High-speed rail
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High-speed rail is public transport by rail at speeds in excess of 200 km/h (124 mph).
Typically, high-speed trains travel at top service speeds of between 250 km/h and 300 km/h (150 mph and 186 mph). The world speed record for a conventional wheeled train was set in 1990 by a French TGV that reached a speed of 515.3 km/h (320.2 mph), while a Japanese magnetic levitation train (maglev) JR-Maglev MLX01 in development has reached 581 km/h (361 mph).
[edit] Definition
The International Union of Railways' high-speed task force provides definitions of high-speed rail travel [1]. There is no single definition of the term, but rather a combination of elements—new or upgraded track, rolling stock, operating practices—that lead to high-speed rail operations. The speeds at which a train must travel to qualify as 'high-speed' vary from country to country, ranging from 160 km/h (100 mph) to over 300 km/h (185 mph). The countries that have developed high-speed rail technology include: Japan, France, China, Italy, Germany, Korea, Spain, and the United States of America.
[edit] History
Railways were the first form of mass transportation, and until the development of the motorcar in the early 20th century had an effective monopoly on land transport. In the decades after World War II, cheap oil, coupled with improvements in automobiles, highways, and aircraft made those means practical for a greater portion of the population than previously. In Europe and Japan, emphasis was given to rebuilding the railways after the war. In the United States, emphasis was given to building a huge national interstate highway system and airports. Urban mass transport systems in the US were largely neglected. The US railways have been less competitive partly because the government has tended to favour road and air transportation more than in Japan and European countries, and partly because of lower population density in the US. Travel by rail becomes more competitive in areas of higher population density or where petrol is expensive, because conventional trains are more fuel efficient than cars (though sometimes less fuel efficient than buses). Very few trains consume diesel or other fossil fuels but the power stations that provide electric trains with power do consume fuel, usually natural gas or coal. However, in Japan and France, a large proportion of the electricity comes from nuclear power. Even using electricity generated from coal or oil, trains are more fuel efficient per passenger per kilometer travelled than the typical automobile. Upgrading rail networks require large fixed investments and thus require unsubsidizing fuel costs (e.g., in the US), or high population densities to be competitive against airplanes and automobiles. Population density has always been a key factor in the success of European and Japanese railway transport, especially in countries such as The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland.
The world's first "high-speed train" was Japan's Tōkaidō Shinkansen, officially launched in 1964. The "Series 0" Shinkansen, built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, achieved speeds of 200 km/h (125 mph) on the Tokyo–Nagoya–Kyoto–Osaka route.
High-speed rail was conceived as an attempt to win back railway passengers who had been lost to other means of travel; in most cases it has been quite successful at accomplishing this goal.
[edit] Comparison with other modes of transport
There are constraints on the growth of the highway and air travel systems, widely cited as traffic congestion, or capacity limits. Airports have limited capacity to serve passengers during peak travel times, as do highways. High-speed rail has the potential for very high capacity on its fixed corridors, and offers the promise of relieving congestion on the other systems. Prior to World War II conventional passenger rail was the principal means of intercity transport. Passenger rail services have lost their primary role in transport since, due to a reduction in market share, even where the number of rail journeys has increased.
High speed trains also have the advantage of being more environmentally friendly than air or road travel. This is due to:
- lower fuel requirements per passenger kilometre
- ability to displace fuel requirements onto less damaging sources of energy
- greatly reduced land usage for a given capacity compared to motorways
- displaced automobile usage between airports and city centers
[edit] Automobiles
High-speed rail has the advantage over automobiles in that it can move passengers at speeds far faster than those possible by car, while also avoiding congestion. For journeys that connect city centre to city centre, high speed trains can be three times as fast as the car. For other journeys (e.g. suburb to suburb) the door to door travel time and the total cost (excluding environmental costs) of high-speed rail can be comparable to that of driving, a fact often mentioned by critics of high-speed trains, although this depends on the local transport infrastructure of the areas being served. In general, the longer the journey, the better the advantage of rail over road.
Journeys by train have much lower environmental costs in addition to being less stressful, more productive and more reliable than car journeys. Moreover, train tracks permit a far higher throughput of passengers per hour than a road the same width. A high speed rail needs just a double track railway, one track for for each direction. A typical capacity is 15 trains per hour and 800 passengers per train (as for the Eurostar sets). This implies a capacity of 12,000 passengers per hour in each direction. By way of contrast, the Highway Capacity Manual gives a maximum capacity for a single lane of highway of 2,250 passenger cars per hour (without any trucks or RVs). Assuming an average vehicle occupancy of 1.57 people [1], a standard twin track railway has a capacity 3.3 times greater than an 6-lane highway (3 lanes each way), while taking less than half as much land (1.0/3.0 versus 2.5/7.5 hectares per kilometer of direct/indirect land consumption).
[edit] Airplanes
While high-speed trains generally do not travel as fast as jet aircraft, they have advantages over air travel for relatively short distances. When traveling less than about 650 km, the process of checking in and going through security screening at airports, as well as the journey to the airport itself makes the total journey time comparable to HSR. Trains can be boarded more quickly in a central location, eliminating the speed advantage of air travel. As a rule of thumb, rail journeys need to be three hours or less to be competitive with air travel on journey time.
