User:FlyAkwa/hsr

High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than traditional rail traffic. As of 2012 the maximum commercial speed was about 300 km/h for the majority of installed systems (China, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, UK), 310 km/h in Spain and 320 km/h in France. The Shanghai Maglev Train reaches 431 km/h.

High-speed trains travel at their maximum speed on specific tracks, almost all using conventional tracks, generally using standard gauge (except in countries like Russia, Finland and Mongolia, which continue to use Russian gauge), whilst avoiding at-grade crossings and minimizing curvature of the right-of-way.

The world speed record for conventional high-speed rail is held by the V150, a specially configured and heavily-modified version of Alstom's TGV which clocked 574.8 km/h on a test run. The world speed record for Maglev is held by the Japanese experimental MLX01: 581 km/h.

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

The world's longest high-speed line opened in China on 26 December 2012. It runs 2,298 kilometers (1,428 miles) from the capital Beijing in the north to Guangzhou in the South.

Definitions
Multiple definitions for high-speed rail are in use worldwide.


 * The European Union EC Directive 96/58/EC Appendix 1 define High-Speed rail as a set of 3 elements with precise criteria :
 * - 1. The infrastructure : those built specially for High Speed travel or those specially upgraded for High Speed travel.
 * - 2. The Rolling Stock : It must run at a speed of at least 250 km/h on lines specially built for High Speed, and at a speed of the order of 200 km/h on existing lines which have been specially upgraded.
 * - 3. Compatibility of infrastructure and rolling stock : The rolling stock must be designed along its infrastructure for a complete compatibility, safety and quality of service.


 * The International Union of Railways (UIC) prefers to use "definitions" (plural) because they considers there is no single standard definition of high speed rail, nor even a standard usage of the term ("high speed", or "very high speed"). They reuse the European EC Directive 96/58, insisting that high speed is a combination of all the elements which constitute the “system” : infrastructure, rolling stock and operating conditions.


 * In the United States, different administrations uses different definitions :
 * - The United States Code defines high-speed rail as services "reasonably expected to reach sustained speeds of more than 125 mph",
 * - The Federal Railroad Administration uses a definition of top speeds at 90 mph and above.
 * - And the Congressional Research Service uses the term "higher speed rail" for speeds up to 150 mph and "very high speed rail" for the rail on dedicated tracks with speeds over 150 mph.

It must be noted, as the UIC insists, that the High-Speed rail is a set, with unique features : so, many conventionally-hauled trains, everywhere in the world, are able to reach 200 km/h in commercial service, but are not considered to be high-speed trains, such as the French SNCF Intercités or German DB IC.

History
See chronology in appendix

The ancestor
Railways were the first form of mass transportation and had an effective monopoly until the development of the motorcar in the early 20th century.

High-speed rail development started on 6 October 1903 : an electrical railcar from AEG and Siemens & Halske achieved 203 km/h on the military railway track between Marienfeld and Zossen in Germany, showing that electric high-speed rail was possible.

For scheduled trains, however, high speed rail travel was still more than 30 years later.

The early German high-speed network
On 15 May 1933, the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft company introduced the diesel-powered "Fliegender Hamburger" in regular service between Hamburg in Berlin, thereby establishing the fastest regular service in the world, with a regular top speed of 160 km/h. This train was a streamlined multi-powered unit, albeit diesel, and used Jakobs bogies some 47 years before the advent of the TGV.

Following the success of the Hamburg line, the steam-powered Henschel-Wegmann Train was developed and introduced in June 1936 for service from Berlin to Dresden, with a regular top speed of 160 km/h (100 mph). Further development allowed the usage of these "Fliegenden Züge" (flying trains) on a rail network across Germany. The "Diesel-Schnelltriebwagen-Netz" had been in the planning since 1934 but it never reach its envisaged size.

And in August 1939, shortly before the breakout of the war, all high speed service stopped.

The 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 200 km/h, between Bologna and Naples. It too reached 160 km/h in commercial service, and achieved a world mean speed record of 203 km/h (126 mph) near Milan in 1938.

