High-Speed Rail – an alternative for short-haul flights

High-Speed Rail (HSR) refers to railway lines built from scratch or adapted for the transport of goods and passengers at speeds exceeding 200 km/h. The term HSR also includes rolling stock specifically designed to reach speeds of over 200, 300, or even 500 km/h. The classic distinction between conventional trains and high-speed trains within the European Union is defined in the EU Directive 96/48/EC of July 23, 1996. It specifies 3 fundamental infrastructure conditions (in practice, at least one must be met for a given railway to be classified as high-speed rail):

• lines built from scratch as intended for HSR must be adapted for traffic at speeds of at least 250 km/h
• lines adapted from existing ones must be adapted for traffic at speeds of at least 200 km/h
• lines adapted from existing ones – with specific topographical conditions or running through urban areas – should allow for traffic at speeds adapted to local requirements.

HSR is primarily intended to serve large metropolitan areas and provide competition for air transport. Currently, there are about 2,215 HS trains in operation worldwide (mainly SHST – Super High-Speed Train, i.e., exceeding 250 km/h). Rolling stock production is handled by several companies globally. Leading manufacturers of trains reaching 350 km/h and more include: Alstom (France), Bombardier (Canada), and Kawasaki (Japan).

Pioneering HSR solution in Japan
Japan was a global pioneer in the construction of high-speed rail lines. As early as 1956, a study was conducted there for the Tokyo – Osaka line, measuring 515 km in length, with a maximum speed of 300 km/h. Construction began in 1959 and was completed as early as 1964. This was driven by the desire to improve the quality of transport before the Tokyo Olympics. The newly created network was named “Shinkansen,” which meant “new main line.” Today, there are about 2,000 km of Shinkansen routes in Japan. The Japanese were the first to make HSR lines (Tokaido: Tokyo – Osaka, built in 1964) available for three categories of trains:

• Nozomi – the fastest train on this route, having the fewest stations (only major ones), traveling at a speed of 300 km/h and covering this distance in 2 h 26 min
• Hikari – with a limited number of stops, slower than Nozomi, but faster than Kodama
• Kodama – stopping at all stations, the slowest.

All three types of connections are served by identical rolling stock. The Kodama train has a frequency of 1 train / 1h. On the route, it has 15 intermediate stations, with average distances between stations of around 32 km. This train is overtaken on average 11 – 12 times by Hikari and Nozomi, and it covers the 515 km route in 4 hours.

Subsequent routes opened in Japan were: the “Sanyo” line – connecting Osaka with Okayama, opened in 1972, and extended in 1975 by another 393 km to Fukuoka, and the Omiya – Morioka line, opened in 1982. After the opening of these first connections, the Shinkansen network underwent further development. Currently, the main goal of the Japanese is to increase the speed of existing lines. It is planned that in 2011 the speed of some of them will already be 330 km/h, and in 2025 as much as 500 km/h. This is to be possible thanks to the use of trains moving on so-called magnetic cushions.

The Shinkansen network is characterized mainly by the fact that it is completely separated from conventional rail. In its 45-year tradition, there has not been a single fatal accident caused by a collision or derailment on this network. A source of great pride for the Japanese is also the average annual delay of HSR, amounting to less than half a minute (including earthquakes, typhoons, and snowfall). As you can see, the Japanese have set the bar very high for their successors.

The article comes from the magazine “Logistyka” 2/2010.