High speed train / Rolling stock
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Site map High Speed Railways (Click on a tile to navigate to the intended page)
Key Summary
The high-speed train was invented in the 1960s. Although the rail/wheel concept was the main focus, other types of propulsion were also studied and today there are three main types of high-speed trains:
• conventional high-speed rail/wheel technology, such as the TGV;
• high speed using magnetic levitation technology, such as Maglev;
• high speed in a closed environment using vacuum tubes and magnetic levitation technology, such as Hyperloop.
Conventional high-speed rail/wheel technology, such as the TGV
Infrastructure
Unlike the conventional network, high-speed rail requires a dedicated track that can be used at high speeds. To achieve this, the track is specialised:
• How do you choose a HSR line?
• General parameters of the track
• Choice of route
• Power supply
• Signalling
• Engineering structures
• Existing / intermediate stations
• The network by country
• Line maintenance
• High speed line in France
• High speed line in Germany
• High speed line in Italy
• High speed line in Japan
• High speed line in Taïwan
Rolling stock
High-speed rolling stock must be specifically designed for high speeds:
• Rolling stock technology
• Rolling stock by train type
• Rolling stock manufacturers
• Maintenance
Alstom
• ETR 575, Avelia-Horizon, ETR 675
Hitachi Rail Europe
• ETR 400
Hitachi Japan
• Shinkansen E10
Siemens
• ICE 4
Talgo
• S-106 (Avril)
Service
Some networks operate high-speed trains as a separate entity, while others operate them as part of the national service:
• High speed operators
• Scheduling
• Operations, staff and service
• High-speed economics
Services in Europe:
• AVE (Renfe, Spain)
• Avlo (Renfe, Spain)
• Eurostar (before 2024)
• Eurostar (since 2024)
• Frecciarossa (Trenitalia, Italy)
• ICE (Deutsche Bahn, Germany)
• InOui (SNCF, France)
• Iryo (Spain)
• Lyria (SNCF, CFF, France, Switzerland)
• NTV-Italo (Italy)
• Ouigo (SNCF, France)
Services in the world:
• Shinkansen (Japan)
• THSR Taïwan
High-speed Maglev-type magnetic levitation technology
Maglev is a method of transport that uses magnetic levitation to transport vehicles with magnets rather than wheels, axles and bearings. With Maglev, a vehicle is lifted a few centimetres above a guideway, using magnets to create both lift and propulsion.
• Basic overview about Maglev
High-speed rolling stock is necessarily specific and cannot be configured to run on a conventional railway network. The vehicles themselves are designed with magnetic levitation propulsion.
To date, there are few commercial services in the world, and all the networks in service are in Asia:
• China
• South Korea
• Japan (under construction)
Disruptive high speed, magnetic levitation or vacuum tubes
Hyperloop is an industrial research project proposed by billionaire Elon Musk in July 2012, involving capsules travelling in a vacuum tube. The lines are made up of two tubes on stilts. In 2020, apart from test sites, there were still no lines actually being tested.
The rolling stock is still non-existent or on a mock-up scale. It is being studied as part of the Hyperloop Pod Competition, an international competition bringing together a number of leading universities to design the concept for future capsules.
Train services have not yet been introduced and are still under study.
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1 – High Speed railways in brief
This section explain:
• Definition of an high-speed railway
• Why should we invest in high-speed rail?
• Choice of network
• Supposed construction effects ex ante
Definition of an high-speed railway
The most comprehensive definition of an high-speed railway is given by:
• The UIC definition (2018) ;
• The Directive (EU) 2016/797 for interoperability, that high-speed trains define as trains that have to be constructed to ensure safe and undisturbed travel during 250 km/h speed on a railway which is specially built for high speeds and speeds above 300 km/h in suitable circumstances and also 200km/h speeds on existing railways which are upgraded for that speed.
Technically, it was realized that a conventional line, built in the 19th century and partially rebuilt or upgraded, could not exceed 200 km/h in conventional mode, even with the removal of level crossings but with side signaling still in place. The idea of creating a new line to go faster gradually took hold in the early 1970s, particularly in Japan (1964), Italy and France.