In Great Britain in the same year, the streamlined steam locomotive Mallard achieved the official world speed record for steam locomotives at 125.88 mph. The external combustion engines and boilers on steam locomotives were large, heavy and time consuming to maintain, and the days of steam for high speed were numbered.

The birth of Talgo system
In 1945 a Spanish engineer, Alejandro Goicoechea, developed a streamlined articulated train 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 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 becomes famous under the name of Talgo (Tren Articulado Ligero Goicoechea Oriol), and is today the main Spanish provider of high-speed trains.

The first very-high-speed records


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 very high speeds. In 1954, the CC 7121 hauling a full train achieved a record 243 km/h during a test on standard track. The next year, two specially tuned electric locomotives, the CC 7107 and the prototype BB 9001, broke previous speed records, reaching respectively 320 km/h and 331 km/h, again on standard track. For the first time, the 300 km/h was surpassed, allowing the idea of feasibility of very high-speed services.

New engineering studies began for this purpose. Especially, during the 1955 records, very dangerous hunting oscillation, the swaying of the bogies which at high speed leads to dynamic instability and potential derailment, were discovered, and led to the use of yaw dampers to solve this problem, enabling safe running speeds above 300 km/h today. Important researches was also to made about "current harnessing" at high-speed by the pantographs, that were solved 20 years later by the Zébulon TGV's prototype.

Japanese research and development
If the French records don't have immediate continuation in Europe, they will inspire another country : with some 45 million people living in the densely populated Tokyo-to-Osaka corridor, congestion on road and rail became a serious problem after World War II, and Japanese were thinking seriously about a new high speed rail service. Japan in the 1950s was a crowded, 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 (JNR) engineers then began to study the development of a high-speed regular mass service. In 1955, they were present in France at the Lille's Electrotechnology Congress, and during a 6-month visit, the lead engineer of JNR was beside the deputy director Marcel Tessier at the DETE (SNCF Electric traction study department). JNR engineers came back to Japan with many ideas and technologies they would use on their future trains: 50 Hz alternating current for rail traction, international standard gauge, and others.

The first narrow-gauge Japanese high-speed service
In 1957, the engineers at local private Odakyu Electric Railway in Greater Tokyo area launched the Odakyū 3000 series SE EMU. This EMU set a world record for narrow gauge trains at 145 km/h, giving the Odakyu engineers confidence they could safely and reliably build even faster trains at standard gauge. The classic Japanese railroad used narrow gauge, which is unsuitable for very high-speed rail, thus standard gauge would be used for high-speed service.

A new train on a new line
The new service, named Shinkansen (meaning new trunk line) would run on new, much wider standard gauge, continuously-welded rails between Tokyo and Osaka using new rolling stock, designed for 250 km/h. However, the World Bank, supporting the project, considered the low quality of the equipment, and set the maximum speed to 210 km/h.

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, tests runs hit a top speed of 256 km/h. Five years after the beginning of the construction work, in October 1964, just in time for the Olympic Games, the first modern high speed rail, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, was opened between the two cities.

The first Shinkansen trains, the 0 Series Shinkansen, built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries&mdash;in English often called "Bullet Trains", after the original Japanese name Dangan Ressha (弾丸列車)&mdash;outclassed the earlier fast trains in commercial service. They ran the 515 km distance in 3 hours 10 minutes, reaching a top speed of 210 km/h and sustaining an average speed of 162.8 km/h with stops at Nagoya and Kyoto.

A great success
But the speed was 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.

Revival in Europe




A first demonstration at 200 km/h
In Europe, high-speed rail began during the International Transport Fair in Munich in June 1965, when Dr Öpfering, the director of Deutsche Bundesbahn (German Federal Railways), performed 347 demonstrations at 200 km/h between Munich and Augsburg by DB Class 103 hauled trains.

The same year, in France, the engineer Jean Bertin created the Aérotrain, a hovercraft monorail train, and built the first prototype, supported by the French Land Settlement Commission (DATAR). The prototype reached 200 km/h within days of opening.