Rail lines also permit far greater capacity and frequency of service than what is possible with aircraft, and rail schedules find fewer weather-related interruptions than do airline schedules. Another advantage of high speed rail over aircraft is comfort: the journey involves fewer modal changes, less standing and queuing, and more spacious seats. From the operator's point of view, a single train can call in at multiple stops, something that is rarely done with aircraft journeys. Consequently, one train stopping pattern can allow a multitude of possible journeys, increasing the potential market.
[edit] Target areas for high-speed trains
The early target areas, identified by France, Japan, and the U.S., were connections between pairs of large cities. In France this was Paris–Lyon, in Japan Tokyo–Osaka, and in the U.S. the proposals are in high-density areas. The only high-speed rail service at present in the U.S. is in the Northeast Corridor between Boston, New York and Washington, D.C.; it uses tilting trains to achieve high speeds (though much lower than those of their European and Asian counterparts) on existing tracks, since building new, straighter lines was not practical given the amount of development on either side of the right of way.
One notable fact is that in Europe, Korea, and Japan, dense networks of city subways and railways connect seamlessly with high speed rail lines. Despite efforts to create high speed rail in the USA, cities that lack dense intra-city rail infrastructure will find low ridership for high speed rail, as it is incompatible with existing automobile infrastructure. (People will want to drive when travelling in city, so they might as well drive the entire trip). Since in Japan intra-city rail daily usage per capita is the highest, it follows naturally that ridership of 6 billion passengers [2] exceeds the TGV of 1 billion (until 2003), the only other system to reach a billion cumulative passengers. [3] Some systems such as Korea's KTM have been plagued by low ridership, despite having extensive subway systems in Seoul.
The California High Speed Rail Authority is currently studying a San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento to Los Angeles and San Diego line. The Texas High Speed Rail and Transportation Corporation strives to bring Texas an innovative high-speed rail and multimodal transportation corridor. The Corporation developed the Brazos Express Corridor to link Central Texas.
Later high speed rail lines, such as the LGV Atlantique, the LGV Est, and most high speed lines in Germany, were designed as feeder routes branching into conventional rail lines, serving a larger number of medium-sized cities.
A side effect of the first high-speed rail lines in France was the opening up of previously isolated regions to fast economic development. Some newer high-speed lines have been planned primarily for this purpose, such as the Madrid–Sevilla line and the proposed Amsterdam–Groningen line.
Five years after construction began on the line, the first Japanese high-speed rail line opened on the eve of the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, connecting the capital with Osaka. The first French high-speed rail line, or Ligne à grande vitesse (LGV), was opened in 1981 by SNCF, the French rail agency, planning starting in 1966 and construction in 1976.
Market segmentation has principally focused on the business travel market. The French focus on business travelers is reflected in the nature of their rail cars (including the all-important bar-car). Pleasure travel is a secondary market, though many of the French extensions connect with vacation beaches on the Atlantic and Mediterranean, as well as major amusement parks. Friday evenings are the peak time for TGVs (train à grande vitesse) (Metzler, 1992). The system has lowered prices on long distance travel to compete more effectively with air services, and as a result some cities within an hour of Paris by TGV have become commuter communities, thus increasing the market while restructuring land use.
[edit] Countries with high-speed rail networks in operation
[edit] Europe
[edit] France
France has perhaps the most developed high-speed network in Europe. The TGV network started in 1981 with the opening of the line between Lyon and Paris (LGV Sud-Est). The TGV network gradually spread out to other cities, and into other countries such as Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the UK. Trains that cross national boundaries may need to have special characteristics, such as the ability to handle different power supplies and signalling systems. This means that not all TGVs are the same, and there are interoperability considerations.
[edit] Germany
Construction on first German high-speed lines began shortly after that of the French LGVs. Legal battles caused significant delays, so that the InterCity Express (ICE) trains were deployed ten years after the TGV network was established. The ICE network is more tightly integrated with pre-existing lines and trains as a result of the different settlement structure in Germany, which has almost twice the population density of France. ICE trains reached destinations in Austria and Switzerland soon after they entered service, taking advantage of the same voltage used in these countries. Starting in 2000, multisystem third-generation ICE trains entered the Netherlands and Belgium. The third generation of the ICE reaches a speed up to 363 km/h. Admission of ICE trains onto French LGVs was applied for in 2001, but trial runs have only just been completed in 2005. Unlike the TGV or Shinkansen, a first generation ICE has had a fatal high speed crash (near Eschede), following numerous complaints of excessive shaking. Since the crash, the ICE wheels have been redesigned.
Germany is also developing Transrapid, a magnetic levitation train system. The Transrapid reaches speeds up to 550 km/h. A test track with a total length of 31.5 km is operating in Emsland. Unfortunately, on Sept 22 2006, 23 people died when this elevated magnetic train collided with on-track maintenance equipment near Lathen in north-western Germany. In China, Shanghai Maglev Train, a Transrapid technology based maglev built in collaboration with Germany, has been operational since March 2004.
