February 13, 2016 There is no common understanding of the term “best” in relation to passenger trains in the world, since comfort, speed, cost of travel, and a number of other factors are important for passengers. Therefore, railway companies and train designers work according to different directions– increase speed, improve comfort, achieve reduction in energy consumption and transportation costs. We will tell you what has been done in these areas in recent years in Russia.
Peregrine Falcon
The most famous high-speed electric train in Russia today, it even has its own Twitter account and LiveJournal blog. The Sapsan project was developed specifically for Russia by the German company Siemens.
The Sapsan departed on its first, loudly advertised commercial flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg on December 17, 2009, and now runs on the Moscow - St. Petersburg (five trains per day) and Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod (two trains per day) lines. The electric train is capable of reaching speeds of up to 300 km/h, but on Russian roads its maximum speed is 250 km/h, on the Malaya Vishera – Okulovka section (Mstinsky Bridge), and the main part of the route “Sapsan” moves at a speed of 200 km/h. The number of carriages in the train is 10, the number of seats is 592.
The cost of travel on the Sapsan on the Moscow – St. Petersburg line in economy class is from 2320 rubles (one way) and in business class from 4200 rubles, on the Moscow – Nizhny Novgorod line from 1080 rubles in economy class and from 4650 rubles in business class.
Allegro
This high-speed train, well known to St. Petersburg residents, can be considered Russian, in best case scenario, half. The Allegro train runs between St. Petersburg and the capital of Finland, Helsinki, and is jointly operated by Russian Railways and the Finnish company Suomen Valtion Rautatiet. The project developer and manufacturer is the Finnish company Alstom.
On the territory of Finland the train moves at a speed of 220 km/h, on the territory of Russia - at a speed of 200 km/h; the railway infrastructure no longer allows it. The high-speed train “Allegro” covers the distance from our northern capital to the capital of the Country Suomi in 3 hours 50 minutes, with stops in the border Vyborg and some Finnish cities - Vainikkala, Lahti, Pasila and others.
The number of cars in the Allegro train is 7, the number of seats is 352, plus 2 seats for disabled people. The basic fare is 84 euros in a second class carriage and 104 euros in a first class carriage.
ES "Swallow"
This high-speed electric train, running in the Krasnodar region, can rightfully be considered “the most expensive electric train in Russia.” “Swallow” is one of the most ambitious and costly projects related to the 2014 Olympics. To implement it, Russian Railways signed a contract with the German company Siemens in 2009, according to which the company must supply 54 Siemens Desiro Rus electric trains to Russia in the amount of 410 million euros. And in 2013, Russian Railways entered into a new contract with Siemens for technical and service maintenance of trains for 40 years, worth 500 million euros. By the way, the letters ES in the name of the train mean “Electrosiemens”.
Each “Swallow” has five carriages. Seating - 409; there are also 4 seats for passengers with disabilities, and a toilet room. When there is a large passenger flow, for example on the Adler – Tuapse route, two coupled trains of 10 cars are sent on the route.
And if it weren’t for the rude controllers of Russian Railways and the carriages packed to capacity with passengers, these electric trains could easily be called one of the most comfortable types of transport in Russia. In the summer months, despite the high season and crowds of tourists, trains rarely run on the Tuapse-Sochi-Olympic Park route, which is why most passengers have to stand for hours in unsuitable passages. It looks something like in the Moscow metro cars at rush hour, but unlike the metro, the Swallow salons with narrow passages are not at all suitable for standing passengers.
In its homeland, Spain, this high-speed train is called Talgo 250. True, the train is Spanish, from the company Patentes Talgo S.L. The train only has carriages; it is planned to use domestic locomotives - EP20. From June 1, 2015, Swifts will operate on the route Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod. From the capital, with stops in Dzerzhinsk and Vladimir, the train will travel to Nizhny Novgorod 3 hours 45 minutes.
The number of cars in the Strizh train is from 7 to 11. There are 299 passenger seats in the 11-car train, and 236 seats in the standard 8-car train. The cost of travel in a carriage with standard seats is 1,150 rubles, in a luxury class carriage – 7,570 rubles.
Since 2013, train No. 103 with double-decker cars produced at the Tver Carriage Plant has been running on the Moscow-Adler route. This type of carriage (compartment) has 64 berths instead of the usual 36, and the SV-class carriage has 32 berths (instead of 18 in the usual version). Such “densification” should lead to cheaper tickets, but so far nothing of the kind has been observed. A place in a compartment to Adler in a double-decker carriage costs 7,540 rubles, in a single-decker - 7,140 rubles. From June 1, 2015, a passenger train with double-decker cars No. 5/6 will run on the most popular route Moscow - St. Petersburg, the cost of a compartment ticket to St. Petersburg is 2,670 rubles.
