Turbotrain The Turbotrain was any of several French high-speed, gas turbine trains. The earliest Turbotrain entered service in 1967, for use on France's SNCF intercity lines. There were four versions in total, with the last exiting service in 2005, and ...
began operations on the Paris–Cherbourg line, and operated at despite being designed for usage at . It used gas-turbine powered multiple elements and was the basis for future experimentation with TGV services, including shuttle services and regular high rate schedules. In 1971, the "C03" project, now known as "TGV Sud-Est", was validated by the government, against Bertin's Aerotrain. Until this date, there was a rivalry between the French Land Settlement Commission (DATAR), supporting the Aérotrain, and the SNCF and its ministry, supporting conventional rail. The "C03 project" included a new High-Speed line between Paris and
Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...
, with new multi-engined trains running at . At that time, the classic Paris-Lyon line was already congested and a new line was required; this busy corridor, neither too short (where high speeds give limited reductions in end to end times) nor too long (where planes are faster in city center to city center travel time), was the best choice for the new service. The 1973 oil crisis substantially increased oil prices. In the continuity of the De Gaulle "energy self-sufficiency" and nuclear-energy policy, a ministry decision switched the future TGV from now costly gas-turbine to full electric energy in 1974. An electric railcar named ''Zébulon'' was developed for testing at very high speeds, reaching a speed of . It was used to develop pantographs capable of withstanding speeds of over . After intensive tests with the gas-turbine "TGV 001" prototype, and the electric "Zébulon", in 1977, the SNCF placed an order to the group Alstom
Francorail Francorail was a grouping of French railway rolling stock manufacturers, formed in the early 1970s and defunct by the late 1980s. History The Francorail grouping was formed to combine the individual areas of expertise or production of a number o ...
–MTE for 87
TGV Sud-Est The SNCF TGV Sud-Est was a French high speed TGV train built by Alstom and Francorail-MTE and operated by SNCF, the French national railway company. A total of 111 trainsets were built between 1978 and 1988 for the first TGV service in France ...
trainsets. They used the "TGV 001" concept, with a permanently coupled set of eight cars, sharing Jacobs bogies, and hauled by two electric-power cars, one at each end. In 1981, the first section of the new Paris–Lyon High-Speed line was inaugurated, with a top speed (then soon after). Being able to use both dedicated high-speed and conventional lines, the TGV offered the ability to join every city in the country at shorter journey times. After the introduction of the TGV on some routes, air traffic on these routes decreased and in some cases disappeared. The TGV set a publicised
speed records A speed record is a world record for speed by a person, animal, or vehicle. The function of speed record is to record the speed of moving animate objects such as humans, animals or vehicles. Overall speed record Overall speed record is the recor ...
in 1981 at , in 1990 at , and then in 2007 at , although these were test speeds, rather than operation train speeds.


Germany

Following the French TGV and the
ETR 450 ETR 450 (''ElettroTrenoRapido 450'') was the first series Italian tilting train (also called Pendolino). History The Pendolino project was started in the 1970s by FIAT Ferroviaria. Development included a number of prototypes, the last of which ...
and Direttissima in Italy, in 1991 Germany was the third country in Europe to inaugurate a high-speed rail service, with the launch of the
Intercity-Express The Intercity Express (commonly known as ICE ()) is a system of high-speed trains predominantly running in Germany. It also serves some destinations in Austria, Denmark (ceased in 2017 but planned to resume in 2022), France, Belgium, Switzerl ...
(ICE) on the new Hannover–Würzburg high-speed railway, operating at a top speed of . The German ICE train was similar to the TGV, with dedicated streamlined power cars at both ends, but a variable number of trailers between them. Unlike the TGV, the trailers had two conventional bogies per car, and could be uncoupled, allowing the train to be lengthened or shortened. This introduction was the result of ten years of study with the ICE-V prototype, originally called Intercity Experimental, which broke the world speed record in 1988, reaching .


Italy

The earliest European high-speed railway to be built was the Italian Florence–Rome high-speed railway (also called "Direttissima"). The railway was built between 1978 and 1992 and was served by trains pulled by FS Class E444 3 kV DC locomotives. However, it was not until the late 1980s that a more complete high-speed rail network was planned. The initial project envisaged the development of the network on two main axes: the
Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
-
Trieste Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into pr ...
one and the
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...
- Salerno via
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
one. Today, of this project, the sections between Turin and
Brescia Brescia (, locally ; lmo, link=no, label= Lombard, Brèsa ; lat, Brixia; vec, Bressa) is a city and '' comune'' in the region of Lombardy, Northern Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Garda and Iseo ...
, between
Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...
and
Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400  ...
and between Milan and Salerno have been built whereas the long section between Brescia and Padua is still under construction. In the meantime new sections have been planned, such as the Turin-Lyon high speed railway, which includes the construction of the international
Mont d'Ambin Base tunnel The Mont d'Ambin Base Tunnel, also known as the Mont Cenis Base Tunnel, is the largest engineering work of the Lyon–Turin rail link project. Once completed, it will facilitate the principal high speed rail link between Italy and France, conve ...
,
Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adm ...
-
Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Ital ...
, Milan-
Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...
, Salerno- Reggio Calabria and
Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The city is noted for its ...
- Catania- Messina (in
Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...
) as the main work; these last two sections could be connected following a possible construction of the
Strait of Messina Bridge The Strait of Messina Bridge is a long-planned suspension bridge across the Strait of Messina, that connects the cities of Messina’s Torre Faro and the port city of Villa San Giovanni in Calabria. While the bridge has been proposed since anci ...
. In
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
, the characteristics of high-speed lines are rather unique. In fact, the network was conceived with the aim of "high capacity" (in Italian "''alta capacità''"), in addition to that of "high speed". The "high capacity" consists of a series of technical characteristics (in particular concerning the monitoring of railway traffic and the increase in the capacity of the tracks) that allow the passage of freight at high speed. This last characteristic (also present in China, but with different technologies) and the characteristics of the particularly mountainous territory of the Italian peninsula have caused a very high increase in construction costs (20/68 million € per km). Furthermore, unlike the networks of other countries, such as France, the high-speed railways have been built completely independently from the normal networks, following very straight and linear trajectories. Only in the development of more recent lines (like the Napoli-Bari or the Palermo-Catania-Messina) it was preferred to intervene on existing lines, speeding them up by increasing their performance with more linear deviations. The trains services on the high-speed lines in Italy are the Frecciarossa, the Frecciargento and the Italo (the latter of the private company Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori).


Spain

In 1992, just in time for the Barcelona Olympic Games and Seville Expo '92, the Madrid–Seville high-speed rail line opened in Spain with 25 kV AC electrification, and standard gauge, differing from all other Spanish lines which used
Iberian gauge Iberian gauge ( es, ancho ibérico, trocha ibérica, pt, bitola ibérica) is a track gauge of , most extensively used by the railways of Spain and Portugal. This is the second-widest gauge in regular use anywhere in the world. The Indian gauge, ...
. This allowed the AVE rail service to begin operations using Class 100 trainsets built by Alstom, directly derived in design from the French TGV trains. The service was very popular and development continued on high-speed rail in Spain. In 2005, the Spanish Government announced an ambitious plan, (PEIT 2005–2020) envisioning that by 2020, 90 percent of the population would live within of a station served by AVE. Spain began building the largest HSR network in Europe: , five of the new lines have opened (Madrid–Zaragoza–Lleida–Tarragona–Barcelona, Córdoba–Malaga, Madrid–Toledo, Madrid–Segovia–Valladolid, Madrid–Cuenca–Valencia) and another were under construction. Opened in early 2013, the Perpignan–Barcelona high-speed rail line provides a link with neighbouring France with trains running to Paris, Lyon, Montpellier and Marseille.