[edit] Italy
The earliest high-speed train deployed in Europe was the Italian "Direttissima" that connected Rome with Florence (254 km) in 1978. The maximum speed of this line was 250 km/h (150 mph). The journey time between the two cities is just over 90 minutes and the trains average about 200 km/h (125 mph). The service is carried out by Eurostar Italia (ETR 4xx, better known as Pendolino, and ETR 500 series) trains (not related to the Eurostar trains operating to the United Kingdom). Italy makes extensive use of tilting train technology, "Pendolino" (ETR 4xx series), based on research work undertaken in the 1970s by Fiat Ferroviaria.
Treno Alta Velocità is building a new high speed network on the routes Milan - Bologna - Florence - Rome - Naples and Turin - Milan - Verona - Venice - Trieste. Some lines are already opened while international links with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia are underway.
Rome-Naples line opened to service in December 2005, Turin-Milan partially opened in February 2006. Both lines with speed up to 300 km/h.
[edit] Belgium
High-speed Thalys trains already operate between Belgium, Germany (Köln), The Netherlands and France. Thalys trains are a variant of the French TGV. Main stops in Belgium are Brussels, Liège and Antwerpen. High speed stretches are only Paris-Brussels and most of Brussels-Liège. In 2007 Thalys will go on high-speed rail in all of Belgium. The remaning stretch between Antwerpen and the Dutch border are currently being tested.
Eurostar currently connects Brussel Zuid (South) to London Waterloo station. In autumn 2007 this will be to London St Pancras station after the link is finished (See UK).
The German ICE also operates between Amsterdam - Frankfurt (sometimes also goes to Switzerland) and between Brussels and Frankfurt.
[edit] Netherlands
The Dutch HSL-Zuid line is currently under construction. Connecting the Netherlands with Belgium and France, it will carry both the TGV-derived Thalys and domestic high-speed trains. Beside it a high-speed track to Groningen is being studied.
[edit] Norway
Currently, the only high speed train service is the Flytoget, commuting between the Oslo Airport and the metropolitan areas of Oslo at speeds of up to 210 km/h. It is going to be extended westwards to include the city of Drammen in 2008 (source).
There is also a political climate for building more high speed railway services in Norway. Currently, the VWI Stuttgart (Institute of Transportation Research at the University of Stuttgart, Germany) are doing an analysis on the possibilities for building high speed railway services between the major cities of Norway, and between Norway and Sweden, for the Norwegian Railroad Agency (Jernbaneverket).
Though the initiative to the analysis itself is an evidence of a promising political climate for high speed railways, the analysis has been heavily criticized by experts for not being done by a recognised competence on this area, for being based on inaccurate facts, and for using gross miscalculations of important datas, like potential passenger numbers and potential costs of building new high speed tracks.
The conclusions so far include that the most interesting corridors are Oslo-Gothenburg (in Sweden) and Oslo-Trondheim (through the Østerdalen valley). The analysis is expected to be completed in April 2007.
There are also several independent initiatives for high speed railways in Norway:
- Den sørnorske høyhastighetsringen is a political initiative for building a high speed railway ring that will include the major cities Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger and Kristiansand, in addition to the densely populated Vestfold region.
- Norsk Bane is a private initiative for a high speed railway network that will cover large parts of Southern Norway. It has several lines that can be considered independently, but at its greatest extent it will include the major cities of Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger, Kristiansand and Ålesund with a hub in Oslo. In addition there will also be a line through the Vestfold region and lines both west and east of the Mjøsa lake. This project will however need political support before it can be started.
[edit] Portugal
The Portuguese government has approved the construction of two high-speed lines from the capital Lisbon to Porto and Madrid from 2007, bringing the countries' capital cities within three hours of each other. There has been an intense public debate on these plans, since the Spanish connection to the border is the worst possible for Portuguese interests[citation needed]. Since the late 1990s, the Italian tilting train, the Pendolino runs the Alfa Pendular service, connecting Portugal's mainland from the north border to the Algarve (southern counterpart)at a speed of up to 220 km/h.
[edit] Spain
The Alta Velocidad Española (AVE) high-speed rail system in Spain is currently under construction. High-speed trains have been running on the Madrid–Sevilla route since 1992. Should the aims of the ambitious AVE construction program be met, by 2010 Spain will have 7000 km of high-speed trains linking almost all provincial cities to Madrid in under 4 hours and Barcelona within 6 hours.
By 2007, the fastest long-distance commercial trains in operation will be moving passengers between Barcelona and Madrid at a top speed of 350 km/h, traveling the 600 km between the two cities in only 2.5 hours. Three corporations have built or will build trains for the Spanish high-speed rail network: Spanish Talgo, French Alstom and German Siemens AG. Bombardier Transportation is a partner in both the Talgo-led and the Siemens-led consortium.
[edit] United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, Eurostar trains, which run through the Channel Tunnel between the UK and both France and Belgium, are substantially different versions of the TGV trains, with support for multiple voltages, both pantograph and third-rail power collection, the ability to adapt to multiple platform heights, and to cope with no fewer than seven different signalling modes. Like the TGVs, Eurostar trains are articulated with bogies between the carriages, and typical operating units have 18 carriages. A fully loaded train of 794 passengers is roughly equivalent to seven Boeing 737s (the aircraft typically used by low-cost airlines). These trains operate at the highest scheduled speeds of any in the UK, using specially-built track between the Channel Tunnel and London. The Channel Tunnel Rail Link currently supports high speed trains between Folkestone to Fawkham Junction, and the extension to London St Pancras is due to open in 2007.
