World's top High Speed Rail Networks

Text: Raghu Dayal Time on Indian Railways has run still, but world witnesses a High Speed Rail flurry. Here are some of the world's top high speed rail networks. Japan's Shinkansen Japan ushered in the revolution of high speed rail (HSR) in 1964, on the purpose-built 550 km Tokyo-Osaka route. Japan's Shinkansen was followed by French TGV. Income from the Shinkansen in 2005 totalled US $19.2 billion, 47% of JNR group’s rail business income.  A really important plus is HSR’s unblemished safety record: Shinkansen has had no fatality; so also the TGV sans any accident in 25 years and more of its operation. (Image: AP) France's TGV France's HSR network has been spinning a web from Paris to the corners of the French hexagon since the mid-1970s. Between Paris and South-east France, HSR traffic doubled in the past 10 years and air traffic declined by half. SNCF is experimenting with coupling two sets to form a 20-vehicle Super Duplex TGV set, with more than 1,000 seats.  A doubledecker TGV makes two round trips daily between Paris and the south or west of France, carrying some 1,000 passengers on each leg.  Germany's ICE With about 1,300 km of high speed lines and the third generation ICEs now topping 360 km/h, German Railways are now in the vanguard of Europe’s rail revolution. Spain's High Speed Rail No country is building HSRs faster than Spain ever since it launched in 1992 the 471-km high speed Madrid-Seville corridor, adopting standard gauge instead of its normal broad gauge. South Korea's HSR with TGV technology Outside Europe, South Korea launched in April 2004 the 412-km Seoul-Pusan high speed corridor, using TGV technology. Taiwan's HSR Taiwan celebrated on 24 October 2007 the completion of the 339-km Taipei-Kaohsiung HSR, a $16 billion BOT project. China is pressing ahead with 11 HSR lines Most important of all, China is pressing ahead with 11 HSR lines, aggregating 7,000 route km by 2010, to be expanded to 16,000 km by 2020. US too is gearing up to high speed rail travel The US too is now gearing up to high speed rail travel. America's first and only HSR service — Acela Express — tilts into curves, reaching a top speed of 240 km/h.  Sixty four corridors have been identified for high speed services to operate at 176 km/h (with diesel traction). Other countries in queue Resolutely poised in the queue are several others including Turkey, Hungary, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Russia.