Evolution in the United States

In 1992, the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...
passed the Amtrak Authorization and Development Act that authorized
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...
to start working on service improvements on the segment between
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
and New York City of the Northeast Corridor. The primary objectives were to electrify the line north of
New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...
, to eliminate grade crossings and replace the then 30-year-old Metroliners with new trains, so that the distance between Boston and New York City could be covered in 3 hours or less. Amtrak started testing two trains, the Swedish
X2000 ''X2000'' is a 1998 short film directed by François Ozon. Plot A naked man ( Bruno Slagmulder) wakes up in a luxury loft, which is a residential building in an unidentified European city, after a particularly wild New Year's Eve party of the ...
and the German
ICE 1 The ICE 1 is the first batch-produced German high-speed train and one of six in the Intercity Express family. Revenue service at speeds up to started in 1991. It was raised to in May 1995 and temporary reduced to again, as a result of ...
, in the same year along its fully electrified segment between New York City and Washington DC. The officials favored the X2000 as it had a tilting mechanism. However, the Swedish manufacturer never bid on the contract as the burdensome United States railroad regulations required them to heavily modify the train resulting in added weight, among other things. Eventually, a custom-made tilting train derived from TGV, manufactured by Alstom and Bombardier, won the contract and was put into service in December 2000. The new service was named "
Acela Express The ''Acela'' ( ; originally the ''Acela Express'' until September 2019) is Amtrak's flagship service along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) in the Northeastern United States between Washington, D.C. and Boston via 13 intermediate stops, inclu ...
" and linked Boston, New York City,
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
,
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
, and Washington DC. The service did not meet the 3-hour travel time objective between Boston and New York City. The time was 3 hours and 24 minutes as it partially ran on regular lines, limiting its average speed, with a maximum speed of being reached on a small section of its route through
Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
and Massachusetts. As of November 2021, the U.S. has one high-speed rail line under construction ( California High-Speed Rail) in
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, and advanced planning by a company called
Texas Central Railway Texas Central or Texas Central Partners, LLC, is a private railroad company that is proposing a high-speed rail line between Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston. It plans to use technology based on that used by the Central Japan Railway Company and ...
in Texas, higher-speed rail projects in the
Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Thou ...
, Midwest and Southeast, as well as upgrades on the high-speed Northeast Corridor. The private higher speed rail venture Brightline in
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...
started operations along part of its route in early 2018. Speeds are this far limited to but extensions will be built for a top speed of .


Expansion in East Asia

For four decades from its opening in 1964, the Japanese Shinkansen was the only high-speed rail service outside of Europe. In the 2000s a number of new high-speed rail services started operating in
East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...
.


Chinese CRH and CR

High-speed rail was introduced to China in 2003 with the Qinhuangdao–Shenyang high-speed railway. The Chinese government made high-speed rail construction a cornerstone of its economic stimulus program in order to combat the effects of the 2008 global financial crisis and the result has been a rapid development of the Chinese rail system into the world's most extensive high-speed rail network. By 2013 the system had of operational track, accounting for about half of the world's total at the time. By the end of 2018, the total high-speed railway (HSR) in China had risen to over . Over 1,713 billion trips were made in 2017, more than half of China's total railway passenger delivery, making it the world's busiest network. State planning for high-speed railway began in the early 1990s, and the country's first high-speed rail line, the Qinhuangdao–Shenyang Passenger Railway, was built in 1999 and opened to commercial operation in 2003. This line could accommodate commercial trains running at up to . Planners also considered Germany's Transrapid maglev technology and built the Shanghai maglev train, which runs on a track linking the
Pudong Pudong is a district of Shanghai located east of the Huangpu, the river which flows through central Shanghai. The name ''Pudong'' was originally applied to the Huangpu's east bank, directly across from the west bank or Puxi, the historic city ...
, the city's financial district, and the Pudong International Airport. The maglev train service began operating in 2004 with trains reaching a top speed of , and remains the fastest high-speed service in the world. Maglev, however, was not adopted nationally and all subsequent expansion features high-speed rail on conventional tracks. In the 1990s, China's domestic train production industry designed and produced a series of high-speed train prototypes but few were used in commercial operation and none were mass-produced. The Chinese Ministry of Railways (MOR) then arranged for the purchase of foreign high-speed trains from French, German, and Japanese manufacturers along with certain technology transfers and joint ventures with domestic trainmakers. In 2007, the MOR introduced the China Railways High-speed (CRH) service, also known as "Harmony Trains", a version of the German Siemens Velaro high-speed train. In 2008, high-speed trains began running at a top speed of on the
Beijing–Tianjin intercity railway The Beijing–Tianjin intercity railway () is a Chinese high-speed railway that runs 117 km line (72.7 statute miles) between Beijing and Tianjin. Designed for passenger traffic only, the Chinese government built the line to accommodate tr ...
, which opened during the
2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...
in Beijing. The following year, trains on the newly opened Wuhan–Guangzhou high-speed railway set a world record for average speed over an entire trip, at over . A collision of high-speed trains on 23 July 2011 in
Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Ji ...
province killed 40 and injured 195, raising concerns about operational safety. A credit crunch later that year slowed the construction of new lines. In July 2011, top train speeds were lowered to . But by 2012, the high-speed rail boom had renewed with new lines and new rolling stock by domestic producers that had indigenised foreign technology. On 26 December 2012, China opened the Beijing–Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong high-speed railway, the world's longest high-speed rail line, which runs from Beijing West railway station to
Shenzhen North Railway Station Shenzhenbei (Shenzhen North) Railway Station () is one of the four large intercity railway stations of Shenzhen, located in Longhua District. It has 11 platforms and 20 lines. It is an interchange station between the Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong ...
. The network set a target to create the 4+4 National high-speed rail Grid by 2015, and continues to rapidly expand with the July 2016 announcement of the 8+8 National high-speed rail Grid. In 2017, services resumed on the
Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway The Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway (or Jinghu high-speed railway, from its name in Mandarin) is a high-speed railway that connects two major economic zones in the People's Republic of China: the Bohai Economic Rim and the Yangtze River ...
, once again refreshing the world record for average speed with select services running between Beijing South to Nanjing South reaching average speeds of .