The remainder of Britain's railway network is considerably slower. Most inter-city traffic is restricted to a maximum speed of 200 km/h (125 mph) using routes largely established in the middle years of the nineteenth century. The main reason for this restriction is that, unlike several countries on the continent, Britain has never invested in building specialised lines for intercity services, which therefore have to share even the main lines with freight and local passenger traffic. Any increase in line speed on the existing routes would require an expensive upgrade to in-cab signalling. Even so, the speed limit on some sections of the East Coast Main Line was raised to 140mph during the upgrade and electrification of the route during the 1980s. (Both the Pendolinos used on the West Coast Main Line and the Intercity 225s used on the East Coast Main Line are capable of 140 mph / 225 km/h ). Much of this traffic is mostly handled by diesel-electric powered InterCity 125 High Speed Trains which are around three decades old. However GNER trains on the East Coast Main Line between London Kings Cross and York (which also use more modern InterCity 225s) still achieve an average point-to-point speed that puts them in the world top ten.
An attempt was made in the 1970s and 1980s to introduce a high-speed train that could operate on Britain's winding infrastructure—British Rail developed the Advanced Passenger Train using active tilting technology. After several prototypes had been built and tested, the project was closed down when the Thatcher government and British Railways management lost confidence in the technology. The tilting action on demonstration runs induced a feeling akin to seasickness in the passengers, leading to the train being nicknamed the 'vomit comet,' and the prototypes were expensive to operate and unreliable. However, the problems were near to a solution, and ultimately the technology was a success. British Rail sold it to an Italian firm, who ironed out the problems. Trains based on the old BR technology have been in service in Italy for several years. In 2004, following a large investment in the West Coast Main Line, tilting Pendolinos, based on the Italian trains, were introduced. These trains are currently limited to a top speed of 125 mph (200 km/h) although they were designed to run faster—cost over-runs on the track and signalling refurbishment project led to the line being rebuilt with the lower speed limit rather than the 140 mph (225 km/h) originally planned. The Pendolinos are operated by Virgin Trains, on services from London Euston to Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchester (with occasional services to Holyhead although for the foreseeable future these will continue to be hauled by diesel locomotives west of Crewe due to the lack of OHLE).
Recently, several proposals for domestic British high speed lines have been put forward and the government is considering building a north-south line. For more information, see High-speed rail in the United Kingdom.
[edit] Asia
[edit] Japan
Japan might be considered the spiritual home of modern high-speed railways. Pioneering modern high speed rail, it also has the most heavily travelled, and the largest network currently in operation, though French plans will make it the largest network in the near future. Construction began in 1959, and in 1964, the world's first line, Tōkaidō Shinkansen opened to the public, then operating at a speed of 210 km/h.
Japan is an extremely densely populated country: more than 70% of the land surface is mountainous and thus uninhabitable or unsuitable for road travel and parking. In fact, drivers must prove they have a parking space before they can buy a car. With such a population density, the only practical possibility for transport across the country is rail. The recognition of the interrelationship between land development and the high-speed rail network led, in 1970, to the enactment of a law for the construction of a nationwide Shinkansen railway network. By 1973, the Transport Minister approved construction plans for five additional lines and basic plans for twelve others. Despite the approval, financial considerations intervened; the cost of the five lines (five trillion yen, or roughly 18 billion U.S. dollars at the 1973 exchange rate), combined with the oil shock and the recession of the 1970s and early 1980s resulted in some lines being cancelled and others delayed until 1982.
As with other high speed rail lines around the world, some Shinkansen lines cannot handle the highest speeds. Some rails remain narrow-gauge to allow sharing with conventional trains, reducing land requirement and cost. Although Shinkansen trainsets are designed to tilt to take a curve, narrow-gauge cannot safely accommodate the highest speeds. Tokyo and Osaka are congested, as the Shinkansen must slow down to allow other trains to keep their schedules and must wait for slower trains until they can be overtaken.
The hosting of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano provided Japan with a valuable opportunity to showcase its technological skills with the opening of a new rail line extension. The Hokuriku Shinkansen (Tokyo to Nagano) line was opened just in time.
The national rail system (JNR), which included Shinkansen was broken up and privatized beginning in 1987 with the aim of more efficient and profitable operations in the passenger rail sector. Incremental improvements to the high-speed rail technology are being undertaken, and the network continues to be expanded. Tilting trains have been introduced to take curves faster; meanwhile, aerodynamic redesigns, stronger engines and lighter materials, air brakes, typhoon and earthquake precautions, and track upgrades are among the developments. As a result of improvements, the travel time from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka (the first route opened) has decreased from 4 hours in 1964 to 2 hours 30 minutes, and is forecast to be less than 2 hours in the near future.
A Japanese consortium led by the Central Japan Railway Company have been researching new high-speed rail systems based on magnetic levitation since the 1970s. Although the trains and guideways are technologically ready and over 100,000 people have ridden them, high costs remains as barriers. Test trains JR-Maglev MLX01 on the Yamanashi Test Line have reached speeds of 581 km/h (crewed), making them the fastest trains in the world. These new maglev trains are intended to be deployed on new Tokyo–Osaka Shinkansen maglev route, called the Chuo Shinkansen, though the project has no political support, due to a spiralling Japanese national debt.