In general, we have to admit that the “best” passenger trains in Russia are by no means the best, since they are not the fastest, not the most comfortable and not quite “ours”. Of all the loudly promoted projects of Russian Railways listed above, only double-decker cars are produced in Russia, but the trains that are formed from them are ordinary, except that the passengers in them had to “make room” a little and “fork out” extra money. There was also the long-suffering “Falcon-250” that never took off….
"Falcon-250"
About sixty Russian enterprises and organizations took part in the creation of a prototype domestic model of a high-speed dual-power electric train (DC and AC) “Sokol-250”. It was assumed that new train will be able to reach speeds of up to 350 km/h. During the acceptance tests of the Sokol-250 prototype in June 2001, a speed of 236 km/h was achieved for the first time - a record for Russian railways at that time. However, the acceptance committee recognized the commissioning of the Sokol as impossible due to many design flaws - overheating of the brake discs, unreliability of the braking system, insufficient tightness of the cars, etc. Several cars from the Sokol-250 experimental train are located on the sidings of the Central Museum Oktyabrskaya railway.
Many people associate trains with a rather uncomfortable and long journey. But it turns out that in order for the journey to be pleasant, you just need to choose the right railways along which the fastest trains rush. Here we are talking about regular trains that operate with various systems, rail, magnetic or air cushion.
Fast, but still not leaders, among trains are present in different countries of the world. We invite you to familiarize yourself with them.
The fastest trains in the world
The Taiwanese THSR 700T train travels at a speed of 335 kilometers per hour and carries almost a thousand passengers. These trains are equipped with cruise control, as well as a shock-absorbing device to protect against accidents at low speeds.The South Korean high-speed train Hyundai Rotem has been running on the tracks since 2009. Its speed is 352 kilometers per hour. Such trains operate even in Ukraine. But, by a strange coincidence, trains constantly break down near Poltava.
The French TGV Reseau accelerates to 380 kilometers per hour. The cabin seats exactly 377 passengers. And this fastest train consumes 25 thousand volts of alternating current.
Japan's first high-speed train, Shinkasen, appeared in 1964. Its speed is quite impressive - 443 kilometers per hour. The train can be set in motion by 25 thousand volts of alternating current.
The stylish German train TR-09, which operates on the principle of a magnetic levitation system, has a speed of 450 kilometers per hour. By the way, the history of magnetic levitation technology goes back to the 40s of the last century, but commercial implementation was completed only in 2004.
The fastest train in China
Previously, the fastest train in the world ran in China. It reached speeds of up to 380 kilometers per hour. And the composition differs not only in speed, but also the highest level safety, comfort and environmental friendliness. It is planned to be sent along a railway line under construction, which goes from Beijing to Shanghai. The length of the road is 1318 kilometers.And this passenger train, which is called "Hese", which claimed the title of the fastest train in the world, made its first flight from the Chinese city of Wuhan to Guangzhou. The distance between them is only a little over a thousand kilometers. The train left Wuhan and reached its final destination in less than three hours. Wherein average speed train speed was 341 kilometers per hour. And during test runs on the same route, the cars moved at a speed of about 394 kilometers per hour.
The fastest train in Russia
Well, the fastest train in Russia is the Sapsan. This is a high-speed electric train from Siemens, which was purchased by Russian Railways for running on local roads. By the way, “Peregrine Falcon” is named after the peregrine falcon; it is the fastest bird in the world from the order of falcons. When attacked, its speed is 300 kilometers per hour.Japanese train Shinkansen 500, a new generation train.
The maximum design speed of the Sapsan is 350 kilometers per hour. But on Russian railways the train can move at a speed of only 250 kilometers per hour. For most of the journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg, the train travels at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour. But in one section, between Malaya Vishera and Okulovka, Mstinsky Bridge, it increases to 250 kilometers per hour.
It is worth noting that Siemens trains are different from European ones. In particular, air intakes are placed on the roof, so the trains can operate at ambient temperatures of minus 50 degrees Celsius. But the salons are 30 centimeters wider than standard European ones. And this is due, first of all, to the width of the Russian gauge and, of course, the size of the CIS rolling stock, which differs significantly from the European one.
The fastest train in the world
The record speed of movement on a railway track is 574 kilometers per hour. And it belongs to the fastest train in the world, TGV POS. During testing in 2007, this French electric train reached a speed of exactly 574.8 kilometers per hour. And this figure became a world record for rail trains. The record-breaking train runs to Germany and Switzerland from France, but at a lower speed.It is also worth noting the fastest maglev train in the world. This is the Japanese MLX01. Its record speed was recorded in 2003. Then he accelerated to 581 kilometers per hour.
