HighSpeedRail

No plans currently for an actual train service, but there has been talk of a Chicago-Detroit-Windsor-Toronto route.

There are other problems inherent in the train specification. Already, 54 new 225mph 200-metre-long trains have been ordered from Alstom/Hitachi, based on the original vision for the line, which would have seen 400-metre trains splitting at places like Carlisle and East Midlands Parkway. But no new 400-metre platforms are funded on the conventional network, meaning somewhere like Manchester is set to go from 11-car Pendolinos with 607 seats to eight-car HS2 trains with 528 seats.

Meanwhile Glasgow, served by the sinuous stretch of the West Coast over Shap, is facing the possibility of little or no improvement in journey times. Half a century ago British Rail expected tilting trains were the answer for this route: while BR’s Advanced Passenger Train was sadly not a success, Virgin brought the idea to fruition with the Class 390 Pendolino. But the train specified for HS2 will not tilt, and some estimates put the consequent journey times between London and Glasgow at as much as 17 minutes longer than with a Pendolino. As discussed in last month’s‘Informed Sources’, an optimistic assessment puts the London to Glasgow journey time saving on today’s timing with HS2 at 11 minutes.

FRA is waiving its requirements for the first two Siemens trainsets, car shells, signal systems, high-speed rail turnout, and fire alarm systems based on the domestic nonavailability of these components, as described in the proposed waiver. NDOT and Brightline West estimate that more than 95 percent of the total direct dollar expenditures for the Project will be spent on domestically sourced products and labor, including 100 percent of the civil infrastructure costs.

The plan is in line with the Spanish government’s recent efforts to encourage travellers to take the high-speed rail link between Madrid and Barcelona, rather than relying on plane flights, in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

There will, however, be something of a wait until the service is available. The plan envisages a journey time of six hours between the two capitals by 2027, but the entire project won’t be finished until 2034.

The reason for the long construction time is the need to construct a new bridge over the River Tajo, a project that is expected to take as long as nine years and has yet to be planned.

The new technique is being used for a 650m section of the tunnel, in a process that operates seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

The Casalnuovo tunnel is due for completion in mid-2025. It forms part of the 145km-long. €5.8 billion (US$6.3 billion) high-speed railway between Naples and Bari, scheduled for 2028.

The new ligne à grande vitesse (LGV) is the first step in a project that will include 220km of track, two new stations (in Agen and Montauban), intervening stops, and connections between the train and local metro, bus, and bike systems.

The line is set to enter service in 2032.

The project - which will cost €8 billion for the Bordeaux-Toulouse section alone - will also see a €4 billion line between Bordeaux and Dax.

The project’s cost has risen to 11.8 billion euros, and its completion dates have been repeatedly postponed.

Negotiations for additional funding have not resulted in an agreement, leading to litigation.

The court ruled that the price fluctuation clause does not obligate partners to provide additional funding.

According to official data, as of the end of 2023, China's high-speed rail operating mileage totaled 45,000 kilometers, but the profitable mileage was only 2,300 kilometers, accounting for 6% of the total mileage. Specifically, it is Beijing-Shanghai, Beijing-Tianjin, Shanghai-Hangzhou, Shanghai-Nanjing, and Nanjing-Hangzhou, Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong high-speed rail line.

The Istanbul-Sivas line will take seven hours and 18 minutes, serviced by trains accommodating up to 483 passengers, added the report.

Speaking at the ceremony in Istanbul, Osman Boyraz, deputy minister of transport and infrastructure, emphasized Türkiye’s strategic importance in international freight and passenger transportation.

According to Boyraz, Türkiye invested 57 billion U.S. dollars in building and renewing its railways over the last 22 years, increased the line length from 10,948 km to 13,919 km, and built 2,251 km of high-speed train lines.

The first phase comprises of three actions which aim to achieve more space passengers and reorganise mobility flows. The first action includes the expansion of the station on the side of the square in front of the station, Països Catalans, with a new high-speed boarding hall to respond to the increase of the traffic and will meet future demand, providing two different departure and arrival areas. A new access will be made from the square to the Rodalies de Catalunya lobby (for commuter and regional rail system), which will organise the exit flows, creating a new area, tour and commercial area.

The station building will expand by more than 30% on the plaza side incorporating a new departure lounge delivering increased space for passengers which use commuter and regional, long distance and high-speed transport services. Active and last-mile mobility will also be promoted, with new access to the station for bicycles, scooters and pedestrians, thanks to the large pedestrian areas that will surround the terminal.

In this phase, three new communication nodes will be built with the high-speed platforms and three upper levels will be created, on which another floor will be located with a boarding area and direct access to platforms, new high-speed waiting rooms and spaces forinternal use.

The AP 220 will be the first true high-speed train sets to be built in America and are designed for operational speeds of up to 220 miles per hour. The propulsion system, lighter weight and aerodynamic shape makes it more efficient than other high-speed trains. The AP220 features an ultrawide carbody designed for unparalleled passenger comfort and designed to be the most accessible train on the market, exceeding ADA requirements and allowing for guests in wheelchairs to move with ease from car to car. The seven-car trains will carry between 434-450 passengers, depending on final configuration and can make the trip in less than two hours.

The second phase of the project with the Thai-Chinese high-speed rail project was approved at the April 18 meeting of the Board of Directors of the SRAT.