A new generation of conventional steel wheeled Shinkansen trains FASTECH 360 with a top speed of 405 km/h and an operational speed of 360 km/h is currently under development. Production trains are expected to enter service in 2011. Regenerative braking and hybrid electric technology has been studied for use on Shinkansen trains.
[edit] Korea
Korean KTX high-speed rail, which runs on a dedicated line, became operational in April 2004, and is the second nation outside Western Europe to have high speed intercity service, after Japan. (China still doesn't have service between major cities) The maximum speed of the KTX, which derives its technology directly from France's Alstom TGV, is 300 km/h. A journey from Seoul to Daejeon that previously took around 90 to 120 minutes now takes only 49, and the time from Daejeon to Daegu (Dongdaegu St.) has been similarly reduced. Passengers can save up to 2 hours on journeys from Seoul to Busan. Since service began, there have been many complaints about the trainsets, citing general discomfort, together with seating that faces opposite the direction of travel. However, rail demand rose 25% in the second three months of service (April–June 2004). Rail revenue in general increased more than 91% from the previous year with 33% more seats offered. Recent observations indicate a growth trend and increasing public acceptance of the service. Daily ridership is now in the range of 85,000 passengers. Diversions from other modes show wide variability, according to customer surveys. KTX enticed 56% from existing rail services, 17% from air, 15% from express buses, and 12% from highways.
South Korea is credited as having developed its own high-speed rail technology thanks to another train, the HSR-350x (High Speed Rail 350x) which was built and designed independently of the KTX by South Korean engineers many years before the french technology-transfer program. [4] The train is a product of nearly 10 years of research and development by the Korean company Rotem and the National Rail Technology Institute of Korea. Called the "Korean G-7" (a direct reference to Korea's ambitions of joining the technological prowess of G-7 nations) this technology is currently in its test-run phase and is scheduled for initial passenger operation through the Seoul-to-Gwangju sector by 2007. The proposed train would run faster than the TGV, at 350 km/h as opposed to 300 km/h.[2] The Korean G-7 incorporates several technologies the French TGV doesn't, including an aluminum body, digital traffic control, and a pressure compensation system. When operational the Korean G-7 will also allow passengers to rotate their seats, giving them the choice of a forward facing or a rear facing seat, in response to the many complaints about the fixed one-directional seating arrangements on the KTX.
In July 2006, the South Korean government announced their plan to develop an upgraded version of the G-7 called HEMU(Highspeed Electric Multiple Unit-400㎞/h eXperiment) train system by 2011.
Rotem, a member of the Hyundai group, also manufactures magnetic levitation trains.[5] They were first introduced in the 1993 Daejon International Expo.
[edit] China
Shanghai Maglev Train, a turnkey Transrapid maglev project imported from Germany, is capable of an operational speed of 430 km/h and of a top speed of 501 km/h, has connected Shanghai and Pu Dong International Airport since March, 2004. Note: China still does not have high speed service between major cities, much the less well developed networks of France and Japan, but it is in the works.
China has decided to build a second Transrapid maglev rail with a length of 160 km from Shanghai to Hangzhou (Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev line). Talks with Germany and Transrapid Konsortium about the details of the construction contracts have started. On March 7th, the Chinese Minister of Transportation was quoted by several Chinese and Western newspapers as saying the line was approved. Construction will probably start towards the end of 2006 and is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2010 Shanghai Expo, becoming the first inter-city Maglev rail line in commercial service in the world.
In 2006, China has revealed a modified version of the Japanese Shinkansen E2-1000 series, it has been confirmed that an order of 60 8-car sets has been acquired, there will be 3 sets constructed and delivered by Kawasaki Heavy Industry, with the remainder to be constructed by Nanche Sifang in Qing-Tao, China.
A conventional high-speed line based on InterCity Express technology between Beijing and Tianjin is expected to open in 2007. The Beijing-Shanghai Express Railway is in an advanced phase of construction but it will only allow speeds of 200 km/h.
[edit] Taiwan
Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) is Taiwan's high-speed rail. Construction is complete, and finished with the test stage, with it already opened. It runs approximately 345 kilometers from Taipei to Kaohsiung. Adopting Japan's Shinkansen technology for the core system, the Taiwan High Speed Rail uses the 700T Series Shinkansen, produced by a consortium of Japanese companies, most notably Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Trains will travel from Taipei to Kaohsiung in roughly 90 minutes as opposed to the current 4-6 hours by conventional rail. A separate Japanese led project will link Taipei with its airport by high speed rail, groundbreaking ceremony held on September 26, 2006.
[edit] Countries planning high-speed rail
[edit] Europe
[edit] Austria
The Austrian Western Railway is being upgraded and partially rebuilt, and will in future allow the German ICE trains currently running on the line to break the 200 km/h barrier.
[edit] Russia
Track between Saint Petersburg and Moscow is being updated to allow German ICEs, bought by Russia, to reach 250 km/h (150 mph) by 2008. Construction started in 2004 and work is expected to be completed in 2008. Finland and Russia have agreed on a high speed rail line linking Helsinki and St. Petersburg with Finland's Pendolinos, time will be cut from 5.5 hrs to 3.5hrs, due to be completed in 2008.