First at 200 km/h : The Capitole
After the success of the Japanese Shinkansen in 1964, at 210 km/h, the German demonstrations up to 200 km/h in 1965, and the proof-of-concept jet-powered Aérotrain, the SNCF still ran its fastest trains at only 160 km/h. In 1966, the new French Infrastructure Minister, Edgard Pisani, consulted engineers, and gave the French National Railways one year to raise speeds to 200 km/h. The classic line Paris-Toulouse was chosen, and fitted, to support 200 km/h rather than 140 km/h. 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, the first regular service in the world at 200 km/h by a classic train was inaugurated by the TEE "Le Capitole" between Paris and Toulouse, with specially-adapted SNCF Class BB 9200 locomotives hauling classic UIC cars, and a full red livery.

At the same time, the Aérotrain prototype 02 reached 345 km/h on a half-scale experimental track. In 1969, it achieved 422 km/h on the same track. On 5 March 1974, the full-scale commercial prototype Aérotrain I80HV, jet powered, reached 430 km/h.

The HST : a diesel high-speed train at 200 km/h
Great Britain followed Japan and France in 1976 with the introduction by British Rail of a new high-speed service, able to reach 200 km/h, hauled by the diesel-electric train sets InterCity 125, under the brand name of High Speed Train (HST). It was the fastest diesel-powered train in regular service in the world, and it outclassed its 100 mph forerunners, in speed and acceleration.

Like the Shinkansen, and future TGV, the train was built 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, sometimes by an hour on the East Coast Main Line, and passenger numbers soared.

The Europe at 200 km/h
The next year, in 1977, Germany finally introduced a new service at 200 km/h, on the Munich-Augsburg line. That same year, Italy inaugurated the first European High-Speed line, the Direttissima between Roma and Florence, designed for 250 km/h, but used by FS E444 hauled train at 200 km/h. This year also saw the abandonment for political reasons of the Aérotrain project, in favour of the TGV.

The French TGV




Actives researches
Following the 1955 records, two divisions of the SNCF began to study high speed services. In 1964, the DETMT (petrol-engine traction studies department of SNCF) planed the use of gas turbine : a diesel-powered railcar is modified with a gas-turbin, and is called "TGV" (Turbotrain Grande Vitesse). It reached 230 km/h in 1967, and served as a basis for the futur Turbotrain and the real TGV.

In the same time, the new "SNCF Research Department", created in 1966, was studying some projects, especially a project code-named "C03" : "Railways possibilities on new infrastructure (tracks)".

The gas-turbine
In 1969, the "C03 project" is transferred to the public administration while a contract with Alsthom is ratified for the building of two gas-turbine high-speed train prototypes, that will be named "TGV 001".

The prototype consisted of an undividable set of 5 cars and 2 power-cars at both end, each power-car powered by two gas-turbine engine. The notable particularity of the set is the use of Jakobs bogies, shared by two cars, that reduce drag and increase safety.

The next year, in 1970, the DETMT's Turbotrain, gas-turbine powered multiple-elements, designed for 200 km/h but used at 160 km/h began operations on Paris-Cherbourg line. It allowed to experiment future TGV services, especially regular high rate schedules, shuttle services, etc.

The C03 Project
In 1971, the "C03" project, now known as "TGV Sud-Est", is validated by the government, against the 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 the conventional rail. The "C03 project" projected the building a new High-Speed line between Paris and Lyon, with a new multi-powered-elements train running at 260 km/h. Indeed, at that time, the classic Paris-Lyon line is already heavily saturated, a new line is required, and this very loaded corridor, not too short (where car is preferred) nor too long (where planes are better), is the best choice for the new service.

Turnaround : electricity
The 1973 oil shock increase substantially the 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. Because of this new orientation, an electric railcar is heavily tuned for testings at very high speeds. Named Zébulon, it reached 306 km/h, and, among other, allowed the creation of pantographs sustaining over 300 km/h.

The TGV : the first service above 250 km/h
After intensive tests with the gas-turbine "TGV 001" prototype, and the electric "Zébulon", in 1977, the SNCF placed an order to the group Alsthom-Francorail-MTE for 87 TGV Sud-Est trainsets. This definitive train reuse the "TGV 001" concept, with an undividable set of 8 cars, sharing "Jakobs bogies", and hauled by 2 electric power-cars at each end.