In France, the Paris–Lyon high-speed rail line was built with much steeper gradients, up to 3.5%, which makes it possible to stop and start again on a slope. This huge leap in adhesion capability completely changes the line’s geometric characteristics, as it is no longer constrained to follow valleys — it can climb over mountains. The Paris–Lyon line includes only a cumulative 8 km of viaducts, representing just 2% of its total length.
This shortening of the route helps lower both construction and operating costs. A high-speed line must be completely free of obstacles, meaning there are no level crossings.
The time savings between Paris and Lyon come largely from reducing the distance rather than simply increasing speed.
Overpasses for cars are fitted with safety fences so that if a vehicle falls onto the track, its fall triggers the signalling system to turn red. Additionally, high-speed lines are fenced on both sides.
Animals are theoretically unable to access the tracks, although this does occasionally happen and requires urgent action. In areas where animals are likely to cross, underpasses and overpasses are built to allow their passage.
From a technical standpoint, the speed gap between 160 km/h and 300 km/h is significant. Any braking to a low speed in order to take a diverging route would slow down the trains behind and reduce capacity. To reduce this speed gap, new types of switches have been developed with movable-point frogs, allowing them to be taken at up to 220 km/h in the diverging direction.
However, the geographical features crossed sometimes require far more engineering works than on France’s first high-speed line. This is notably the case on Italy’s Direttissima, as well as on new lines in Germany and Japan, which have many bridges and tunnels. Taiwan’s high-speed line is almost 90% on viaducts.
Investing in high speed
The motivations for investing in HSR systems have evolved over time. Initially, the goal was to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and promote an export-oriented industrial policy. This was later accompanied by efforts to ease congestion in major transport hubs, and eventually by growing environmental concerns linked to combating climate change.
Appropriate infrastructure and rolling stock are needed for supplying high-speed train services. The total length of high-speed lines in the network and the number of available high-speed trains and their seating capacity are key parameters for the high-speed rail system performance. The final output performance can be expressed in terms of travel volume and is defined as the product of yearly number of passengers and the average travel distance per passenger. Ridership and train or seat kilometers produced by the fleet are additional output variables indicating the railway’s performance.[1]
Historically, the largest high-speed rail systems can be found in Japan (1964), Italy (1977), France (1981), Germany (1991) and Spain (1992). These countries have mature networks built gradually over decades. Heavy investments in high-speed rail over the last decade gave in Asia ans in China.
Korea Train Express (KTX), the Korean version of high-speed railway, also went live in 2004. In 2008, Beijing–Tianjin Intercity Railway was opened up. The line accommodates trains travelling at a maximum speed above 300 km, faster than that of any other Chinese railways at that time.
The HSR’s disadvantage primarily lies in higher fixed costs, potentially higher energy costs than some competing modes, and higher noise externalities.Whether the net benefits outweigh the net costs is an empirical question that awaits determination based on location specific factors, project costs, local demand, competition, and network effects (depending on what else in the network exists) [2].
Choice of network
In virtually all cases around the world, high-speed trains are a means of transport designed to relieve congestion between two or more large cities. They are not intended for reaching smaller tourist destinations, such as your favourite beach or hiking spot. Only the TGV in France, and to a lesser extent the ICE in Germany, Austria or Switzerland, actually allow you to reach a quieter, smaller destination that is not a major city. This point is precisely the subject of political debate: is the HSR a ‘train for everyone’ or a train for urban crowds?
An other important issue right from the start of a high-speed line study is determining what type of traffic it is intended for. There are four types of trains that may — or may not — use a new line.
In light of this predominant urban context in all HSR project, it is understandable why the network architecture of high-speed rail lines has tended to be in a hub-and-spoke pattern, connecting a hub city (e.g. Paris,Madrid, Tokyo) to secondary cities in tree-like architecture. The networks have occasional crossing links, typically at both lower speed, lower frequency, and lower cost of construction than the mainline.
As these systems were designed nationally, and the largest city is often the capital (as in Paris, Madrid, and Tokyo), which is also (roughly) centrally located, it is no surprise that the hub was based where it was. Germany has fewer very high speed links (faster than 300 km/h), and a flatter (less-hubbed) network, perhaps reflecting its strong federalism, relative decentralization into a multi-polar urban structure and late formation into a nation-state. Italy has centered its hub in Milan, the largest metropolitan area in the country [3].