[edit] Sweden
Sweden today runs many trains at 200 km/h, including the X2 tilting trains, widebody and double-decker regional trains, and the Arlanda Airport Express X3. The X2 runs between main cities like Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and the Arlanda Express trains run between Stockholm and Arlanda airport. Hundreds of kilometres of track are ready for 250 km/h operation, with the exception of the signalling system, catenary, and the trains. A test train, called "the Green Train" is being tested at 280 km/h. Around year 2015 a 180 km long part of the railway Stockholm-Malmö will run at 250 km/h speed. The Bothnia Railway, Botniabanan, under construction, will allow 250 km/h. [6]. The average speed of Botniabanan will be limited since it will be single track.
[edit] Switzerland
Switzerland has no high-speed trains of its own yet. French TGV and German ICE lines extend into Switzerland, but given the dense rail traffic and the short distances between Swiss cities they currently do not attain speeds higher than 160 km/h there.
The fastest Swiss trains are the ICN tilting trains, operated by the Swiss Federal Railways since May 2000 and capable of 200 km/h even on the curve-intensive Swiss network. The Cisalpino consortium owned by the Swiss Federal Railways and Trenitalia uses Pendolino tilting trains on two of its international lines.
The Rail2000 project (first stage) finished in 2005, included a new high-speed rail track between Bern and Olten with an operating speed of 200 km/h.
AlpTransit project is building faster north-south rail tracks across the Swiss Alps by constructing base tunnels several hundred metres below the level of the current tunnels. The 35 km Lötschberg Base Tunnel will open in 2007 where new Pendolino 4 trains will run at 250 km/h. The 57 km Gotthard Base Tunnel (Top speed 250 km/h) is scheduled for opening in 2015.
The second stage of Rail2000 includes line upgrades in canton Valais (200 km/h) and betweend Biel and Solothurn (200 km/h). Start of work is 2012.
[edit] Turkey
- For more details on this topic, see High-speed rail in Turkey.
Turkey has started building high-speed rail lines in 2003. The first line, from İstanbul (Turkey's largest city) via Eskişehir to Ankara (capital of Turkey), is under construction and will open in 2007 reducing the traveling time from 6–7 hours to 3 hours 10 minutes. The Ankara - Konya line began construction in 2006. A travel time of 70 minutes is foreseen for this track. Several other lines between major cities such as Ankara - Afyon - Uşak - İzmir, Ankara - Yozgat - Sivas, İstanbul - Bursa, İstanbul - Kapıkule (Bulgarian border) are planned to be built in coming years. The commercial high speed trains are expected to reach a top speed of 250-300 km/h (150-200 mph). The first 10 high speed train sets are ordered from CAF company, Spain. For further sets to be used in new planned tracks and the current ones under construction, a joint enterprise between Korean ROTEM and Turkish TÜVASAŞ had been established, and a factory in Adapazarı,Sakarya Province had been founded.
[edit] North America
[edit] Canada
Main Article: High-speed rail in Canada
High-speed rail in Canada is more a case of hope than reality. Canada placed some early hopes with the United Aircraft Turbo train, in the 1960s. The train sets achieved speeds as high as 200 km/h in regular service, but for most of its service life (marred with lengthy interruptions to address design problems), it ran at a more realistic 160 km/h.
Beginning in the 1970s, a consortium of several companies started to study the Bombardier LRC, which was a more conventional approach to high-speed rail, in having separate cars rather than being an articulated train. Pulled by heavy conventional-technology diesel-electric locomotives designed for 200 km/h normal operating speed, it entered full-scale service in 1981 for VIA Rail, linking cities in the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor, but at speeds never exceeding the 170 km/h limit mandated by line signalling.
In 1998, the Lynx consortium, including Bombardier and SNC-Lavalin proposed a 300 km/h high-speed train named the Jet-Train from Toronto to Quebec City via Montreal based on the TGV and the french Turbo-Train technology. Recently, Bombardier and VIA have proposed high-speed services along the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor using Bombardier's experimental JetTrain tilting trains, which are similar to Bombardier's Acela Express, but powered by a small jet engine rather than overhead electric wires. These trains ressemble the first TGV prototype (TGV001) powered by a gas turbine that were tested on the Strasbourg-Mulhouse line. As yet, no government support for this plan has been forthcoming, and Bombardier continues promoting the JetTrain especially for Texas and Florida routes.
Bombardier has also recently promoted high-speed rail in the province of Alberta between Edmonton and Calgary. On September 22nd 2006 it was announced the Provincial government was deploying video cameras along a stretch of the Queen Elizabeth II Highway as to help determine the merits of building the Calgary/Red Deer/Edmonton link. Further driver surveys will better help understand the nature of the 50,000 car trips between the 3 cities [7].
[edit] United States
The United States placed some early hopes in high-speed trains with the Acela, Acela runs at between 75 mph (120 km/h) and 150 mph (241 km/h),
Acela Express (often called simply Acela, leading to early confusion with the Acela Regional and Acela Commuter) is the name used by Amtrak for the high-speed tilting train service operating between Washington, D.C. and Boston via New York City and Philadelphia along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) in the Northeast United States. The tilting design allows the train to travel at higher speeds on the sharply curved NEC without disturbing passengers by lowering lateral G-forces. Acela Express trains are the only true high-speed trainsets in the United States. This has made the trains very popular, and by some reckoning, Amtrak has captured over half of the market share of travelers between Washington and New York.[3] Outside of stations, Acela runs at between 75 mph (120 km/h) and 150 mph (241 km/h), depending on track conditions.
