TGV Business Class
Given the total crap state of the rail cars/carriages that they provide for the commute in the USA, I am not only appreciating the quality of the new double decker commuter units they had in Czech Republic, but a certain element of envy does crop up when you take a look at the new Business Class seating in the double-decker TGVs being rolled out in France. I find it amazing to think that even the UK is light years ahead of the US when it comes to the quality of the rail system and the quality of the passenger comfort.
TGV Business Class
Very High Speed
CRH3
China opened, yesterday, what is being referred to as the world’s first Very High-Speed rail line between Beijing and Tianjin. The 120km route will now take 30 mins to complete compared to the 70 mins it used to take, with speeds maxing out at 350 km/h. The line has taken just 3 years to build and complete, and this is their first of many Very High-Speed lines to be in operation.
So whilst China, and many other countries, can currently bask in the glory of the new railway revolution that is taking place, the US and UK lag so very far behind using still relying on their slow-speed inter city rail and clinging to the addiction of fossil fuels.
ICE derails in Germany
An ICE 3 train leaving Cologne, Germany derailed on Wednesday (9 July). The unbelievable aspect of this story is that preliminary investigations suggest that an ‘incident’ affecting a wheel axle shortly after leaving Frankfurt Airport station may have caused the derailment; the line between Frankfurt and Cologne is the flag-ship line that sees trains doing in excess of 300 km/h; so this means that the unit that derailed was probably doing similar speeds along this line during it’s journey between Frankfurt and Cologne. This has naturally left many people feeling somewhat nervous about what could have happened and forced the Public Prosecutor’s office to launch an investigation into the incident on the basis that DB may have known about this during the journey and failed to stop the train to inspect it thus putting passengers and the national rail network in danger.
The next high-speed rail ink
China has started construction of the next high-speed rail line that will cover the 300km distance between Shanghai and Nanjing; it will take four years to build and when the line opens it will offer 24hour a day services between the two cities cutting the journey time to 74 mins from the current 120mins.
What I find amazing is that the services will be scheduled to be every three minutes during peak periods, this is roughly the same frequency that the metros are scheduled here in Prague except this will be on a high-speed. main line route.
In contrast I have been reading that the San Francisco to Los Angeles high-speed line might be in service by 2030; it will cover the distance of 550km in 2.5 hours with impressive average speeds of around 350km/h. However, China will be able to construct 75 km of track a year; the Californian line will be constructed an average of 27.5 km a year (on the assumption that the project goes ahead an starts in 2010). It is a pity it will take so long unless they can find a way to accelarate the construction method.
More talk of new UK lines
Yet more talk about planning new high-speed rail lines in the UK. Why don’t they stop talking and build, the 2012 Olympics are getting closer and the UK needs to benefit from this, not just London…
Rail bosses are to look at the possibility of building five new high-speed main lines as part of a review of the network’s future, Network Rail said.
Network Rail said it was to commission a study which would look into the feasibility of new lines along the UK’s busiest routes in what would amount to the largest track build since the 19th century.
The review, which will be announced on Monday, will also assess the need for high speed trains similar to the French TGV to cope with Britain’s growing number of rail users.
Question is: will they really bring TGV to UK or just look at France and say “That’s nice”. One thing that did strike me looking at the BBC article is that the routes are primarily focused on connecting the rest of the UK with London with little thought put in to cross-country routes - say linking Edinburgh and Glasgow, even going North in Scotland, or even connecting Birmingham with Bristol as an easier way of going North-South. This is one of those issues in France, you need to travel to Paris if you want TGV from the South West to South East Bordeuax to Marseille; whilst this is being rectified, someone else has made this “mistake” so maybe the UK should learn. Then again it is the feasibility of doing such cross country routes, are they actually used.
High speed rail can boost economies (?)
My guess is that this is a way to convince governments to build high-speed rail networks, talk in terms they understand on the basis that they are vote winners. Think of the political mud that can be slung if you refuse to invest in regions in order to safe-guard the future.
The engineering firm Atkins published a report that suggests a huge overall gain can be achieved by building a high-speed network all over the UK. One quote that caught my attention is this from Network Rail...
‘The challenge is to look at the developing and changing demographics, and demand along particular corridors, and see what fits best. High-speed travel is likely to be one of a multitude of ultimate solutions. As we develop our plans to build a bigger, better railway over the next few years, we will look at this in more detail.’
In other words we don’t like the idea of non-government organizations putting there nose where it is not welcome. Its back to using helicopters again then.
Madrid to Barcelona at 300 km/h
The high speed line between Madrid and Spain has started public operation. A distance of around 550 km, reaching speeds of 300 km/h, and taking around 2 hours 30 minutes, Spanish rail operator Renfe is the latest country (well, the second accoridng to my knowledge) that is using the German ICE 103 system to make the high speed journey.
- The Times
- BBC News
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The Telegraph - which interestingly always takes a swipe at UK rail. Ironic since it is has been a staunch conservative paper and it is the Tories, during the 80s, that ensured UK rail died off, and who also canceled the APT project, that ultimately gave the Italians (Fiat) a lot of the tilting technology for their Pendolino.
I found the video, below and in Spanish, detailing the first day of the journey.
The AGV
France already has a fleet, and series, of High Speed trains that would (and probably does) make most countries jealous. The TGV already has a market penetration that makes it a successful unit, and it goes double-decker for those routes that are just getting more and more popular. Added to this the fact that the latest domestic units are getting a designer makeover by Lacroix we are talking about one fabulous network that quite rightly injects some seriously needed national pride.
Now they are introducing the Automotrice à Grande Vitesse (AGV), the next generation units. Its already sold 25 units to Italy who will be running then from around 2011. The units run using a drive system that runs along the whole length of the train - rather like the German ICE3 - and should have an operating speed of 360km/h.
High-speed UK
Looks like the head of the Railway network in the UK has told the government that they need to spend 50billion GBP for a high speed rail network prior to 2020. I bet he really had to stop himself from saying that if they weren’t such a bunch of useless oafs the UK would already have such a network and they would not need to spend so much money. But then he could be lucky and some of the network he proposes is actually realised. However, the UK government is not the best when it comes to this kind of future planning…
[The head of UK's rail network] will commission a detailed study soon into possible routes for a network that is likely to cost more than £50 billion to complete. Network Rail has decided to take a lead after becoming frustrated by the Department for Transport’s lack of progress on the issue of high-speed rail.
Good luck.
