High-speed rail
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High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions include 250 km/h and faster - depending on whether the track is upgraded or new - by the European Union and above 90 mph (145 km/h) by the United States Federal Railroad Administration, but there is no single standard, and lower speeds can be required by local constraints.[1][2]
While high-speed rail is designed for passenger travel, some high speed systems offer also some kind of freight service. For instance, the French mail service La Poste owns a few special TGV trains for carrying postal freight.
History
Railways were the first form of mass transportation, and until the development of the motorcar in the early 20th century had an effective monopoly on land transport. Railway companies in Europe and the United States used streamlined trains since 1933 for high speed services with an average speed of up to 130 km/h and top speed of more than 160 km/h. With this service they were able to compete with the upcoming airplanes. World War II stopped these services. In 1957, the Odakyu Electric Railway in Greater Tokyo launched its Romancecar 3000 SSE. This set a world record for narrow gauge trains at 145 km/h, giving Japanese designers confidence they could safely build even faster trains at standard gauge. Desperate for transport solutions due to overloaded trains between Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, the idea of high speed rail was born.
The world's first "high-speed train" was Japan's Tōkaidō Shinkansen, officially opened in October 1964, with construction commencing in 1959.[2] The 0 Series Shinkansen, built by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, achieved speeds of 200 km/h (125 mph) on the Tokyo–Nagoya–Kyoto–Osaka route.
Rationale
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In both Japan and France the initial impetus for the introduction of high speed rail was the need for additional capacity to meet increasing demand for passenger rail travel. By the mid-1950s, the Tōkaidō Main Line in Japan was operating at full capacity, and construction of the first segment of the Tōkaidō Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka started in 1959. The Tōkaidō Shinkansen opened on October 11964, in time for the Tokyo Olympics. In France the main line between Paris and Lyon was projected to run out of capacity by 1970 it was decided to build a new line. In both cases the choice to build a completely separate passenger-only line allowed for the much straighter higher speed lines. The dramatically reduced travel times on both lines bringing cities within three hours of one another caused explosions in ridership[3]. It was the commercial success of both lines that inspired those countries and their economies to expand or start high speed rail networks.
In the United States the decades after World War II, cheap oil, coupled with improvements in automobiles and aircraft and government subsidization of highways and airports made those means practical for a greater portion of the population than previously. In Europe and Japan, emphasis was given to rebuilding the railways after the war. In the United States, emphasis was given to building a huge national interstate highway system and airports. Urban mass transport systems in the United States were largely embraced. The U.S. railways have been less competitive partly because the government has tended to favour road and air transportation more than in Japan and European countries, and partly because of lower population density in the United States, but now, trains are making a rebound because economic fators are better than in years previous
Travel by rail becomes more competitive in areas of higher population density or where gasoline is expensive, because conventional trains are more fuel efficient than cars (though sometimes less fuel efficient than buses). Very few high-speed trains consume diesel or other fossil fuels but the power stations that provide electric trains with power can consume fossil fuels. In Japan and France, where the most extensive high speed rail networks exist, a large proportion of electricity comes from nuclear power. Even using electricity generated from coal or oil, trains are more fuel efficient per passenger per kilometer travelled than the typical automobile because of efficiencies of scale in generator technology. Rail networks, like highways, require large fixed capital investments and thus require a blend of high density and government investment to be competitive against existing capital infrastructure for aircraft and automobiles. Urban density and mass transit have been key factors in the success of European and Japanese railway transport, especially in countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and France. High speed rail development in the United States was more advanced than other countries pre-World War II, and the current limited extent of US high speed rail may be attributable to the prewar loss of US transit infrastructure and large-scale subsidization of US highway systems. High speed rail are more profitable than medium speed rail, if not counting the infrastructure construction cost. The reason is that a lot of operational costs, like staff, have a fixed cost per hour, while the ticket income are based on distance. Passengers also pay more per kilometre for high speed. So the operational income/cost ratio is better for high speed.
Countries with high-speed railways
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The countries that have trains with maximum operation speeds (MOR) currently at over 200 km/h (124 mph) are as follows:
- Argentina (proposed)
- Australia (200 km/h currently)
- Austria (200 km/h currently, 230 km/h by 2008)
- Belgium
- China
- Czech Republic (Pendolino, 237 km/h max set in 2004))
- Finland
- France
- Germany (Cologne-Frankfurt ICE, 300 km/h or 186 mph)
- Italy
- Japan
- Norway
- Portugal
- Russia
- South Korea
- Slovenia (200 km/h currently)
- Spain
- Sweden 200 km/h trains in service, running at 205 when delayed, new railways are constructed with 250 km/h in mind.