In 1981, the first section of the new Paris-Lyon High-Speed line is inaugurated, with a 260 km/h top speed (then 270 km/h soon after).

A new step in high-speed rail
The new service, following the great advance of the Shinkansen, is another step in High-Speed rail. With a far greater top speed, a new totals dedicated high-speed line, and a complete compatibility with existing old network, the TGV offers the ability to join every cities in the country, using alternatively standard and high-speed line, in a shorter time than ever. After the introduction of the TGV on some routes, air traffic on these routes decreased, or even disappeared.

Equally, the TGV marked the history by its multiples very mediatised speed records : in 1981 with a record at 380 km/h, in 1990 at 515 km/h, and then in 2007 at 574 km/h.

Europe
Following the French TGV, Germany was the second country in the World to inaugurate a modern very High-Speed rail service, with the launch of the InterCity Express (ICE), on the new Hannover-Würzburg High Speed Line, with a top speed of 280 km/h. The German ICE was a set like the TGV, with dedicated streamlined motor cars at both ends, and a variable number of trailers between them. Unlike the TGV, the trailers had classically two bogies and can be de-accoupled, allowing the train to be stretched or reduced. This introduction in the result of ten years of studies with the ICE-V prototype, who broke the World Speed Record in 1988, reaching 406 km/h.

At its turn, the Spain’s first high speed line opened in 1992 between Madrid and Seville.

USA
As early as 1993, in USA, regarding the successes of high-speed rail in Europe, and in an attempt to develop trains service upon airlines services, Amtrak began studying a high-speed service in the Northeast Corridor, linking Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington DC. Some existing trains (Swedish X 2000, German ICE 1, Spanish Talgo) were tested, but finally, a new train was ordered, derived from the TGV and the LRC, and built by Alstom and Bombardier. The new service was named "Acela Express" and unveiled in 1999.

Unlike other high-speed rail, the Acela lacked dedicated lines, and ran on classic lines partially fitted out, with a relatively low maximum speed of 240 km/h, and only on very small sections. For the same reason, the train was able to tilt in curves, to maintain an acceptable speed. The service was inaugurated in December 2000, and was an immediate success. As of 2010, it is one of the few Amtrak lines to operate at a profit.

The first High-Speed disaster
In 1998, after over thirty years of high speed rail operations in the world without fatal accidents, the Eschede disaster occurred: a poorly designed German ICE 1 wheel broke at 200 km/h near Eschede, resulting in the derailment and destruction of the full set of 16 cars.

The South Korean KTX
For several decades 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.

In South Korea, Korea Train Express (KTX) services were launched on 1 April 2004, on the Seoul-Busan corridor, which is Korea's main traffic corridor. 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.

After missing forecasts and running deficits in the first year, KTX increased ridership and market share, transporting over 100,000 passengers daily and making a profit for Korail since 2007. The system's technology is largely based on the French TGV/LGV system, but domestic development based on transferred technology began early.

The Chinese CRH
State planning for China high speed railway began in the early 1990s, and the country started construction of its first high speed rail line, the Qinhuangdao–Shenyang Passenger Railway, in 1999, which subsequently opened in 2003 with a design speed of 200 km/h.

The original goal of the Chinese Ministry of Railways (MOR) was to research and develop domestic technology to reach a world standard. The new high speed rail line was used to test several Chinese developed prototypes. Although they where successful at creating a train set that operated at 300 km/h, the trains performed poorly in regular service. Realizing that domestic high speed technology is not sufficiently developed, MOR acquired high speed trains from French, German, and Japanese manufactures and used technology transfers to improve its ability to build high speed trains. Finally in 2007 the first high speed service using foreign high speed trains, called China Railways Highspeed (CRH) or "和谐号" (lit. Harmony) was introduced.

In 2008, the China opened the "Wuhan – Guangzhou" high-speed line at 350 km/h, the first at that speed. Until july 2011, and the Wenzhou disaster followed by lowering of maximum speed, it was the fastest line in the World.

