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High-speed rail

High-speed rail is a type of rail transport that operates faster than traditional rail traffic. The Tōkaidō Shinkansen, the first such system, began operations in Japan in 1964 and was widely known as the bullet train. Many countries have developed high-speed rail to connect major cities (e.g.Germany,Spain,France and Italy). Only in Europe does high-speed rail cross international borders. China had 29,000 kilometres of high-speed rail as of December 2018, accounting for two-thirds of the world's total.

Railways were the first form of rapid land transportation and had an effective monopoly on long distance passenger traffic until the development of the motor car and airliners in the early-mid 20th century. Speed had always been an important factor for railroads and they constantly tried to achieve higher speeds and decrease journey times.

High-speed rail advantages

• Less boarding infrastructure: Although air transit moves at higher speeds than high-speed rail, total time to destination can be increased by travel to/from far out airports, check-in, baggage handling, security, and boarding, which may also increase cost to air travel.
• Short range advantages: Trains may be preferred in short to mid-range distances since rail stations are typically closer to urban centers than airports. Likewise, air travel needs longer distances to have a speed advantage after accounting for both processing time and transit to the airport.
• Weather: Rail travel also requires less weather dependency than air travel. A well designed and operated rail system can only be affected by severe weather conditions, such as heavy snow, heavy fog, and major storm. Flights however, often face cancellations or delays under less severe conditions.
• Comfort: High-speed trains also have comfort advantages, since train passengers are allowed to move freely about the train at any point in the journey. Since airlines have complicated calculations to try to minimize weight to save fuel or to allow takeoff at certain runway lengths, rail seats are also less subject to weight restrictions than on planes, and as such may have more padding and legroom. Technology advances such as continuously welded rail have minimized the vibration found on slower railways, while air travel remains affected by turbulence when adverse wind conditions arise. Trains can also accommodate intermediate stops at lower time and energetic costs than planes, though this applies less to HSR than to the slower conventional trains.
• Hot and High: Some airlines have cancelled or move their flights to takeoff at night due to hot and high conditions. Such is the case for Hainan Airlines in Las Vegas in 2017, which moved its long haul takeoff slot to after midnight. Similarly, Norwegian Air Shuttlecancelled all its Europe bound flights during summer due to heat. High speed rail may complement airport operations during hot hours when takeoffs become uneconomical or otherwise problematic.
• Ability to serve multiple stops: An airplane spends significant amounts of time loading and unloading cargo and/or passengers as well as landing, taxiing and starting again. Trains spend only a few minutes stopping at intermediate stations, often greatly enhancing the business case at little cost.
• Energy: high speed trains are more fuel efficient per passenger space offered than planes. Furthermore, they usually run on electricity, which can be produced from a wider range of sources than kerosene

High-speed rail in Europe

High-speed rail is emerging in Europe as a popular and efficient means of transport. The first high-speed rail lines in Europe, built in the 1980s and 1990s, improved travel times on intra-national corridors. Since then, several countries have built extensive high-speed networks, and there are now several cross-border high-speed rail links. Railway operators frequently run international services, and tracks are continuously being built and upgraded to international standards on the emerging European high-speed rail network.

The first high-speed rail lines and services were built in the 1980s and 1990s as national projects. Countries sought to increase passenger capacity and decrease journey times on inter-city routes within their borders. In the beginning, lines were built through national funding programmes and services were operated by national operators.

Europe was introduced to high-speed rail when the LGV (Ligne à Grande Vitesse) from Paris to Lyon opened in 1981 and TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) started passenger service. Since then, France has continued to build an extensive network, with lines extending in every direction from Paris. France has the second largest high-speed network in Europe, with 2,647 km of operative high-speed rail lines in July 2017, only behind Spain's 3,240 km.

After 2020, Iarnród Éireann are considering upgrading the route to 200 km/h with new carriages and journey times of 90 mins along with improving the route to 225 km/h with tilting trains, which would cut times to 60 minutes.

High-speed rail in Germany

Construction on the first German high-speed lines began shortly after that of the French LGVs. However, legal battles caused significant delays, so that the German Intercity-Express (ICE) trains were deployed ten years after the TGV network was established. The latest generation of the ICE has a service speed of 330 km/h and has reached speeds up to 363 km/h. It allows journey times of about four hours from Berlin in the north to Munich in the south, compared to nearly eight hours for the same distance a few years ago.

Germany has experienced a tragic accident on a high-speed service. In the Eschede train disaster of 1998, a first generation ICE experienced a catastrophic wheel failer.

Travel times in Germany

DB Intercity-Express travel times between major stations1, 2
	Berlin	Brussels	Cologne	Düsseldorf	Frankfurt	Hamburg	Munich	Stuttgart
Berlin Hbf 4		N/A	4h 17min	4h 14min	3h 52min3	1h 42min	3h 58min3	5h 04min
Brussels Midi/Zuid	N/A		1h 50min	N/A	3h 05min	N/A	N/A	N/A
Cologne/Köln Hbf 4	4h 17min	1h 50min		21min	1h 01min3	3h 31min3	4h 32min	2h 13min
Düsseldorf Hbf	4h 14min	N/A	21min		1h 26min	3h 06min	4h 41min	2h 28min
Frankfurt (Main) Hbf 4	3h 39min3	3h 05min	1h 04min3	1h 26min		3h 20min3	3h 09min	1h 18min3
Hamburg Hbf 4	1h 42min	N/A	3h 35min5	3h 06min	3h 20min3		5h 31min	4h 59min
München Hbf	3h 55min3	N/A	4h 32min	4h 44min	3h 09min	5h 31min		2h 12min
Stuttgart Hbf	5h 04min	N/A	2h 13min	2h 28min	1h 17min3	4h 59min	2h 12min

High-speed rail in China

High-speed rail in China consists of a network of passenger-dedicated railways designed for speeds of 250–350 km/h.

It is the world's longest high speed railway network and is also the most extensively used.High-speed rail developed rapidly in China over the past 15 years with substantial funding from the Chinese government. The advent of high-speed rail in China has greatly reduced travel time and has transformed Chinese society and economy.

Notable high-speed rail lines in China include the Beijing–Guangzhou high-speed railway which at 2,298 km is the world's longest high-speed rail line in operation, the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway with the world's fastest operating conventional train services and the Shanghai Maglev, the world's first high-speed commercial magnetic levitation line.

High-speed rail in Japan

Japan was the first country to build dedicated railway lines for high-speed travel. Because of the mountainous terrain, the existing network consisted of 1,067 mm narrow-gauge lines, which generally took indirect routes and could not be adapted to higher speeds. Consequently, Japan had a greater need for new high-speed lines than countries where the existing standard gauge or broad gauge rail system had more upgrade potential.

The popular English name bullet train is a literal translation of the Japanese term dangan ressha, a nickname given to the project while it was initially being discussed in the 1930s. The name stuck because of the original 0 Series Shinkansen's resemblance to a bullet and its high speed.

Japan's Shinkansen train operator, West Japan Railway Co. Ltd unveiled a new Hello Kitty-themed Shinkansen bullet train. The special train, running the company's Sanyo Shinkansen line debutted on June 30. It is decorated inside and out with a Hello Kitty-theme and has been very popular.