There is another example with impressive speed. Another record was recorded in Japan. The high-speed train, called Hayabusa, which began operating in 2011, has been called the fastest train in the world, but also the most stylish. Inside the train, in the business class carriages, you feel like you are on board a modern airliner. And it moves at speeds of up to 500 kilometers per hour.
This super modern, fastest train in the world, according to railway workers, was created for two daily flights from Tokyo to Aomori. The road should stretch along an amazingly picturesque and beautiful rural areas, which is located in the north of Honshu.
The fastest trains of the future
It is worth noting that from 1960 to this day, the Japanese Shinkansen train manufacturing network has been designing, producing and selling trains that can rightfully be called perfect high-tech innovations, popular both in Japan and far beyond its borders.Sapsan train from inside
By the way, there is already a demand for Hayabusa business class trains. The main consumer is the USA, a country that is interested in very fast, and also safe and environmentally friendly trains. Well, those who want to ride on the long-nosed green-silver and ultra-fast, the fastest train in the world will have to pay about 320 dollars.
It is worth noting that the idea of setting speed records in Japan will not be left alone, since the country plans to launch a magnetic railway by 2027, which will connect the capital of the country and the city of Nagoya. But by 2045, the Japanese want to build a road from Tokyo to Osaka, in the west of the island. And, according to plans, a one-way trip should take only one hour and 7 minutes. This figure is twice as fast as it can be done now.
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The railway appeared many hundreds of years ago. There has been an evolution from heavy, clumsy trolleys to super high-speed express trains that cross vast distances in a matter of hours, due to magnetic levitation, which will surprise few people. This list includes the fastest trains that reach breakneck speed and work like clockwork.
Speed - 315 km/h
The development of this train was carried out according to the diagrams and drawings of the Shinkansen train, which originated in Japan. THSR 700T is located in Taiwan, its speed is from 300 to 315 kilometers per hour, it operates on the route north of Taipei - south of Kaohsiung. It has a dozen comfortable carriages and in total it can accommodate about 1000 people. In 2005, he reached his highest speed - 315 km/h.
Speed - 320 km/h
This type of high-speed trains is widespread on the German railway, as well as in a number of neighboring countries. On the road from Strasbourg to Paris, InterCity Express accelerates to 320 km/h. These are long-distance trains distributed throughout Germany. Now this type of trains has been purchased by Russia, where they operate on routes from Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod and from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
Speed - 334.7 km/h
Developed in the UK, the TVG high-speed train crosses the UK, Belgium and France through the Channel Tunnel (which has the second longest track in the world). The train seats nine hundred people and travels at a typical speed of 300/h. and the speed record of this train occurred in 2003 and is equal to 334.7 km/h. To get from London to Paris, you just need to take a Eurostar ticket and you'll be there in less than two and a half hours.
Speed - 352 km/h
This train has another name, it is known as KTX II, its first appearance in South Korea was recorded in 2009. Created by Hyundai Rotem, based on the design of the French TGV train, it belongs to Korail (the national railway operator of South Korea). Although this train can reach the stated speed of 352 km/h, which was reached in 2004, for safety reasons its speed does not exceed 305 km/h. The train's comfortable carriages accommodate 363 people, and it travels on two routes: Yongsan - Gwangju - Mokpo and Seoul - Busan.
Speed - 362 km/h
This electric train was released in Italy a quarter of a century ago, today its speed is 300 km/h, the official record was set in 2010 between Florence and Bologna and is equal to 362 km/h. It takes him just under an hour to get from Bologna to Milan. Three years ago, several ETR-1000 trains were supposed to be released, the maximum speed of which should have reached 400 km/h, but the release was delayed due to lack of funding.
AVE Talgo-350
Speed - 365 km/h
AVE (Alta Velocidad Española) is a trademark of the Spanish Railways operator Renfe-Operador. This abbreviation AVE also means "bird" in Spanish. Each train of this class is high-speed, but the AVE Talgo-350 will be of interest to us, its capacity is 320 people. It reaches speeds of up to 330 km/h, traveling from Madrid to Valladolid and from Madrid to Barcelona. In 2004, during an experiment, he was able to accelerate to 365 km/h. Due to its design, this electric train is nicknamed Pato ("duck").
Speed - 486.1 km/h
The maximum speed for this Chinese train, according to all documents, is 380 km/h, but as it turned out, this is not the limit and it was able to reach a speed of 486.1 km/h. CSR Qingdao Sifang Locomotive and Rolling Stock Company is the company that produces these bullet trains. The 8 carriages of this luxurious train are decorated in an airplane style and can accommodate about 500 people. This train first appeared on the rails in 2010 and followed the Shanghai-Nanjing route. Then two more routes were added: Wuhan - Guangzhou and Shanghai - Hangzhou.