As of 2011, China has the world’s longest high-speed rail network with about 8,358 km of routes and is still aggressively expanding to create the 4+4 National High Speed Rail Grid by 2015. On 25 December 2012, China opened the world's longest high-speed rail line, which runs 2,100 kilometers (1,300 miles) from the country's capital in the north to Guangzhou.

Taiwan
Taiwan’s first and only HSR line opened for service on 5 January 2007, using Japanese trains with a top speed of 300 km/h (186 mph). operated by Taiwan High Speed Rail, the service offers journey times from Taipei to Kaohsiung in as short as 96 minutes. Once THSR began operations, almost all passengers switched from airlines flying parallel routes while road traffic was also impacted.

The Wenzhou disaster
Following the Eschede train disaster, 12 years later, on 23 July 2011, a Chinese CRH2 traveling at 250 km/h hits a CRH1 stoppedon a viaduct in the suburbs of Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, China. The two trains derailed each other, and four cars fell off the viaduct.

The disaster led to a number of changes in management and exploitation of high-speed rail in China. One of the major changes was the lowering by 50 km/h of all maximum speed in China HST, the 350 becoming 300 km/h, 250 to 200, 200 to 160.

Dedicated tracks
As defined by Europe and UIC, generally the high-speed rail is a set including a high-speed rolling-stock and a dedicated high-speed line.

Japan was the first nation to build a totally new and dedicated lines and network for its Shinkansen. It was followed by France, then Germany, Spain, etc. Most today countries with high-speed rail have dedicated high-speed tracks. Notable exceptions are USA and Russia.

In certain cases, in particular in England for the 1970's HST and in China recently, classic old lines are upgraded to support new high-speed, often up to 200 km/h.

For unconventional trains, such as Aérotrains and Maglev, the use of viaducts dedicated tracks is implicit.

Tracks design
Continuous welded rail is generally used to reduces track vibrations and misalignment. Almost all high-speed line is electrically driven via overhead lines, have in-cab signalling, and use advanced switches using very low entry and frog angles.

Constrictions such as at-grade crossings where lines intersect other lines and/or roadways are eliminated. For this purpose, Japan and China typically build their high-speed lines on elevated viaducts, allowing high-speed with safety and and lower cost.

High-speed line also avoid curves and reverse curves. Curve radius is typically above 4.5 km, and for lines capable of 350 km/h running, typically at 7 to 9 km.

The line may rest on traditional sleeper and ballast (such as French high-speed lines and derived), or on concrete tiles (such as German and Chinese high-speed lines).

To avoid any obstacle, trees are suppressed in a large area around the line, and fences prevent animal or human to walk across the tracks.

Road-rail parallel layout
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.

Tracks sharing
High-speed lines may be exclusive or open to standard speed trains.


 * In Japan, high-speed Shinkansen lines use standard gauge track rather than the narrow gauge track used on most other Japanese lines.
 * In France, high-speed lines use standard gauge like the rest of the network, but are used only by passenger TGV, and by the Postal TGV.
 * In Germany, high-speed lines are shared between ICE, international high speed trains, regional trains and freight trains.
 * In China, high-speed lines at speeds between 200 and 250 km/h may carry freight or passengers., Lines operating at speeds of 300 km/h are used only by passenger CRH trains.

Construction costs
Japanese systems are often more expensive than their counterparts, because they run on dedicated elevated guideways, avoid traffic crossings and incorporate disaster monitoring systems. The largest part of Japan's cost is for boring tunnels through mountains, as was also true in Taiwan.

In France, the cost of construction (which was €10 million/km (US$15.1 million/km) for LGV Est) is minimized by adopting steeper grades rather than building tunnels and viaducts. However, in mountainous Switzerland, tunnels are inevitable. Because the lines are dedicated to passengers, gradients of 3.5%, rather than the previous maximum of 1–1.5% for mixed traffic, are used. More expensive land may be required in order to minimize curves. This increases speed, reduces construction costs and lowers 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 running trains of significantly different speeds on one line substantially decreases capacity. As a result, mixed-traffic lines usually reserve daytime for high-speed trains and run freight at night. In some cases, night-time high-speed trains are diverted to lower speed lines in favour of freight traffic.