However, networks can be classified into two configurations:
- a minority configuration represented by France and Spain, with a star-shaped network centered respectively on Paris and Madrid;
- a majority configuration represented by all other countries, including Asia, where a linear network with large (or medium-sized) intermediate cities predominates, as in Germany, Italy, Japan, or China, as well as Taiwan.
The configuration and the network of cities to be connected then determine the choice of the route and the topography to be crossed, involving a certain number — or not — of engineering structures. This is where the economic assessment becomes crucial to determine whether the project is viable.
The Maglev only in AsiaEurope largely abandoned large-scale maglev train projects because of cost, infrastructure compatibility, and demand patterns. Maglev systems require entirely new tracks incompatible with existing rail networks, meaning Europe—already dense with high-speed rail like the TGV, ICE, and AVE—would need massive investment for marginal travel-time gains. The Transrapid project in Germany, for example, faced escalating costs and limited political support, with the Berlin–Hamburg maglev canceled in 2000. Maintenance complexity, noise issues at high speed, and uncertain ridership also made the technology less appealing compared to upgrading proven wheel-on-rail systems. European priorities shifted toward improving conventional high-speed trains and integrating them into existing cross-border networks.
Asia, especially China and Japan, still believes in maglev because their economic, geographic, and political conditions favor new-build megaprojects. Rapid urbanization and strong central planning make it feasible to construct entirely new dedicated corridors. Maglev’s potential for 500+ km/h speeds fits Asia’s long intercity distances and the demand for prestige projects showcasing technological leadership. Shanghai already operates a maglev link to its airport, Japan is building the Chūō Shinkansen maglev between Tokyo and Nagoya, and China has invested heavily in research for intercity maglev lines. For them, maglev represents both infrastructure modernization and national technological pride.
However, none of these few trains in service are profitable or financially balanced. Moreover, serious doubts remain regarding the Chūō Shinkansen project led by JR Central. It will be interesting to see what the Chinese will do, and at what cost…
Supposed construction effects ex ante
Whether high-speed rail brings significant benefits to the cities it serves in terms of jobs, the economy and growth is a debate that has raged since the advent of high-speed trains. Some authors believe it does, while others are much more ambivalent [4]. We will discuss this in greater depth in our chapter on economics.
Economists are unanimous in recognizing that public investments are an essential component of effective demand, i.e. the anticipated demand entrepreneurs base their production decisions on. In an underemployment equilibrium, Keynesian theory prescribes an increase in public spending to keep economic activity at an acceptable level. These considerations have been central to countercyclical economic policy, from the New Deal to the Obama administration’s 2008 economic recovery plan and the Juncker plan in Europe in 2013 [5].
There are numerous examples of calculations of the effects of high-speed rail construction, which have been the subject of much academic research. These can be put into perspective with the post-evaluation of projects, which is also subject to various interpretations. De Rus et al., for example estimate that one kilometre of HSR requires an average investment of 17.5 million Euros, not counting rolling stock [6].
Other example shows in the Us that study [7] estimated the number of jobs from direct, indirect, and induced sources that could be created in three California counties that are projected to have HSR service by 2020. Depending on the alternatives considered, the project could create 10,000 to 16,000 jobs in the five years of construction, 30% of which should come from direct effects. (Note : in 2025 the Californian HSR was far from completed and the opening of the project was no date!). 🟧
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[1] 2014 – Jack E. Doomernik – European Transport Conference 2014 – Performance and efficiency of High-Speed Rail systems
[2] 2012 – David M. Levinson – Accessibility impacts of high-speed rail
[3] Ibidem
[4] Ibidem
[5] 2016 – Corinne Blanquart, Martin Koning – The local economic impacts of high-speed railways: theories and facts
[6] 2009 – de Rus, Barron, Campos, Gagnepain , Nash, Ulied and Vickerman – Economic Analysis of High-Speed Rail in Europe, Report prepared for the Foundation BBVA
[7] 2012 – California High-Speed Rail Authority and Federal Railroad Administration. Merced to Fresno Section California High-Speed Train (HST) Final Project Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS) and Final Section 4(f) Statement and Draft General Conformity Determination. Volume I: Report. Sacramento, CA, and Washington, DC.
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