- Switzerland
- Turkey
- Taiwan
- United Kingdom
- United States
Ireland's current fastest Intercity service is the Dublin to Cork "InterCity" service. Iarnród Éireann plan to purchase powercars and upgrade the route to 200 km/h (125 mph) standard. On the Dublin to Belfast line, IÉ are considering the following options for after 2020 (when the existing De Dietrich Ferroviaire coaches will be life expired):
- Upgrading the route to 200 km/h (125 mph) with new carriages with journey times of 90 mins.
- Upgrading the route to 240 km/h (140 mph) with tilting trains, which would cut times to 60 minutes
Argentina (see TAVe) is projected to build the first high-speed train in South America[4] operating at very high speeds of 320 km/h (200 mph), construction is scheduled to begin in March of 2008[3], and finish it's first stage in the second semester of 2010. The project will join the cities of Buenos Aires and Rosario at a distance of 286 km (178 miles), Cordoba at a distance of 710 km (441 mi), and finally Mar del Plata at a total distance of 1120 km (695 mi) from Cordoba.[5]
Croatia is building its first high speed rail between Zagreb and Rijeka, due to be finished in 2013.
Turkey is building its first high speed rail (due to start operating in the second half of 2007) between its capital, Ankara, and its most populous city of Istanbul. For details of current systems, see High-speed rail by country.
Trinidad and Tobago is building its first high speed rail (due to start operating in the last quarter of 2009) between its capital, Port Of Spain, and its most populous city of San Fernando. For details of current systems, see High-speed rail by country.
The Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec are working on a feasibility study for a high speed train from Windsor, Ontario to Montreal, Quebec.[4]
Comparison with other modes of transport
High speed rail is often viewed as an isolated system and simply as advantageous or disadvantageous as compared to other transport systems, but all transport systems must work together to maximize benefits. A good HSR system has capacity for non-stop and local services, and has good connectivity with other transport systems. HSR, like any transport system, is not inherently convenient, fast, clean, nor comfortable. All of this depends on design, implementation, maintenance, operation and funding. Operational smoothness is often more indicative of discipline than technological prowess.
Due to current infrastructure designs in many nations, there are constraints on the growth of the highway and air travel systems. Some key factors promoting HSR is that airports and highways have no room to expand, and are often overloaded. High-speed rail has the potential for high capacity on its fixed corridors (double decked E4 Series Shinkansen can carry 1634 passengers, double that of an Airbus A380 in all economy class), and has the potential to relieve congestion on the other systems. Well established high speed rail systems in use today are more environmentally friendly than air or road travel. This is due to:
- lower energy consumption per passenger kilometer
- reduced land usage for a given capacity compared to motorways
- displaced usage from more environmentally damaging modes of transport.
Automobiles
High-speed rail has the advantage over automobiles in that it can move passengers at speeds far faster than those possible by car. The lower limit for HSR (200 km/h, 125 mph) is substantially faster than the highest road speed limit in any country. Ignoring the few countries without a general speed limit, the speed limit is rarely higher than 130 km/h (80 mph). For journeys that connect city center to city center, HSR's advantage is increased due to the lower speed limits within most urban areas. Generally, the longer the journey, the better the time advantage of rail over road if going to the same destination.
Moreover, train tracks permit a far higher throughput of passengers per hour than a road the same width. A high speed rail needs just a double track railway, one track for each direction. A typical capacity is 15 trains per hour and 800 passengers per train (as for the Eurostar sets), which implies a capacity of 12,000 passengers per hour in each direction. By way of contrast, the Highway Capacity Manual gives a maximum capacity for a single lane of highway of 2,250 passenger cars per hour (excluding trucks or RVs). Assuming an average vehicle occupancy of 1.57 people [6], a standard twin track railway has a typical capacity 13% greater than a 6-lane highway (3 lanes each way), while requiring only 40% of the land (1.0/3.0 versus 2.5/7.5 hectares per kilometer of direct/indirect land consumption). This means that typical passenger rail carries 2.83 times as many passengers per hour per meter (width) as a road. Some passenger rail systems, such as the Tokaido Shinkansen line in Japan, have much higher ratios (with as many as 20,000 passengers per hour per direction). Congested roadways tend to be commuter - these carry fewer than 1.57 persons per vehicle (Washington State Department of Transportation, for instance, uses 1.2 persons per vehicle) during commute times. Congestion also causes the maximum throughput of a lane to decrease.