South Korean KTX

In South Korea, Korea Train Express (KTX) services were launched on 1 April 2004, using French (TGV) technology, on the Seoul–Busan corridor, Korea's busiest traffic corridor, between the two largest cities. In 1982, it represented 65.8% of South Korea's population, a number that grew to 73.3% by 1995, along with 70% of freight traffic and 66% of passenger traffic. With both the Gyeongbu Expressway and Korail's Gyeongbu Line congested as of the late 1970s, the government saw the pressing need for another form of transportation. Construction began on the high-speed line from
Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...
to
Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea ...
in 1992 with the first commercial service launching in 2004. Top speed for trains in regular service is currently , though the infrastructure is designed for . The initial rolling stock was based on Alstom's
TGV Réseau The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...
, and was partly built in Korea. The domestically developed HSR-350x, which achieved in tests, resulted in a second type of high-speed trains now operated by Korail, the
KTX Sancheon The KTX-Sancheon (formerly called the KTX-II) is a South Korean high-speed train built by Hyundai Rotem in the second half of the 2000s and operated by Korail since March 2009. With a top speed of , the KTX-Sancheon is the second commercial high- ...
. The next generation KTX train,
HEMU-430X HEMU-430X (standing for High-Speed Electric Multiple Unit 430 km/h eXperimental) is a South Korean high-speed train intended for a maximum speed of . On March 31, 2013, it achieved 421.4 km/h in a test run, making South Korea the wor ...
, achieved in 2013, making South Korea the world's fourth country after France, Japan, and China to develop a high-speed train running on conventional rail above .


Taiwan HSR

Taiwan High Speed Rail's first and only HSR line opened for service on 5 January 2007, using Japanese trains with a top speed of . The service traverses from to in as little as 105 minutes. While it contains only one line, its route covers
Western Taiwan The regions of Taiwan are based on the historical administrative divisions. However, most of the definitions are not precise. Division into two regions * Eastern and Western Taiwan: the Central Mountain Range separates Taiwan into east and west. :* ...
which resides over 90% of Taiwan's population; all four of larger Taiwanese metropolitans:
Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...
,
Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of T ...
,
Kaohsiung Kaohsiung City ( Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Ka ...
, Tainan, and Taiwan's technology core Hsinchu City are connected. Once THSR began operations, almost all passengers switched from airlines flying parallel routes while road traffic was also reduced.


Middle East and Central Asia


Turkey

In 2009, Turkey inaugurated a high-speed service between Ankara and Eskişehir. This has been followed up by an
Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...
Konya Konya () is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium (), although the Seljuks also called it D ...
route, and the Eskișehir line has been extended to
Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...
(Asian part).


Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan opened the Afrosiyob service from Tashkent to Samarkand in 2011, which was upgraded in 2013 to an average operational speed of and peak speed of . The Talgo 250 service has been extended to Karshi as of August 2015 whereby the train travels in 3 hours. As of August 2016, the train service was extended to
Bukhara Bukhara ( Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and the city ...
, and the extension will take 3 hours and 20 minutes down from 7 hours.


Egypt


Network


Maps


Technologies

Continuous welded rail is generally used to reduce track vibrations and misalignment. Almost all high-speed lines are electrically driven via
overhead line An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipm ...
s, have in-cab signalling, and use advanced switches using very low entry and
frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...
angles.


Road-rail parallel layout

The road-rail parallel layout uses land beside highways for railway lines. Examples include Paris/Lyon and Köln–Frankfurt in which 15% and 70% of the track runs beside highways, respectively.


Track sharing

In China, high-speed lines at speeds between may carry freight or passengers, while lines operating at speeds over are used only by passenger CRH/CR trains. In the United Kingdom,
HS1 High Speed 1 (HS1), legally the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel. It is part of a line carrying international passenger traffic between the United Kingdom and mainland Europe; ...
is also used by regional trains run by
Southeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...
at speeds of up to , and occasionally freight trains that run to central Europe. In Germany, some lines are shared with Inter-City and regional trains at day and freight trains at night. In France, some lines are shared with regional trains that travel at , for example TER Nantes-Laval.


Cost

The cost per kilometre in Spain was estimated at between €9 million (Madrid-Andalucía) and €22 million (Madrid-Valladolid). In Italy, the cost was between €24 million (Roma-Napoli) and €68 million (Bologna-Firenze). In the 2010s, costs per kilometre in France ranged from €18 million (BLP Brittany) to €26 million (Sud Europe Atlantique). The World Bank estimated in 2019 that the Chinese HSR network was built at an average cost of $17–21 million per km, a third less of the cost in other countries. At £309 million per mile, the UK's
High Speed 2 High Speed 2 (HS2) is a planned high-speed railway line in England, the first phase of which is under construction in stages and due for completion between 2029 and 2033, depending on approval for later stages. The new line will run from its m ...
line—currently under construction—is the most expensive high-speed line in the world as of 2020.


Freight high-speed rail

All high-speed trains have been designed to carry passengers only. There are very few high-speed freight services in the world; they all use trains that were originally designed to carry passengers. During the planning of the Tokaido Shinkansen, the
Japanese National Railways The abbreviated JNR or , was the business entity that operated Japan's national railway network from 1949 to 1987. Network Railways As of June 1, 1949, the date of establishment of JNR, it operated of narrow gauge () railways in all 46 pre ...
were planning for freight services along the route. This plan was later discarded. The French TGV La Poste was for a long time the sole very high-speed train service, transporting mail in France for La Poste at a maximum top speed of 270 km/h, between 1984 and 2015. The trainsets were either specifically adapted and built, either converted, passenger
TGV Sud-Est The SNCF TGV Sud-Est was a French high speed TGV train built by Alstom and Francorail-MTE and operated by SNCF, the French national railway company. A total of 111 trainsets were built between 1978 and 1988 for the first TGV service in France ...
trainsets. In Italy, Mercitalia Fast is a high-speed freight service launched in October 2018 by
Mercitalia Mercitalia (also known as Mercitalia Rail) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Italian state railway (FSI) system that operates freight transport and logistics services both within Italy and across Europe. Mercitalia was founded in January 2016, ...
. It uses converted passenger ETR 500 trainsets to carry goods at average speeds of 180 km/h, at first between Caserta and Bologna, with plans to extend the network throughout Italy. In some countries, high-speed rail is integrated with courier services to provide fast door-to-door intercity deliveries. For example, China Railways has partnered with SF Express for high-speed cargo deliveries and
Deutsche Bahn The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder. describes itself as the ...
offers express deliveries within Germany as well as to some major cities outside the country on the ICE network. Rather than using dedicated freight trains, these use luggage racks and other unused space in passenger trains.


Rolling stock

Key technologies include tilting trainsets, aerodynamic designs (to reduce drag, lift, and noise), air brakes, regenerative braking, engine technology and
dynamic weight shifting Dynamics (from Greek δυναμικός ''dynamikos'' "powerful", from δύναμις ''dynamis'' "power") or dynamic may refer to: Physics and engineering * Dynamics (mechanics) ** Aerodynamics, the study of the motion of air ** Analytical dyn ...
.


Comparison with other modes of transport


Optimal distance

While commercial high-speed trains have lower maximum speeds than jet aircraft, they offer shorter total trip times than air travel for short distances. They typically connect city centre rail stations to each other, while air transport connects airports that are typically farther from city centres. High-speed rail (HSR) is best suited for journeys of 1 to 4½ hours (about ), for which the train can beat air and car trip time. For trips under about , the process of checking in and going through airport security, as well as travelling to and from the airport, makes the total air journey time equal to or slower than HSR. European authorities treat HSR as competitive with passenger air for HSR trips under 4½ hours. HSR eliminated most air transport from between Paris–Lyon, Paris–Brussels, Cologne–Frankfurt, Madrid–Barcelona, Naples–Rome–Milan, Nanjing–Wuhan, Chongqing–Chengdu, Tokyo–Nagoya, Tokyo–Sendai and Tokyo–Niigata. China Southern Airlines, China's largest airline, expects the construction of China's high-speed railway network to impact (through increased competition and falling revenues) 25% of its route network in the coming years.