Train engineering
Key technologies include tilting trainsets, aerodynamic designs (to reduce drag, lift, and noise), air brakes, regenerative braking, engine technology and dynamic weight shifting.

Some of the advances addressed problems, such as the Eschede disaster.

Advantages
The initial impetus for the introduction of high speed rail was the need for additional capacity to meet increasing demand for passenger rail travel. Urban density and mass transit have been key factors in the success of European and Japanese railway transport, especially in countries such as Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and France.

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 or other fossil fuels but the power stations that provide electric trains with power can consume fossil fuels. In Japan and France, with very extensive high speed rail networks, a large proportion of electricity comes from nuclear power. On the Eurostar, which primarily runs off the French grid, emissions from travelling by train from London to Paris are 90% lower than by flying. Even using electricity generated from coal or oil, high speed trains are significantly more fuel-efficient per passenger per kilometer traveled than the typical automobile because of economies of scale in generator technology. Rail networks, like highways, require large fixed capital investments and thus require a blend of high density and government investment to be competitive against existing capital infrastructure.

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, when using non-grade level track.

Comparison with other modes of transport
HSR, like any transport system, is not inherently convenient, fast, clean, or comfortable. All of this depends on design, implementation, maintenance, operation and funding. Operational smoothness is often more indicative of organizational discipline than technological prowess.

Existing infrastructure constrains the growth of the highway and air travel systems. When other modes cannot expand, HSR may possibly provide a feasible alternative. For example, a double-decked E4 Series Shinkansen can carry 1,634 seated passengers, double the capacity of an Airbus A380 (world's largest passenger plane) in economy class, and more if standing passengers are allowed. HSR systems are more environmentally friendly than air or road travel, given their higher fuel efficiency per passenger-kilometer and reduced land use.

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 far from city centres.

HSR is best suited for journeys of 2 to 3 hours (about 250 - 900 km), for which the train can beat air and car trip time. For trips under about 650 km, the process of checking in and going through security screening at airports, as well as traveling to and from the airport, makes the total air journey time no faster than HSR. European authorities treat HSR as competitive with passenger air for trips under 4 to 4½ hours. If the train stops at an airport then combining a short HSR ride with a long airplane ride can reduce total trip time over flying on both legs. Airplane tickets can include a train segment, including rebooking missed connections.

Part of HSR's edge can be ticket prices. As an example, in 2009 the 520 km flight from Nanjing to Wuhan cost 730 yuan, while bullet trains beginning service that year offered second-class tickets for 180 yuan.

HSR offers greater convenience for medium-distance journeys. HSR does not require baggage to be checked, does not require queuing for check-in, security and boarding, and is rarely delayed by inclement weather. HSR has more amenities, such as continuous mobile phone/Internet connectivity, larger tables, 120/220/12 volt power outlets and superior food service.

HSR eliminated air transport from between city pairs including Paris-Brussels, Cologne-Frankfurt, 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 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 400 km and more – perhaps because cars and buses are far more flexible than planes. TGV Sud-Est reduced the travel time Paris–Lyon from almost four to about two hours. Market share rose from 49 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 formula


 * $$s = {1 \over 0.031 \times 1.016^t + 1}$$

According to this formula, a journey time of three hours yields 65% market share. However, market shares are also influenced by ticket prices. Some air carriers regained market shares by slashing prices.

In the US Northeast Corridor, the rail market share at 47% between New York and Washington is lower than the formula indicates, even though the journey time is only about 2h 45min.

Automobile 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 road if going to the same destination. However, HSR can be competitive with cars on shorter distances, 50 - 150 km, for example for commuting, given road congestion or expensive parking fees.

Moreover, 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 runs 15 trains per hour and 800 passengers per train, totaling 12,000 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 kilometer 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.

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

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

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

A single train can accommodate multiple itineraries. Matching that flexibility with a plane requires intermediate stops that drastically increase air travel times relative to HSR.