Aircraft
Optimal distance
While commercial high-speed trains have maximum operating speeds much slower than jet aircraft, they have advantages over air travel mostly for relatively short distances, and can be an integral part of any good transportation system. Both systems complement each other if they are well designed and maintained.
HSR is best suited for journeys of 2 - 3 hours (150-600 km or about 100-400 miles), for which the train can beat both air and car in this range. When traveling less than about 650 km (400 mi), the process of checking in and going through security screening at airports, as well as the journey to the airport itself makes the total air journey time no faster than HSR.
However, unless air travel is severely congested, merely providing a comparable service is often not a compelling financial basis for build an HSR system from scratch. As a rule of thumb, rail journeys need to be three hours or less to be competitive with air travel on journey time.
Other considerations
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Although air travel has a speed advantage, trains can typically be boarded more quickly, and in a central location. This can mostly - or completely - offset the speed advantage of air travel. Many people live in suburbs of large cities and drive their own car to the airport when they want to fly. In a hub-and-spoke air system like in the USA, large airports are heavily favored by airlines because using them can increase load factor and thus profitability. Airlines don't want to commit to non-hub areas, which if along the route have the potential for benefit from supplemention with high speed rail. However, in a point-to-point air system like in Europe (where population density is higher), major air hubs are discouraged by low-cost carriers due to congestion and high landing costs. Therefore, travel between two minor cities is already better served by air.
Rail lines also permit far greater capacity and frequency of service than what is possible with aircraft, and rail schedules find fewer weather-related interruptions than do airline schedules. Although comfort over air travel is often believed to be a trait of high speed rail, it is not inherent, it depends on the specific implementation, for example in Japan, Shinkansen passengers often must stand the entire journey due to crowding, and queueing depends on supply, demand, design, funding, and operational issues. From the operator's point of view, a single train can call in at multiple stops, often far more stops than aircraft, and each stop takes much less down time. One train stopping pattern can allow a multitude of possible journeys, increasing the potential market.
In regards to large amounts of luggage, HSR can be trying compared to air travel, as storage space is limited, and in the case of Japan, trains can and often are crowded, have standing passengers, especially during rush hour and holidays.
High speed trains are far more environmentally efficient than aircraft on a same load factor basis, as trains consume less energy per passenger kilometer. This may result in less carbon dioxide emissions, however this depends on each implementation's actual usage patterns and their indirect effects. Short-haul energy requirements for transporting people are generally more competitive on trains than long haul. (where rail competes best on time), because takeoff and landing have proportionately high energy requirements per km versus cruising.
From the point of view of required traffic control systems and infrastructure, high-speed rail has the added advantage of being much simpler to control due to its predictable course, even at very high passenger loads; this issue is becoming more relevant as air traffic reaches its safe limit in busy airspaces over London, New York, and other large centers. However, it must be noted that high speed rail systems eliminate the possibility of traffic collisions with automobiles (adding cost, simplicity, and safety), while other systems do not.
The history of a maximum speed
Maximum speed in service
Although one time specially modified system and trainset land speed record for railed vehicles make headlines, such as the 574.8 km/h TGV run or the non-wheeled 581 km/h JR-Maglev MLX01 run, they are far from typical situations as safety, cost, reliability, mass production are major concerns for high speed rail engineers and designers. If one wants to compete purely on records, railed vehicles have attained 10,400 km/h (6,462 mph) (rocket propulsion, unmanned, test of missiles etc, done in the USA).
What is more useful is the fastest maximum operating speed (MOR) of ANY segment of any high speed rail line, currently 320 km/h (198.9 mph), a record held by service on part of the TGV Est Line in France. That line has now the fastest scheduled run in the world at 279.4 km/h from Lorraine-TGV to Champagne-Ardennes-TGV (167.66 km in 36 mn), followed by other TGVs on the same section at 271.9 and 264.7 km/h.[7]
Former record holders were TGV Lyon-St Exupéry to Aix-en-Provence at 263.3 km/h (163.6 mph) and Nozomi Shinkansen at 261.8 km/h (162.7 mph) from Hiroshima to Kokura according to the last official Railway Gazette International World Speed Survey study in 2005. With the introduction of the new N700 Shinkansen on July 1, 2007, the Kokura to Hiroshima time may have decreased further.[8]
From 2011, new trains on the Japanese shinkansen will operate at up to 320 km/h. In the further future, several other lines are planned or proposed to operate at this speed, including a line to be built by the California High Speed Rail Authority (although that line will not be operational before 2025 even if financed as soon as possible).