Market shares

European data indicate that air traffic is more sensitive than road traffic (car and bus) to competition from HSR, at least on journeys of and more. TGV Sud-Est reduced the travel time Paris–Lyon from almost four to about two hours. Market share rose from 40 to 72%. Air and road market shares shrunk from 31 to 7% and from 29 to 21%, respectively. On the Madrid–Sevilla link, the AVE connection increased share from 16 to 52%; air traffic shrunk from 40 to 13%; road traffic from 44 to 36%, hence the rail market amounted to 80% of combined rail and air traffic. This figure increased to 89% in 2009, according to Spanish rail operator RENFE. According to Peter Jorritsma, the rail market share ''s'', as compared to planes, can be computed approximately as a function of the travelling time in minutes ''t'' by the logistic formula :s = According to this formula, a journey time of three hours yields a 65% market share, not taking into account any price differential in tickets. In Japan, there is a so-called "4-hour wall" in high-speed rail's market share: If the high-speed rail journey time exceeds 4 hours, then people likely choose planes over high-speed rail. For instance, from Tokyo to Osaka, a 2h22m-journey by Shinkansen, high-speed rail has an 85% market share whereas planes have 15%. From Tokyo to Hiroshima, a 3h44m-journey by Shinkansen, high-speed rail has a 67% market share whereas planes have 33%. The situation is the reverse on the Tokyo to Fukuoka route where high-speed rail takes 4h47m and rail only has 10% market share and planes 90%. In Taiwan, China Airlines cancelled all flights to Taichung Airport within a year of Taiwan high-speed rail starting operations. Completion of the high-speed railway in 2007 led to drastically fewer flights along the island's west coast, with flights between
Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...
and
Kaohsiung Kaohsiung City ( Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Ka ...
ceasing altogether in 2012.


Energy efficiency

Travel by rail is 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 Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engi ...
or other fossil fuels but the power stations that provide electric trains with electricity can consume fossil fuels. In Japan (prior to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster) and France, with very extensive high-speed rail networks, a large proportion of electricity comes from
nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...
. On the Eurostar, which primarily runs off the French grid, emissions from traveling by train from London to Paris are 90% lower than by flying. In Germany 38.5% of all electricity was produced from renewable sources in 2017, however railways run on their own grid partially independent from the general grid and relying in part on dedicated power plants. 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 microeconomics, economies of scale are the cost advantages that enterprises obtain due to their scale of operation, and are typically measured by the amount of output produced per unit of time. A decrease in cost per unit of output enables ...
in generator technology and trains themselves, as well as lower air friction and rolling resistance at the same speed.


Automobiles and buses

High-speed rail can accommodate more passengers at far higher speeds than automobiles. Generally, the longer the journey, the better the time advantage of rail over the road if going to the same destination. However, high-speed rail can be competitive with cars on shorter distances, , for example for commuting, especially if the car users do experience road congestion or expensive parking fees. In Norway, the Gardermoen Line has made the rail market share for passengers from
Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
to the airport (42 km) rise to 51% in 2014, compared to 17% for buses and 28% for private cars and taxis. On such short lines−particularly services which call at stations close to one another−the
acceleration In mechanics, acceleration is the rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Accelerations are vector quantities (in that they have magnitude and direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by ...
capabilities of the trains may be more important than their maximum speed. Moreover, a typical passenger rail carries 2.83 times as many passengers per hour per meter width as a road. A typical capacity is the Eurostar, which provides capacity for 12 trains per hour and 800 passengers per train, totaling 9,600 passengers per hour in each direction. By contrast, the Highway Capacity Manual gives a maximum capacity of 2,250 passenger cars per hour per lane, excluding other vehicles, assuming an average vehicle occupancy of 1.57 people. 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 kilometre of direct/indirect land consumption). The Tokaido Shinkansen line in Japan, has a much higher ratio (with as many as 20,000 passengers per hour per direction). Similarly, commuter roads tend to carry fewer than 1.57 persons per vehicle (Washington State Department of Transportation, for instance, uses 1.2 persons per vehicle) during commute times.


Air travel


HSR Advantages

* Less boarding infrastructure: Although air transit moves at higher speeds than high-speed rail, total time to destination can be increased by travel to/from far out airports, check-in, baggage handling, security, and boarding, which may also increase cost to air travel.https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/columnists/nicktrend/8345279/Trains-or-planes-The-great-European-travel-test.html fro
Smith, Oliver
as of 10 May 2014
* Short range advantages: Trains may be preferred in short to mid-range distances since rail stations are typically closer to urban centers than airports.http://www.techthefuture.com/mobility/high-speed-train-vs-airplane/ fro

as of 10 May 2014
Likewise, air travel needs longer distances to have a speed advantage after accounting for both processing time and transit to the airport. * Urban centers: Particularly for dense city centers, short-hop air travel may not be ideal to serve these areas as airports tend to be far out of the city, due to land scarcity, short runway limitations, building heights, as well as airspace issues. * Weather: Rail travel also requires less weather dependency than air travel. A well-designed and operated rail system can only be affected by severe weather conditions, such as heavy snow, heavy fog, and major storm. Flights however, often face cancellations or delays under less severe conditions. * Comfort: High-speed trains also have comfort advantages, since train passengers are allowed to move freely about the train at any point in the journey.http://www.amtrak.com/the-unique-amtrak-experience-with-many-benefits from
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...
as of 10 May 2014
Since airlines have complicated calculations to try to minimise weight to save fuel or to allow takeoff at certain runway lengths, rail seats are also less subject to weight restrictions than on planes, and as such may have more padding and legroom. Technology advances such as
continuously welded rail A railway track (British English and UIC terminology) or railroad track (American English), also known as permanent way or simply track, is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties (sleepers, ...
have minimised the Hunting oscillation, vibration found on slower railways, while air travel remains affected by turbulence when adverse wind conditions arise. Trains can also accommodate intermediate stops at lower time and energetic costs than planes, though this applies less to HSR than to the slower conventional trains. * Delays: On particular busy air-routes – those that HSR has historically been most successful on – trains are also less prone to delays due to congested airports, or in the case of
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
, airspace. A train that is late by a couple of minutes will not have to wait for another slot to open up, unlike airplanes at congested airports. Furthermore, many airlines see short-haul flights as increasingly uneconomic and in some countries airlines rely on high-speed rail instead of short-haul flights for connecting services. * De-icing: HSR does not need to spend time deicing as planes do, which is time-consuming but critical; it can dent airline profitability as planes remain on the ground and pay airport fees by the hour, as well as take up parking space and contributing to congestive delays. * Hot and High: Some airlines have cancelled or move their flights to takeoff at night due to hot and high conditions. Such is the case for
Hainan Airlines Hainan Airlines Co., Ltd. (HNA, ) is an airline headquartered in Haikou, Hainan, People's Republic of China. The airline is rated as a 5-star airline by Skytrax. It is the largest civilian-run and majority state-owned air transport company ...
in
Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Veg ...
in 2017, which moved its long haul takeoff slot to after midnight. Similarly, Norwegian Air Shuttle cancelled all its Europe-bound flights during summer due to heat. high-speed rail may complement airport operations during hot hours when takeoffs become uneconomical or otherwise problematic. * Noise and pollution: Major airports are heavy polluters, downwind of LAX particulate pollution doubles, even accounting for Port of LA/Long Beach shipping and heavy freeway traffic. Trains may run on renewable energy, and electric trains produce no local pollution in critical urban areas at any rate. Noise also is an issue for residents. * Ability to serve multiple stops: An airplane spends significant amounts of time loading and unloading cargo and/or passengers as well as landing, taxiing and starting again. Trains spend only a few minutes stopping at intermediate stations, often greatly enhancing the business case at little cost. * Energy: high-speed trains are more fuel-efficient per passenger space offered than planes. Furthermore, they usually run on electricity, which can be produced from a wider range of sources than
kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning " wax", and was re ...
.