The second phase of the project line will be constructed from Korat to Nong Khai with a total length of 357.12 kilometers and a total investment of 341.351 billion baht. Of this, the civil construction cost of the high-speed rail project is 235,129 million baht, the cost of compensation for land acquisition and expropriation of resources is 10.31 billion baht, the cost of the track system-electrical train system and mechanical equipment is 80,165 million baht, and the cost of the project management consultant's supervision and control is 10.06 billion baht. The detailed design of the project has now been completed.

The Tashkent to Samarkand high-speed rail line is a 344-kilometre (214 mi) high-speed rail connection between Tashkent and Samarkand, the two largest Uzbekistan cities. The route passes through four regions: Tashkent, Sirdaryo, Jizzakh and Samarqand in Uzbekistan. Trains operate seven days a week under the brand Afrosiyob.

The company now has 10 units of the S106 train model and has set the date for their launch: starting 21 May. Following the inclusion of these high-capacity trains into its fleet, the operator will be able to launch the high-speed services in Asturias, expanding them to new destinations in Galicia, reconfiguring all high-speed services to offer more seats, more regular departures, better travel time and more seats available across all corridors.

In Asturias, the arrival of the S106 represents the absolute roll-out of high-speed services. The region, which inaugurated its high-speed connection to the centre of the Spanish mainland via the Pajares Bypass on 30 November, will now enjoy a faster connection to Oviedo and Gijón with an increase in the number of seats and comfort on board.

In Galicia, Renfe is launching its high-speed service with the S106 model in Vigo, Pontevedra, Vilagarcía, Santiago and A Coruña, improving travel times by 15 to 18 minutes.

These new high-speed services in Galicia and Asturias will also benefit cities in Castile and Leon through which the S106 will pass, served by the high-speed line: Zamora, Segovia, León, Palencia and Valladolid.

Significant progress has been made in the innovation of railway infrastructure technology for 400 kilometers per hour and the construction of comprehensive test sections for higher speeds, said Zhang Dayong, director of the Technology and Information Department of China Railway Corporation.

The CR450's predecessor, Fuxing CR400 EMU, has been operating on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway since September 2017, with an operation speed of 350 kilometers per hour, a global benchmark for high-speed rail operation speed.

Since its launch in 2021, the CR450 Technology Innovation Project has completed the development of 17 new technology component prototypes. It has conducted 57 tests on the basis of the CR400.

In the test runs, the new project created a series of new records including the reaching of a single EMU open-line speed of 453 kilometers per hour.

The overall volume of rail passenger traffic achieved in 2023 by the division companies amounted to 46 billion passenger/km (of which 36.8 billion, or about 80%, recorded by Trenitalia), up 32.8% compared with 2022.

The division’s operating revenues amounted to 7.7 million euros in 2023, an increase of 781 million euros (+11%) compared with 2022. The gain was essentially attributable to the traffic revenue component, with increases in the rail passenger transport volumes of the high-speed business (399 million euros), the regional business (185 million euros) and the Intercity business (86 million euros).

Renfe plans to significantly increase its presence in the French mobility corridor, with up to 16 AVE trains daily connecting 17 destinations on both sides of the border, serving 20 stations.

One wonders whether SNCF, which is simultaneously a competitor for Renfe and the authority in charge of approving them, does not intentionally delay the launch of AVE trains until after the Olympics.

According to documents from the environmental studies contracted by Infraestruturas de Portugal (IP), the study of a high speed station in Ponte de Lima, district of Viana do Castelo, is expected to be carried out within the scope of the “first phase” of the Porto-Vigo line, whose entry into service is scheduled “by 2030”.

The high-speed line is part of the $37 billion plan to improve Morocco’s rail network, which aims to connect a total of 43 cities and create 300,000 jobs by 2040. It is hoped that 87 percent of the population will have access to rail transport by that date, compared to just over 50 percent today.

Heita Kawakatsu, the four-term governor of Shizuoka — which sits roughly between Tokyo and Nagoya — is a NIMBY like no other. He has single-handedly been blocking the completion of one of the world’s most ambitious construction projects: A ¥9 trillion ($59.3 billion) magnetic-levitation train that will run at 500 kilometers an hour and eventually connect the Japanese capital and Osaka in just over 60 minutes.

Without his signoff, the project could not proceed. Central Japan Railway, the train operator that is building and financing the maglev, admitted recently that it had abandoned a planned 2027 launch date for the service. Various solutions offered to the governor had gone nowhere. There seemed little to do but wait for the 75-year-old Kawakatsu to get voted out or (one way or another) leave office.

Last week, fate — or a faux pas, at least — intervened. After a gaffe in which he called public servants "highly intelligent, unlike people who sell vegetables or take care of cows,” Kawakatsu is now set to resign in June amid anger from his constituents.

Outlines problems with the proposed Caltrain/CHSRA tunnel to the downtown SF terminal, along with some simple fixes.

The South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has recently revealed a new high-speed train named ‘KTX-Cheongryong’ which can reach a top speed of 320 km/h. KTX, short for Korea Train Express, is South Korea’s high-speed rail system and is operated by Korail.

The Cheongryong, the newest bullet train in South Korea, is faster than the previous KTX model, which enables passengers to travel from Seoul to Busan in approximately 2 hours and 10 minutes, and from Yongsan to Gwangju in about 1 hour and 30 minutes.