Records in trial runs
- 1963 - Japan - Shinkansen - 256 km/h
- 1967 - France - TGV - 318 km/h (gas turbine type)
- 1968 - West Germany - 200 km/h
- 1972 - Japan - Shinkansen - 286 km/h
- 1974 - West Germany - EET-01 - 230 km/h
- 1974 - France - Aérotrain - 430.2 km/h (high speed monorail train)
- 1975 - West Germany - Comet - 401.3 km/h (steam rocket propulsion)
- 1978 - Japan - HSST-01 - 307.8 km/h (Auxiliary rocket propulsion)
- 1978 - Japan - HSST-02 - 110 km/h
- 1978 - Italy - Pendolino - 250 km/h
- 1979 - Japan - Shinkansen - 319 km/h
- 1979.12.12 - Japan-ML-500R(unmanned)-504 km/h
- 1979.12.21 - Japan-ML-500R(unmanned)-517 km/h
- 1981 - France -TGV - 380 km/h
- 1985 - West Germany - ICE - 300 km/h
- 1987 - Japan - MLU001 (manned) - 400.8 km/h
- 1988 - West Germany - ICE - 406 km/h
- 1988 - West Germany - TR-06 - 412.6 km/h
- 1989 - West Germany TR-07 - 436 km/h
- 1990 - France - TGV - 515.3 km/h
- 1992 - Japan - Shinkansen - 350 km/h
- 1993 - Japan - Shinkansen - 425 km/h
- 1993 - Germany - TR-07 - 450 km/h
- 1994 - Japan - MLU002N - 431 km/h
- 1996 - Japan - Shinkansen - 446 km/h
- 1997 - Japan - MLX01 - 550 km/h
- 1999 - Japan - MLX01 - 552 km/h
- 2003 - Germany - Transrapid 08 - 501 km/h
- 2003 - Japan - MLX01 - 581 km/h
- 2007 - France - TGV - 574.8 km/h
Target areas for high-speed trains
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- Main articles: High-speed rail by country and Planned high-speed rail by country
The early target areas, identified by France, Japan, and the U.S., were connections between pairs of large cities. In France this was Paris–Lyon, in Japan Tokyo–Osaka, and in the U.S. the proposals are in high-density areas. The only high-speed rail service at present in the U.S. is the Acela Express, in the Northeast Corridor between Boston, New York and Washington, D.C.; it uses tilting trains to achieve speeds of up to 240 km/h (150 mph) on existing tracks, since building new, straighter lines was not practical given the amount of development on either side of the right of way. The states through which the Acela Express runs either plan or are in the process of upgrading their tracks to eventually enable the Acela Express to run at top speed.
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 traveling in city, so they might as well drive the entire trip). Since in Japan intra-city rail daily usage per capita is the highest, it follows naturally that ridership of 6 billion passengers [5] exceeds the French TGV of 1 billion (until 2003), the only other system to reach a billion cumulative passengers. [6] For comparison, the world's fleet of 22,685 aircraft carried 2.1 billion passengers in 2006, according to International Civil Aviation Organization.
The California High Speed Rail Authority is currently studying a San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento to Los Angeles and San Diego line. The Texas High Speed Rail and Transportation Corporation strives to bring Texas an innovative high-speed rail and multimodal transportation corridor. The Corporation developed the Brazos Express Corridor to link Central Texas.
Later high speed rail lines, such as the LGV Atlantique, the LGV Est, and most high speed lines in Germany, were designed as feeder routes branching into conventional rail lines, serving a larger number of medium-sized cities.
A side effect of the first high-speed rail lines in France was the opening up of previously isolated regions to fast economic development. Some newer high-speed lines have been planned primarily for this purpose, such as the Madrid–Sevilla line and the proposed Amsterdam–Groningen line. Cities relatively close to a major city may see an increase in population, but those farther away may actually lose population (except for tourist spots), having a ripple effect on local economies.
Five years after construction began on the line, the first Japanese high-speed rail line opened on the eve of the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, connecting the capital with Osaka. The first French high-speed rail line, or Ligne à grande vitesse (LGV), was opened in 1981 by SNCF, the French rail agency, planning starting in 1966 and construction in 1976.
Market segmentation has principally focused on the business travel market. The French original focus on business travelers is reflected by the early design of the TGV trains, including the bar car. Pleasure travel was to be a secondary market; now many of the French extensions connect with vacation beaches on the Atlantic and Mediterranean, as well as major amusement parks and also the very popullar Alpine ski resorts in France or Switzerland. Friday evenings are the peak time for TGVs (train à grande vitesse) (Metzler, 1992). The system has lowered prices on long distance travel to compete more effectively with air services, and as a result some cities within an hour of Paris by TGV have become commuter communities, thus increasing the market while restructuring land use.