Disadvantages

* HSR usually requires land acquisition, for example in Fresno, USA where it was caught up in legal paperwork. * HSR is subject to land subsidence, where expensive fixes sent costs soaring in Taiwan. * HSR is affected by topography of the terrain as crossing mountain ranges or large bodies of water requires expensive tunnels and bridges. * HSR is costly due to required specialized infrastructure as well as advanced technologies and multiple safety systems. * The infrastructure is fixed hence the services provided are limited and can not be changed in response to changing market conditions. However, for passengers this can present an advantage as services are less likely to be withdrawn from railways compared to flight routes. * As the infrastructure can be extremely expensive, it is not possible to create a direct route between every major city. This means that a train might be transiting or stopping in intermediate stations, increasing the length and duration of a journey. * Railways require the security and cooperation of all geographies and governments involved. * As all HSRs are electrified they require an extended electricity grid to supply the
Overhead line An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipm ...
s


Pollution

High-speed rail usually implements electric power and therefore its energy sources can be distant or renewable. This is an advantage over air travel, which currently uses fossil fuels and is a major source of pollution. Studies regarding busy airports such as LAX, have shown that over an area of about downwind of the airport, where hundreds of thousands of people live or work, the particle number concentration was at least twice that of nearby urban areas, showing that airplane pollution far exceeded road pollution, even from heavy freeway traffic.


Trees

Airplanes and airstrips require trees to be cut down, as they are a nuisance to pilots. Some 3,000 trees will be chopped due to obstruction issues at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. On the other hand, trees next to rail lines can often become a hazard during winter storms, with several German media calling for trees to be cut down following autumn storms in 2017.


Safety

HSR is much simpler to control due to its predictable course. High-speed rail systems reduce (but do not eliminate) collisions with automobiles or people, by using non-grade level track and eliminating grade-level crossings. To date, the only two deadly accidents involving a high-speed train on high-speed tracks in revenue service were the 1998 Eschede train disaster and the 2011
Wenzhou train collision The Wenzhou train collision occurred on 23 July 2011 when two high-speed trains travelling on the Yong-Tai-Wen railway line collided on a viaduct in Lucheng District, Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. The two trains d ...
(in which speed was not a factor).


Accidents

In general, travel by high-speed rail has been demonstrated to be remarkably safe. The first high-speed rail network, the Japanese Shinkansen has not had any fatal accidents involving passengers since it began operating in 1964. Notable major accidents involving high-speed trains include the following.


1998 Eschede accident

In 1998, after over thirty years of high-speed rail operations worldwide without fatal accidents, the Eschede accident occurred in Germany: a poorly designed ICE 1 wheel fractured at a speed of near Eschede, resulting in the derailment and destruction of almost the entire set of 16 cars, and the deaths of 101 people. The derailment began at a switch; the accident was made worse when the derailed cars travelling at high speed struck and collapsed a road bridge located just past the switch.


2011 Wenzhou accident

On 23 July 2011, 13 years after the Eschede train accident, a Chinese CRH2 travelling at collided with a CRH1 which was stopped on a viaduct in the suburbs of Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, China. The two trains derailed, and four cars fell off the viaduct. Forty people were killed and at least 192 were injured, 12 of them severely. The disaster led to a number of changes in management and exploitation of high-speed rail in China. Despite the fact that speed itself was not a factor in the cause of the accident, one of the major changes was to further lower the maximum speeds in high-speed and higher-speed railways in China, the remaining becoming 300, becoming 200, and becoming 160. Six years later they started to be restored to their original high speeds.


2013 Santiago de Compostela accident

In July 2013, a high-speed train in Spain travelling at attempted to negotiate a curve whose speed limit is . The train derailed and overturned, resulting in 78 fatalities. Normally high-speed rail has automatic speed limiting restrictions, but this track section is a conventional section and in this case the automatic speed limit was said to be disabled by the driver several kilometers before the station. A few days later, the train worker's union claimed that the speed limiter didn't work properly because of lack of proper funding, acknowledging the budget cuts made by the current government. Two days after the accident, the driver was provisionally charged with homicide by negligence. This is the first accident that occurred with a Spanish high-speed train, but it occurred in a section that was not high speed and as mentioned safety equipment mandatory on high-speed track would have prevented the accident.


2015 Eckwersheim accident

On 14 November 2015, a specialised TGV EuroDuplex was performing commissioning tests on the unopened second phase of the LGV Est high-speed line in France, when it entered a curve, overturned, and struck the
parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...
of a bridge over the
Marne–Rhine Canal The Canal de la Marne au Rhin (Marne–Rhine Canal) is a canal in north-eastern France. It connects the river Marne and the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne in Vitry-le-François with the port of Strasbourg on the Rhine. The original objecti ...
. The rear power car came to a rest in the canal, while the remainder of the train came to a rest in the grassy median between the northern and southern tracks. Approximately 50 people were on board, consisting of SNCF technicians and, reportedly, some unauthorised guests. Eleven were killed and 37 were injured. The train was performing tests at 10 percent above the planned speed limit for the line and should have slowed from to before entering the curve. Officials have indicated that excessive speed may have caused the accident. During testing, some safety features that usually prevent accidents like this one are switched off.


2018 Ankara train collision

On 13 December 2018, a high-speed passenger train and a locomotive collided near Yenimahalle in Ankara Province, Turkey. Three cars (carriages/coaches) of the passenger train derailed in the collision. Three railroad engineers and five passengers were killed at the scene, and 84 people were injured. Another injured passenger later died, and 34 passengers, including two in critical condition, were treated in several hospitals.


2020 Lodi derailment

On 6 February 2020, a high-speed train travelling at derailed at Livraga, Lombardy, Italy. The two drivers were killed and 31 were injured. The cause as reported by investigators was that a faulty set of junction points was in the reverse position, but was reported by the signaling system as being in the normal - i.e. straight - position.


Ridership

High-speed rail ridership has been increasing rapidly since 2000. At the beginning of the century, the largest share of ridership was on the Japanese Shinkansen network. In 2000, the Shinkansen was responsible for about 85% of the cumulative world ridership up to that point. This has been progressively surpassed by the Chinese high-speed rail network, which has been the largest contributor of global ridership growth since its inception. As of 2018, annual ridership of the Chinese high-speed rail network is over five times larger than that of the Shinkansen.