Maximum speed
See Records in trial runs in appendix



Records nourish the pride of nations, and high-speed rail is not exception to the rule. There is an open competition between countries to obtains and hold any records, such as maximum speed, operating speed, longest network, etc. Some nations can even use high-speed rail for their propaganda.

There are many "maximum speed" cases :


 * 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 a specially modified train is proved to be capable of running.

Maximum speed and Operated speed
It appears there is often discordance between claimed maximum speed and real operated speed. For example, the German ICE 3 is authorized for 330 km/h, while there is no high-speed line at this speed in Germany, nor in Europe (the ICE 3 runs at 320 km/h on French high-speed lines).

Indeed, the maximum speed is often limited by the high-speed line, safety and cost considerations, rather by the performances of the rolling stock.

There is also a commercial aspect : currently, manufacturers announce very high maximum speed that are never used. So, in China, many trains are theoretically authorized at 350 km/h and even 380 km/h, but runs only at 300 km/h. The last Alsthom AGV and Bombardier Zefiro are also announced for 360 and 380 km/h, but will only run at 300 km/h.

Absolute Speed record
The speeds reached by TGV and Maglev are not necessarily suitable for passenger operations as there are concerns such as noise, costs, deceleration time in an emergency, wear and tear, etc.

Conventional rail
Since the 1955 record, France has nearly continuously held the absolute world speed record. The last record is hold by SNCF TGV POS trainset, reaching 574.8 km/h in 2007, on the new "LGV-Est" high-speed line. This run was for proof of concept and engineering, not to test normal passenger service.

Unlike the unconventional records, the TGV records have been made by heavily tuned trains, but that are really operational and in commercial service.

Unconventional rail
Speed record for experimental unconventional passenger train was set by the manned "magnetic-levitation" train JR-Maglev MLX01 at 581 km/h in 2003.

The record for railed vehicles is 10325 km/h by an unmanned rocket sled by the United States Air Force.

Conventional rail
From mid 2011, the fastest operating conventional trains are the French TGV POS and German ICE 3 with a commercial maximum speed of 320 km/h on some French high-speed line.

In Spain, on the Madrid–Barcelona HSL, maximum speed is 310 km/h.

Since July 2011, in China, the maximum speed is officially 300 km/h, but a 10 km/h tolerance is accepted, and trains often reach 310 km/h. Before that, from August 2008 to July 2011, China Railway High-speed trains hold the highest commercial operating speed record with 350 km/h on some lines (Beijing–Tianjin Intercity Railway, Wuhan–Guangzhou High-Speed Railway). Due to high costs and safety concerns the top speeds in China were reduced to 300 km/h on 1 July 2011.

Unconventional rail
The Shanghai Maglev Train reaches 431 km/h during its daily service on its 30 km dedicated line, holding the speed record for commercial train service.

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Major markets


The early target areas, identified by France, Japan, Spain, and the U.S., were between pairs of large cities. In France, this was Paris–Lyon, in Japan, Tokyo–Osaka, in Spain, Madrid–Seville (then Barcelona). In European countries, South Korea and Japan, dense networks of city subways and railways provide connections with high speed rail lines.

China
China has the largest network of high-speed railways in the world.

Japan
In Japan intra-city rail daily usage per capita is the highest, with cumulative ridership of 6 billion passengers exceeds the French TGV of 1 billion (as of 2003), the only other system to reach a billion passenger trips. By comparison, the world's fleet of 22,685 aircraft carried 2.1 billion passengers in 2006, according to International Civil Aviation Organization.

Russia
Other target areas include freight lines, such as the Trans-Siberian Railway in Russia, which would allow 3 day Far East to Europe service for freight, potentially fitting in between the months by ship and hours by air.

Mexico
Most recently the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico has highlighted as one of the most probable areas for the development of high speed rail in Latin America with the Transpeninsular Fast Train for bidding in September 2011.

United States
The claim is that in the US, HSR is incompatible with the existing automobile-oriented system. (People will want to drive when traveling in city, so they might as well drive the entire trip). However, others contend that in the Northeast Corridor, many people living outside walking distance of a connection, drive to the commuter station and ride to the HSR connection, similar to the way many people drive to an airport, park their cars and then fly. Car rentals and taxis also supplement local mass transportation. Increased commercial development is also projected near the destination stations.