On the Paris - Lyon service, the number of passengers grew to impressive numbers justifying the introduction of double-decks coaches on the TGV trainsets.
Other target areas include freight lines, such as the Trans-Siberian Railway in Russia, which would be allow 3 day Far East to Europe service for freight as opposed to months by ship (but still slower than air), and allow just in time deliveries. High speed north-south freight lines in Switzerland are under construction, avoiding slow mountainous truck traffic, and lowering labor costs.
Technology
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Much of the technology behind high-speed rail is an improved application of mature standard gauge rail technology using overhead electrification. By building a new rail infrastructure with 20th century engineering, including elimination of constrictions such as roadway at-grade (level) crossings, frequent stops, a succession of curves and reverse curves, and not sharing the right-of-way with freight or slower passenger trains, higher speeds (250–320 km/h) are maintained. Total cost of ownership of HSR systems is generally lower than the total costs of competing alternatives (new highway or air capacity). Japanese systems are often more expensive than their counterparts but more comprehensive because they have their own dedicated elevated guideway, no traffic crossings, and disaster monitoring systems. Despite this, the lion's share of the Japanese system's cost is related to boring tunnels through mountains, as was in Taiwan. Recent advances in wheeled trains in the last few decades have pushed the speed limits past 400 km/h, among the advances being tilting trainsets, aerodynamic designs (to reduce drag, lift, and noise), air brakes, regenerative braking, stronger engines, dynamic weight shifting, etc. Some of the advances were to fix problems, like the Eschede disaster. The record speed for a wheeled electric train is 574.8 km/h is held by a shortened TGV train and long straight highly modified track (see also Land speed record for railed vehicles). The French TGV routes typically combine segments on new track, where the train runs at full commercial speed, with some sections of older track on the extremities of the route, near cities.
In France, the cost of construction (which was €10 m/km (US$14.3 m/km) for LGV Est) is minimised by adopting steeper grades rather than building tunnels and viaducts. However, in mountainous Switzerland, tunnels are inevitable. Because the lines are dedicated to passengers, gradients of 3.5%, rather than the previous maximum of 1–1.5% for mixed traffic, are used. Possibly more expensive land is acquired in order to build straighter lines which minimize line construction as well as operating and maintenance costs. In other countries high-speed rail was built without those economies so that the railway can also support other traffic, such as freight. Experience has shown however, that trains of significantly different speeds cause massive decreases of line capacity. As a result, mixed-traffic lines are usually reserved for high-speed passenger trains during the daytime, while freight trains go at night. In some cases, nighttime high-speed trains are even diverted to lower speed lines in favor of freight traffic.
Notes and references
- ^ International Union of Railways: General definitions of highspeed, accessed May 2, 2007
- ^ Federal Railroad Administration, High-Speed Rail, accessed May 2, 2007
- ^ http://www.jrtr.net/jrtr03/f26_ard.html
- ^ Argentina confirms high speed rail consortium Railway Gazette International 17 January 2008.
- ^ Clarin - El Tren bala hacia Mar del Plata -
- ^ US Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy : "Fact #257: March 3, 2003 - Vehicle Occupancy by Type of Vehicle"
- ^ Dr Colin Taylor (2007-09-04). "New lines boost rail's high speed performance". Railway Gazette International.
- ^ [1]
See also
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/Acela_2000.jpg/220px-Acela_2000.jpg)
- Aérotrain
- Ground effect train
- High-speed rail by country
- High speed tilting train
- Land speed record for railed vehicles
- Magnetic levitation train
- Megaproject
- Planned high-speed rail by country
Further reading
- Hood, Christopher P. (2006). Shinkansen – From Bullet Train to Symbol of Modern Japan. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-32052-6.
External links
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- Transrapid – Maglev: High-Speed in Asia (China, Shanghai), Japan (Yamanashi) and Germany (Munich; TVE)
- California High-Speed Rail Authority
- Treno alta velocità (TAV)
- Singapore keen on KL high-speed rail service Business Times (The New Straits Times Press, Malaysia)
- Malaysia Govt Still Considering YTL Bullet Train Proposal BERNAMA
- UIC HIGH SPEED 2008 Congress 17-19 March 2008 - Amsterdam, The Nederlands. The World Congress & Trade Exhibition on High Speed Rail.