Records


Speed

There are several definitions of "maximum speed": * The maximum speed at which a train is allowed to run by law or policy in daily service (MOR) * The maximum speed at which an unmodified train is proved to be capable of running * The maximum speed at which specially modified train is proved to be capable of running


Absolute speed record


= Overall rail record

= The speed record for a pre-production unconventional passenger train was set by a seven-car L0 series manned maglev train at on 21 April 2015 in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan.


= Conventional rail

= Since the 1955 record, where France recorded a world record of speed of 331 km/h, France has nearly continuously held the absolute world speed record. The latest record is held by a TGV POS trainset, which reached in 2007, on the newly constructed LGV Est high-speed line. This run was for proof of concept and engineering, not to test normal passenger service.


Maximum speed in service

, the fastest trains currently in commercial operation are : # Shanghai Maglev : (in China, on the lone maglev track) # CR400AF, CR400BF,
CRH2 The CRH2 Hexie (simplified Chinese: 和谐号; traditional Chinese: 和諧號; pinyin: Héxié Hào; literally: "Harmony") is one of the high-speed train models in China. The CRH2 is based on the E2-1000 Series Shinkansen design from Japan wi ...
C, CRH3C, CRH380A & AL, CRH380B, BL & CL, CRH380D : (in China) #
TGV Duplex The TGV Duplex is a French high-speed train of the TGV family, manufactured by Alstom, and operated by the French national railway company SNCF. It is unique among TGV trains in that it features bi-level carriages. The Duplex inaugurated the ...
,
TGV Réseau The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...
, TGV POS, TGV Euroduplex : (in France) # Eurostar e320 : (in France and GB) #
E5 Series Shinkansen The and the related are Japanese Shinkansen high-speed train types built by Hitachi Rail and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. The E5 series is operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East); it was introduced on Tohoku Shinkansen services on 5 M ...
, E6 Series Shinkansen,
H5 Series Shinkansen The and the related are Japanese Shinkansen high-speed train types built by Hitachi Rail and Kawasaki Heavy Industries. The E5 series is operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East); it was introduced on Tohoku Shinkansen services on 5 M ...
: (in Japan) # ICE 3 Class 403, 406, 407 : (in Germany) #
AVE Class 103 The Renfe Class 103 is a high-speed train used for the AVE service and operated in Spain by the state-run railway company RENFE. The trainset is also known as S103 or S/103. The trains were constructed by Siemens, as the second member of the ...
: (in Spain) # KTX-I, KTX-II, KTX-III : (in South Korea) # AGV 575,
ETR 1000 The Frecciarossa 1000, is a high-speed train operated by Italian state railway operator Trenitalia. It was co-developed as a joint venture between Italian rail manufacturer Hitachi Rail Italy (initially AnsaldoBreda) and multinational conglomer ...
(Frecciarossa 1000): (in Italy) # ETR 500: (in Italy) Many of these trains and their networks are technically capable of higher speeds but they are capped out of economic and commercial considerations (cost of electricity, increased maintenance, resulting ticket price, etc.)


=Levitation trains

= The Shanghai Maglev Train reaches during its daily service on its dedicated line, holding the speed record for commercial train service.


=Conventional rail

= The fastest operating conventional trains are the AGV 575 and the
Frecciarossa 1000 The Frecciarossa 1000, is a high-speed train operated by Italian state railway operator Trenitalia. It was co-developed as a joint venture between Italian rail manufacturer Hitachi Rail Italy (initially AnsaldoBreda) and multinational conglome ...
with maximum commercial speed of . As these trainsets are both running on the Italian high speed network they are limited to the national track speed of for commercial use. The second fastest operating conventional trains are the Chinese CR400A and CR400B running on Beijing–Shanghai HSR, after China relaunched its 350 km/h class service on select services effective 21 September 2017. In China, from July 2011 until September 2017, the maximum speed was officially , but a tolerance was acceptable, and trains often reached . Before that, from August 2008 to July 2011, China Railway High-speed trains held the highest commercial operating speed record with on some lines such as the Wuhan–Guangzhou high-speed railway. The speed of the service was reduced in 2011 due to high costs and safety concerns the top speeds in China were reduced to on 1 July 2011. Six years later they started to be restored to their original high speeds. Other fast conventional trains are the French TGV POS, German ICE 3, and Japanese E5 and E6 Series Shinkansen with a maximum commercial speed of , the former two on some French high-speed lines, and the latter on a part of Tohoku Shinkansen line. In Spain, on the Madrid–Barcelona HSL, maximum speed is .


Service distance

The China Railway G403/4, G405/6 and D939/40 Beijing–Kunming train (, 10 hours 43 minutes to 14 hours 54 minutes), which began service on 28 December 2016, are the longest high-speed rail services in the world.


Existing high-speed rail systems by country and region

The early high-speed lines, built in France, Japan, Italy and Spain, were between pairs of large cities. In France, this was Paris–
Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...
, in Japan, Tokyo–
Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...
, in Italy,
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
-
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
, in Spain,
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Penins ...
(then
Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
). In European and East Asian countries, dense networks of urban subways and railways provide connections with high-speed rail lines.


Central and East Asia


China


= Chinese mainland

= China has the largest network of high-speed railways in the world. it encompassed over of high-speed rail or over two-thirds of the world's total. It is also the world's busiest with an annual ridership of over 1.44 billion in 2016 and 2.01 billion in 2018, more than 60% of total passenger rail volume. By the end of 2018, cumulative passengers delivered by high speed railway trains was reported to be over 9 billion. According to ''
Railway Gazette International ''Railway Gazette International'' is a monthly business magazine and news website covering the railway, metro, light rail and tram industries worldwide. Available by annual subscription, the magazine is read in over 140 countries by transport ...
'', select trains between Beijing South to Nanjing South on the
Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway The Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway (or Jinghu high-speed railway, from its name in Mandarin) is a high-speed railway that connects two major economic zones in the People's Republic of China: the Bohai Economic Rim and the Yangtze River ...
have the fastest average operating speed in the world at . The improved mobility and interconnectivity created by these new high-speed rail lines has generated a whole new high-speed commuter market around some urban areas. Commutes via high-speed rail to and from surrounding
Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and ...
and Tianjin into
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...
have become increasingly common, likewise are between the cities surrounding
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...
,
Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern provi ...
and
Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...
.


Hong Kong

A , entirely underground express rail link connects Hong Kong West Kowloon railway station near Kwun Chung to the border with Chinese mainland, where the railway continues onwards to
Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern provi ...
's Futian station. A depot and the stabling sidings are located in Shek Kong. Commercial operations have been suspended since early 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak. Parts of the West Kowloon station are no longer under the jurisdiction of Hong Kong to facilitate co-location of border clearance.


Indonesia

Indonesia has one high-speed rail line under construction, the Jakarta–Bandung high-speed rail line, which will allow trains to reach up to 350 km/h.


Japan

In Japan, the Shinkansen was the first bullet train and reaches a cumulative ridership of 6 billion passengers with zero passenger fatalities due to operational accidents (as of 2003), now it is second largest high speed rail in Asia.