Chicago, with its central location and metropolitan population of approximately 10 million, was envisioned as the hub of a national high-speed rail network. The beginning Midwest phases study a Minneapolis-Milwaukee-Chicago-Detroit link; a Kansas City-St Louis-Chicago link; and a Chicago-Indianapolis-Cincinnati-Columbus, OH link.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority is currently planning lines from the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento to Los Angeles and Anaheim via the Central Valley, as well as a line from Los Angeles to San Diego via the Inland Empire. The Texas High Speed Rail and Transportation Corporation is lobbying for a high-speed rail and multimodal transportation corridor, dubbed the Texas T-Bone. The T-Bone would link Dallas and San Antonio via the South Central Corridor; from roughly the midpoint between these two cities, the Brazos Express corridor would provide a connection to Houston. New York State Senator Caesar Trunzo announced a long-term plan to bring high-speed rail service between Buffalo and New York City, via Albany, to under three hours. Florida officials considered and in 2011 rejected a Tampa-Orlando-Miami system.

France
Market segmentation has principally focused on the business travel market. The French original focus on business travelers is reflected by the early design of the TGV trains. Pleasure travel was a secondary market; now many of the French extensions connect with vacation beaches on the Atlantic and Mediterranean, as well as major amusement parks and also the 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.

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.

Italy
Although Italy was among the first countries in the world to develop technologies for HSR, the governments which succeeded during last 60 years did not gave much relevance to high speed network projects, considered too costly, developing the famous Pendolino technology to run at medium-high speed (to 250 km/h) on conventional lines. The only exception was the Direttissima between Florence and Rome, but it was not conceived to be part of a high speed line on large scale.

It was only during the 80s and the 90s that projects for a dedicated high speed rail network were developed, and in 2010 1000 kilometers of high speed rail were fully operational. Frecciarossa services are operated with ETR 500 non-tilting trains at 25kVAC, 50 Hz power. The operational speed of the service is of 300 km/h. ETR1000 trainsets are currently under construction and were developed by the consortium formed by AnsaldoBreda and Bombardier. Based on the Bombardier Zefiro trainset, it will operate up to 360 km/h on the existing high speed rail system.

Although the recent enter into service, over 100 million passengers choose Frecciarossa services from the enter into service and the first months of 2012. Italian high speed services is recording satisfying profits, pushing Trenitalia to plan major investments and to cease a large part of local and regional services to other operators ( like Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori and Trenord) and concentrate money and efforts on high-speed and long-distance services (also through the medium-speed Frecciargento, Frecciabianca and InterCity services, which run on conventional lines).

Switzerland
High speed north-south freight lines in Switzerland are under construction, avoiding slow mountainous truck traffic, and lowering labour costs.

Turkey
The Turkish State Railways started building high-speed rail lines in 2003. The first section of the line, between Ankara and Eskişehir, was inaugurated on March 13, 2009. It is a part of the 533 km Istanbul to Ankara high-speed rail line. A subsidiary of Turkish State Railways, Yüksek Hızlı Tren is the sole commercial operator of high speed trains in Turkey.

The construction of three separate high-speed lines from Ankara to Istanbul, Konya and Sivas, as well as taking an Ankara–Izmir 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 1500 km network of high-speed lines by 2013 and a 10000 km network by the year 2023.

The Marmaray project, which consists of a rail transport network around Istanbul and the world's deepest immersed tube railway tunnel under the Bosphorus strait, is also under construction. The Marmaray tunnel will connect the subway and railway lines on the European and Asian parts of Istanbul and Turkey, respectively. -->

Records in trial runs
Legend : [Official World Speed record] - [unconventional train] - [New entrant in HST]

Chronology
Speed - Record : Official World Speed Record (for wheeled conventional train). Speed - Operated : Maximum operated speed at that date (for wheeled conventional train). Speed record Rise of commercial speed High-speed related disaster