It is possible to trace the development of high-speed railways back to the streamliners that criss-crossed the U.S. in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s which, in turn, can be traced further back to the competing companies operating different routes between London and Scotland, and to railways in Germany and France. There has been a resurgence of interest in recent decades, with many plans being examined for high-speed rail across the country, relegated to Amtrak's Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C. (the service covers New York City and Philadelphia).
In 2002, the Texas High Speed Rail & Transportation Corporation [8] (THSRTC), a grass roots organization dedicated to bringing high speed rail to Texas was established. In 2006 American Airlines and Continental Airlines formally joined THSRTC, in a effort to bring high speed rail to Texas as a passenger collector system for the airlines.
The California High Speed Rail Authority was created in 1996 by the state to implement an extensive 700 mile (1127 km) rail system. Construction is pending approval of the voters during the November 2008 general election, in which a $9 billion state bond would have to be approved. If built, the system would provide a TGV-style high-speed link between the state's four major cities, and would allow travel between Los Angeles' Union Station and San Francisco's Transbay Terminal in two and one half hours!
[edit] Mexico
High-speed rail in Mexico is more a case of hope than reality as there is lack of political will and financial backing. After technical and economic evaluation involving nine companies of international experience with high-speed trains like lena, the French company Systra will be the consulting company to advise the Secretariat of Communication and Transportation of Mexico on the process of elaboration of the Basis of Auction for the Mexico City–Querétaro–Irapuato–Guadalajara high-speed train service. The auction is to take place in the administration of the new elected president Felipe Calderón. The estimate cost for this project is about $12 billion according to the SCT.
[edit] South America
[edit] Argentina
In 2006, authorities announced plans for a high speed line between Retiro station in Buenos Aires and the city of Rosario, with a lower-speed extension to the city of Córdoba. Work is projected to begin in 2007 [9].
[edit] Brazil
Bids are expected to be invited soon for a standard-gauge high-speed (280 km/h) line linking Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The line would be more than 400 km long, and could partly follow existing rights of way. It would cost about $US 8 billion. Preliminary designs have already been completed by Odebrecht, Brazil; Siemens, Germany; and Italplan, Italy. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BQQ/is_2_46/ai_n16070991
[edit] Australia
Australia has no high-speed trains. The Transwa Prospector operating between Perth and Kalgoorlie is capable of reaching 210 km/h however operates at 160 km/h due to poor track conditions. Queensland Rail's electric Tilt Train between Brisbane, Rockhampton and Cairns is believed to be the fastest narrow-gauge railway in the world at record breaking speeds of 210 km/h (130.4 mph). The service to Cairns is a diesel tilt train, as the line is not electrified.
The development of Australia's railways has always been hampered by the country's low population density; it has a population comparable to a small European country such as the Netherlands yet occupies an area only slightly smaller than the mainland United States. With the consequent deregulation and intense competition in the domestic airline industry, the cheapest method of travel between the major population centres is by air. While car fuel is not taxed as lightly as in the United States, it is still much less expensive than in European nations, which greatly reduces the appeal of train travel and the hope of significant expansions in the near future.
There have, however, been discussions of a high-speed railway between Sydney and Canberra, which could ultimately expand into a corridor extended from Sydney to Brisbane and from Canberra to Melbourne and Adelaide. [10]
For a history of high-speed rail proposals and discussions in Australia, see [11]
[edit] Asia
[edit] Pakistan
The cities of Rawalpindi and Lahore will be getting an upgrade to a high speed rail track with trains reaching speeds upto 200 km/h. Currently this track is capable of reaching a top speed of 100 km/h. A direct train between Lahore and Karachi will commence operations from July 26th 2006 and will reach a top speed of 140 km/h and will be equipped with VHF walkie-talkies. Pakistan railways have laid all welded new and heavier rails fixed with latest fastenings to upgrade the back. Currently, the government is in negotiations with German companies to start bullet trains for the Lahore-Karachi and Karchi-Islamabad route.
[edit] Israel
A new high-speed rail line between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, cutting travel time between the two cities to 28 minutes (currently about 75 minutes), is under construction by Israel Railways and expected to begin service in 2011. In addition, the entire railway system is currently undergoing extensive upgrades and electrification, so that by early in the next decade, all three major metropolitan areas (Haifa, Jerusalem, and Beer Sheva) which are located outside the center of the country will be reachable within about thirty to forty minutes of Tel Aviv.
[edit] India
Some projects have been developed within medium and long-term time frames. They include lines radiating from New Delhi to Amritsar, Jaipur, Agra (Taj Mahal), and Kanpur; Mumbai to Ahmedabad; Calcutta to Dhanbad; Chennai to Bangalore and Mysore; and Chennai to Hyderabad, Vijayawada, and Visakhapatnam. These 'Shatabdi'-class trains are usually non-stop and can reach a maximum speed of 140 km/h, thus higher speed but not "high speed rail".