South Korea

Since its opening in 2004,
KTX Korea Train eXpress (), often known as KTX (), is South Korea's high-speed rail system, operated by Korail. Construction began on the high-speed line from Seoul to Busan in 1992. KTX services were launched on April 1, 2004. From Seoul Station the ...
has transferred over 360 million passengers until April 2013, and now Asia's third largest. For any transportation involving travel above , the KTX secured a market share of 57% over other modes of transport, which is by far the largest.


Taiwan

Taiwan has a single north–south high-speed line, Taiwan high-speed rail. It is approximately long, along the west coast of Taiwan from the national capital Taipei to the southern city of Kaohsiung. The construction was managed by Taiwan high-speed rail Corporation and the total cost of the project was US$18 billion. The private company operates the line fully, and the system is based primarily on Japan's Shinkansen technology. Eight initial stations were built during the construction of the high-speed rail system: Taipei, Banqiao, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan, and Zuoying (Kaohsiung). The line now has 12 total stations (Nangang, Taipei, Banqiao, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Miaoli, Taichung, Changhua, Yunlin, Chiayi, Tainan and Zuoying) as of August 2018.


Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan has a single high-speed rail line, the Tashkent–Samarkand high-speed rail line, which allows trains to reach up to 250 km/h. There are also electrified extensions at lower speeds to
Bukhara Bukhara ( Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and the city ...
and Dehkanabad.


Middle East and North Africa


Morocco

In November 2007, the Moroccan government decided to undertake the construction of a high-speed rail line between the economic capital Casablanca and
Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the capi ...
, one of the largest harbour cities on the Strait of Gibraltar. The line will also serve the capital Rabat and Kenitra. The first section of the line,
Kenitra–Tangier high-speed rail line Al Boraq () is a high-speed rail service between Casablanca and Tangier, operated by ONCF in Morocco. The first of its kind on the African continent, the high-speed service was inaugurated on 15 November 2018 by King Mohammed VI of Morocco, f ...
, was completed in 2018.


Saudi Arabia

Plans in Saudi Arabia to begin service on a high-speed line consist of a phased opening starting with the route from
Medina Medina,, ', "the radiant city"; or , ', (), "the city" officially Al Madinah Al Munawwarah (, , Turkish: Medine-i Münevvere) and also commonly simplified as Madīnah or Madinah (, ), is the Holiest sites in Islam, second-holiest city in Islam, ...
to King Abdullah Economic City followed up with the rest of the line to
Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow v ...
the following year. The Haramain high-speed railway opened in 2018.


Turkey

The Turkish State Railways started building high-speed rail lines in 2003. The first section of the line, between
Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...
and Eskişehir, was inaugurated on 13 March 2009. It is a part of the
Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...
to
Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...
high-speed rail line. A subsidiary of Turkish State Railways,
Yüksek Hızlı Tren Yüksek Hızlı Tren or YHT ( en, High Speed Train) is a high-speed rail service in Turkey, operated by TCDD Taşımacılık, and is the railway's premier intercity train service. As of 2022, the network spans and services major cities like ...
is the sole commercial operator of high-speed trains in Turkey. The construction of three separate high-speed lines from Ankara to Istanbul,
Konya Konya () is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium (), although the Seljuks also called it D ...
and Sivas, as well as taking an Ankara–
İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban aggl ...
line to the launch stage, form part of the Turkish Ministry of Transport's strategic aims and targets. Turkey plans to construct a network of high-speed lines in the early part of the 21st century, targeting a network of high-speed lines by 2013 and a network by 2023.


Europe

In Europe, several nations are interconnected with cross-border high-speed rail, such as London-Paris, Paris-Brussel-Rotterdam, Madrid-Perpignan, and other future connecting projects exist.


France

Market segmentation has principally focused on the business travel market. The French original focus on business travellers is reflected by the early design of the
TGV The TGV (french: Train à Grande Vitesse, "high-speed train"; previously french: TurboTrain à Grande Vitesse, label=none) is France's intercity high-speed rail service, operated by SNCF. SNCF worked on a high-speed rail network from 1966 to 19 ...
trains. Pleasure travel was a secondary market; now many of the French extensions connect with vacation beaches on the
Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
and
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...
, as well as major amusement parks and also the ski resorts in France and Switzerland. Friday evenings are the peak time for TGVs (''train à grande vitesse''). The system 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, increasing the market while restructuring
land use Land use involves the management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environment such as settlements and semi-natural habitats such as arable fields, pastures, and managed woods. Land use by humans has a long ...
. On the Paris–Lyon service, the number of passengers grew sufficiently to justify the introduction of double-decker coaches. Later high-speed rail lines, such as the LGV Atlantique, the LGV Est, and most high-speed lines in France, were designed as feeder routes branching into conventional rail lines, serving a larger number of medium-sized cities.


Germany

Germany's first high-speed lines ran north–south, for historical reasons, and later developed east–west after German unification. In the early 1900s, Germany became the first country to run a prototype electric train at speeds in excess of 200 km/h, and during the 1930s several steam and diesel trains achieved revenue speeds of 160 km/h in daily service. The InterCityExperimental briefly held the world speed record for a steel-wheel-on-steel-rails vehicle during the 1980s. The InterCityExpress entered revenue service in 1991 and serves purpose-built high-speed lines (), upgraded legacy lines (), and unmodified legacy lines.
Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding ...
, Germany's flag carrier, has entered into a codeshare agreement with
Deutsche Bahn The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder. describes itself as the ...
where ICEs run as "feeder flights" bookable with a Lufthansa flight number under the AIRail program.


Italy

During the 1920s and 1930s, Italy was one of the first countries to develop the technology for high-speed rail. The country constructed the ''Direttissime'' railways connecting major cities on dedicated electrified high-speed track (although at speeds lower to what today would be considered high-speed rail) and developed the fast ETR 200 trainset. After the Second World War and the fall of the fascist regime, interest in high-speed rail dwindled, with the successive governments considering it too costly and developing the tilting Pendolino, to run at medium-high speed (up to ) on conventional lines, instead. The only exception was the ''Direttissima'' between Florence and Rome, but it was not conceived to be part of a high-speed line on a large scale. A true dedicated high-speed rail network was developed during the 1980s and the 1990s, and of high-speed rail were fully operational by 2010. Frecciarossa services are operated with ETR 500 and ETR1000 non-tilting trains at 25kVAC, 50 Hz power. The operational speed of the service is . Over 100 million passengers used the Frecciarossa from the service introduction up to the first months of 2012. The high-speed rail system serves about 20 billion passenger-km per year as of 2016. Italian high-speed services are profitable without subsidies. Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori, the world's first private open-access operator of high-speed rail, is operative in Italy since 2012.


Norway

As of 2015, Norway's fastest trains have a commercial top speed of and the FLIRT trains may attain . A velocity of is permitted on the Gardermoen Line, which links the
Gardermoen Oslo Airport ( no, Oslo lufthavn; ), alternatively referred to as Oslo Gardermoen Airport or simply Gardermoen, is the international airport serving Oslo, Norway, the capital and most populous city in the country. A hub for Flyr, Norse Atla ...
airport to
Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
and a part of the main line northwards to
Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, an ...
. Some parts of the trunk railways around Oslo are renewed and built for : * The Follo Line southwards from Oslo, a line Oslo–Ski on the Østfold Line, mainly in tunnel, planned to be ready in 2021. * The Holm–Holmestrand–Nykirke part of the Vestfold Line (west to southwest of Oslo). * The Farriseidet project, between Larvik and Porsgrunn on the Vestfold Line, in tunnel.


Russia

The existing Saint Petersburg–Moscow Railway can operate at maximum speeds of 250 km/h, and the
Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
-
Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
railway capable of a maximum of 200 km/h. Future areas include freight lines, such as the Trans-Siberian Railway in Russia, which would allow 3-day Far East to Europe service for freight, potentially fitting in between the months by ship and hours by air.


Spain

Spain has built an extensive high-speed rail network, with a length of (2021), the longest in Europe. It uses standard gauge as opposed to the
Iberian gauge Iberian gauge ( es, ancho ibérico, trocha ibérica, pt, bitola ibérica) is a track gauge of , most extensively used by the railways of Spain and Portugal. This is the second-widest gauge in regular use anywhere in the world. The Indian gauge, ...
used in most of the national railway network, meaning that the high-speed tracks are separated and not shared with local trains or freight. Although standard gauge is the norm for Spanish high-speed rail, since 2011 there exists a regional high-speed service running on
Iberian gauge Iberian gauge ( es, ancho ibérico, trocha ibérica, pt, bitola ibérica) is a track gauge of , most extensively used by the railways of Spain and Portugal. This is the second-widest gauge in regular use anywhere in the world. The Indian gauge, ...
with special trains that connects the cities of Ourense, Santiago de Compostela,
A Coruña A Coruña (; es, La Coruña ; historical English: Corunna or The Groyne) is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. A Coruña is the most populated city in Galicia and the second most populated municipality in the autonomous community and ...
, and Vigo in northwestern Spain. Connections to the French network exist since 2013, with direct trains from Paris to
Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
. Although on the French side, conventional speed tracks are used from Perpignan to
Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the department of Hérault. In 2018, 290,053 people l ...
.


Switzerland

High-speed north–south freight lines in Switzerland are under construction, avoiding slow mountainous truck traffic, and lowering labour costs. The new lines, in particular the Gotthard Base Tunnel, are built for . But the short high-speed parts and the mix with freight will lower the average speeds. The limited size of the country gives fairly short domestic travel times anyway. Switzerland is investing money in lines on French and German soil to enable better access to the high-speed rail networks of those countries from Switzerland.


United Kingdom

The UK's fastest high-speed line (
High Speed 1 High Speed 1 (HS1), legally the Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL), is a high-speed railway linking London with the Channel Tunnel. It is part of a line carrying international passenger traffic between the United Kingdom and mainland Europe ...
) connects London St Pancras with
Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
, Paris and
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
through the
Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles ( Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover ...
. At speeds of up to , it is the only high-speed line in Britain with an operating speed of more than . The Great Western Main Line, South Wales Main Line, West Coast Main Line, Midland Main Line,
Cross Country Route A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a s ...
and East Coast Main Line all have maximum speed limits of in some areas. Attempts to increase speeds to on both the West Coast Main Line and East Coast Main Line have failed because the trains on those lines do not have cab signalling, which is a legal requirement in the UK for trains to be permitted to operate at speeds greater than due to the impracticality of observing lineside signals at such speeds.


North America


United States

The United States has domestic definitions for high-speed rail varying between jurisdictions. * The United States Code defines high-speed rail as services "reasonably expected to reach sustained speeds of more than ", * The
Federal Railroad Administration The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The agency was created by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. The purpose of the FRA is to promulgate and enforce rail sa ...
uses a definition of top speeds at and above. * The
Congressional Research Service The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a public policy research institute of the United States Congress. Operating within the Library of Congress, it works primarily and directly for members of Congress and their committees and staff on a ...
uses the term " higher-speed rail" for speeds up to and "very high-speed rail" for the rail on dedicated tracks with speeds over 150 mph.
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada. ...
's ''
Acela Express The ''Acela'' ( ; originally the ''Acela Express'' until September 2019) is Amtrak's flagship service along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) in the Northeastern United States between Washington, D.C. and Boston via 13 intermediate stops, inclu ...
'' (reaching ), ''
Northeast Regional The ''Northeast Regional'' is an intercity rail service operated by Amtrak in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States. In the past it has been known as the ''NortheastDirect'', ''Acela Regional'', or ''Regional''. It is Amtrak's busi ...
'', '' Keystone Service'', '' Silver Star'', '' Vermonter'' and certain
MARC Marc or MARC may refer to: People * Marc (given name), people with the first name * Marc (surname), people with the family name Acronyms * MARC standards, a data format used for library cataloging, * MARC Train, a regional commuter rail system of ...
Penn Line express trains (the three reaching ) are currently the only high-speed services on the American continent, and all are limited to the Northeast Corridor. The ''Acela Express'' links
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, New York City,
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
,
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
, and Washington, D.C., and while ''Northeast Regional'' trains travel the whole of the same route, but make more station stops. All other high-speed rail services travel over portions of the route. The California High-Speed Rail project, eventually linking the 5 largest cities in California, is planned to have its first operating segment, between Merced, California, Merced and Bakersfield, California, Bakersfield, in 2027.


Inter-city effects

With high-speed rail there has been an increase in accessibility within cities. It allows for urban regeneration, accessibility in cities near and far, and efficient inter-city relationships. Better inter-city relationships lead to high-level services to companies, advanced technology, and marketing. The most important effect of HSR is the increase of accessibility due to shorter travel times. HSR lines have been used to create long-distance routes which in many cases cater to business travellers. However, there have also been short-distance routes that have revolutionised the concepts of HSR. They create commuting relationships between cities opening up more opportunities. Using both longer distance and shorter distance rail in one country allows for the best case of economic development, widening the labor and residential market of a metropolitan area and extending it to smaller cities. Therefore, HSR is highly related to urban development, it attracts offices and start-ups, induces industrial displacement, and promotes firm innovation.


Closures

The KTX Incheon International Airport to Seoul Line (operates on AREX, Incheon AREX) was closed in 2018, due to a mix of issues, including poor ridership and track sharing. The AREX was not constructed as high-speed rail, resulting a cap of 150 Kilometres per hour, km/h on KTX service in its section. In China, many conventional lines upgraded up to 200 km/h had high-speed services shifted to parallel high-speed lines. These lines, often passing through towns and having level crossings, are still used for local trains and freight trains. For example, all (passenger) Electric multiple unit, EMU services on the Hankou–Danjiangkou railway were routed over the Wuhan–Xiaogan intercity railway, Wuhan–Shiyan high-speed railway on its opening to free up capacity for freight trains on the slower railway.


See also

* Ground effect train * Railway speed record * List of high-speed railway lines * List of high-speed trains * Maglev * Megaproject * Proposed high-speed rail by country * Passenger rail terminology * Vactrain * Inter-city rail


References


Further reading

* * * * * *


External links


US high-speed rail Association official site

UIC: high-speed rail

World's fastest high-speed trains in commercial operation
*
Progress with Railway Interoperability in the European Union 2013 Biennial Report
{{Authority control High-speed rail, 1964 establishments in Japan Japanese inventions