[edit] Iran
There is one high-speed rail line project in Iran between Tehran and Isfahan, as well as Gorgan to Mashhad and Qom to Tehran.
[edit] Malaysia-Singapore
There is a bullet train project at 300 km/h proposed to link Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, proposed by current high(er) speed rail (160 km/h) operator KLIA Express YTL, which links Kuala Lumpur with the KLIA. Travel time -90 Minutes, as compared to 4 hours of highway drive, 7 hours currently by standard rail, 2 hours of flight including commuting to and from airport, check in and boarding. It would be the first international line outside of Europe if built. Talks of a Bangkok Singapore line spanning the 3 nations have been suggested previously, though no action has been taken.
[edit] Saudi Arabia
A high speed rail project is under study from Mecca to Medina through Jeddah. Project page is here.
[edit] Vietnam
The Vietnam Railways Corporation is preparing for construction of four express rail lines costing US$30.86bil with completion scheduled for 2015. Construction will be conducted in several phases, including the 280 km Hanoi – Vinh route at a cost of $10.36bil, 400 km Nha Trang – HCM City worth $14.8bil, 100 km HCM City – Vung Tau City at $3.7bil; and 100 km Hanoi – Hai Phong at $2bil. As of 2016, the corporation will consider construction of other rail lines, including Vinh City – Nha Trang, HCM City – Can Tho and Hanoi – Lang Son. Those modern railway routes will be the 1.435 m wide instead of the current 1 m, enabling bullet trains to run from 160 to 300 km per hour. [12]
[edit] Africa
[edit] South Africa
South Africa's 80 km Gautrain is expected to run 180 km/h in 2010 and could be upgraded later 20 km/h faster to become "high speed".
[edit] Morocco
Work by ONCF could begin in 2007 from Marrakech to Tangier in the north via Marrakesh to Agadir in the south, and from Casablanca on the Atlantic to Oujda on the Algerian border. If the plans are approved, the 1,500 kilometres of track may take until 2030 to complete at a cost of around 25 billion dirhams ($2.87 billion). Casablanca to Marrakesh could be cut to 1 hour and 20 minutes from over three hours, and from the capital Rabat to Tangier to 1 hour and 30 minutes from 4 hours and 30 minutes. [13]
[edit] Technology
Much of the technology behind high-speed rail is an improved application of existing technology. By building a new rail infrastructure with 20th century engineering, including elimination of constrictions such as roadway at-grade (level) crossings, frequent stops, a succession of curves and reverse curves, and not sharing the right-of-way with freight or slower passenger trains, higher speeds (250–300 km/h) are maintained. The record speed of 515 km/h is held by a shortened TGV train. The French TGV routes typically combine some sections of older track, on which they run at standard speeds, with segments on new track to provide an overall high-speed, one-seat journey to many destinations.
In France, the cost of construction is minimised by adopting steeper grades rather than building tunnels and viaducts. Because the lines are dedicated to passengers, grades of 3.5%, rather than the previous maximum of 1–1.5% for mixed traffic, are used. Possibly more expensive land is acquired in order to build straighter lines which minimize line construction as well as operating and maintenance costs. In other countries high-speed rail was built without those economies so that the railway can also support other traffic, such as freight. Experience has shown however, that trains of significantly different speeds cause massive decreases of line capacity. As a result, mixed-traffic lines are usually reserved for high-speed passenger trains during the daytime, while freight trains go at night. In some cases, nighttime high-speed trains are even diverted to lower speed lines in favor of freight traffic.
In mountainous Japan, most of the costs of high speed rail extension involve blasting tunnels through mountains, not core technology or right of way itself.
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ US Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy : "Fact #257: March 3, 2003 - Vehicle Occupancy by Type of Vehicle"
- ^ http://www.cityglance.org/asia/korea/trains/main.shtml
- ^ Goldberg, Bruce. "Metroliner's Amazing Rave." Trains. 2006(June):53.
[edit] See also
- Aérotrain
- Ground effect train
- Land speed record for railed vehicles
- Magnetic levitation train
- Megaproject
[edit] Further reading
- Hood, Christopher P. (2006). Shinkansen – From Bullet Train to Symbol of Modern Japan. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-32052-6.
[edit] External links
- Transrapid – Maglev: High-Speed in Asia (China, Shanghai), Japan (Yamanashi) and Germany (Munich; TVE)
- High Speed Maglev, International
- California High-Speed Rail Authority
- Treno alta velocità (TAV)
- High Speed Maglev Forum
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High-speed rail
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High-speed trains: Acela Express • AVE • Eurostar • InterCityExpress • JR-Maglev MLX01 • HST • HSR-350x • Korea Train Express |
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| High-speed lines: Beijing-Tianjin • Channel Tunnel Rail Link (London-Channel Tunnel) • Cologne-Aachen • Cologne-Frankfurt • French LGV lines Hanover-Würzburg • Northeast Corridor (Boston-Washington DC) • HSL 1 (Brussels-Paris) • HSL 2 (Leuven-Ans) HSL 3 (Liège-Aachen) • HSL 4 (Brussels-Netherlands) • HSL-Zuid (Netherlands) |
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By country: Canada • France • Taiwan • Turkey • United Kingdom • United States (CA · FL · NY · TX · Midwest · Southeast) • Venezuela (Ezequiel Zamora System) |
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