Speed - 501 km/h
The Shanghai Maglev is a Chinese-made bullet train that runs on magnetic levitation. It was first seen in Shanghai in 2004. The average speed is 431 km/h, making the journey from the city center to the airport (30 kilometers) a five-minute drive. On November 12, 2003, an amazing event took place - the Shanghai Maglev Train reached a speed of more than five hundred kilometers per hour. The most interesting thing is that this train was developed not entirely by the Chinese, but by the Germans. Transrapid SMT is the model that served as the prototype for this train.
Speed - 574.8 km/h
TVG are French trains that travel between France and Switzerland and France and Germany. Their average speed is 320 km/h. Despite this, the TGV POS model broke all speed records among trains running on rails, reaching 574.8 km/h in 2007.
Speed - 581 km/h
The name of these trains comes from a Japanese word that means "new highway". These trains received another nickname - “bullet”, they hold the absolute world record for trains that ran with magnetic suspension - 581 km/h, on rails the result is more modest, but still impressive - 443 km/h. The road between Osaka and Tokyo is beyond high speed train It will only take two and a half hours. In addition to the fact that these are the fastest trains in the world, they are also the safest; in more than four decades of operation, not a single accident has occurred.
Russia is not a country with the fastest railways, and we are still very far from Japanese and French supertrains, but this was not always the case and in our country there have always been attempts to create our own high-speed trains, and a sufficient number of locomotives and trains have been created whose high-speed the characteristics are far from being so bad, and in their class they are not inferior to their foreign counterparts. Our rating contains only Russian or Soviet-made trains created at domestic factories. You can say that without Sapsan and Allegro this is not a rating, but it is a shame for us in a country like Russia to look with our mouths open at our neighbors and buy from them, and not create our own, so the rating will be exclusively from domestic trains.
I will not claim 100% reliability, but will build my rating based on available data, because there are many myths about the acceleration of this or that locomotive, but there is, as usual, a lack of documentary evidence. And so let's begin our top ten fastest Russian and Soviet trains.
TEP70
TEP70 is in tenth place in our ranking. This locomotive is the main diesel workhorse in passenger transportation on Russian Railways. The basic design of the diesel locomotive is so successful that it can be accelerated to very high speeds, but the design maximum speed is 160 km/h. There is no doubt that the locomotive is capable of reaching high speeds, and there were even rumors that it was accelerated to 220 km/h in tests, but the long-term speed is only 50 km/h, which does not allow us to place it higher in our rating. The diesel locomotive began operation in 1973, and its improved modification TEP70BS is currently being produced. It is produced at the Kolomna plant, and to date there are 300 of these machines and another 25 TEP70U driving around Russia.
In fact, there are plenty of locomotives with a design speed of 160 km/h in Russia, but this is the only diesel engine with such indicators, and it is also so widely produced, which is why it deserves its place.
"Martin"
Of course, it would be hard to call the Lastochka a purely Russian train, but it is the next one on our list of the fastest Russian trains. The main contribution to the creation was made by the same Siemens. The one who brought the Peregrine Falcons to Russia. Essentially, these trains are Siemens Desiro localized for our conditions. These locomotives are assembled at the Ural Locomotives plant, located in the city of Verkhnyaya Pyshma. The maximum design speed of a swallow is 160 km/h, but in fact the actual speed is somewhat lower, however, such trains are simply ideal for Russian roads, because often we simply have nowhere to accelerate faster. The main purpose is suburban or intercity transportation over short distances up to 200 km. On this moment 46 ES2G trains have already been produced.
EP2K
EP2K is perhaps the most long-awaited locomotive of our time. In the USSR, this niche was successfully occupied by Czechoslovak emergency units of various models, and Soviet factories did not really strive to compete with them, and thus for a long time we had practically no high-speed passenger locomotives of our own production on electric traction. At the turn of the century, the first similar models began to appear in our country, however, they were all either slower, such as EP1, or, on the contrary, faster, but something completely different was required, namely the replacement of Czech emergencies. This task was successfully completed at the Kolomensky plant and in 2008 the EP2K went into production. The maximum operating speed is 160 km/h, but the locomotive can easily go faster, and the continuous speed is 90 km/h. At the moment, more than 300 EP2K locomotives have already been produced and in the future they should completely replace ChS 7.
"Oriole"
In 2014, the Tver Carriage Works presented its newest train, which was named EG2Tv Ivolga. The design speed of the train is 160 km/h, but Russian Railways made it clear that this is not exactly what was expected from the plant. For such speeds they are already producing the Lastochka, and the Oriole needs to be “accelerated”. There are rumors that during testing, a train of three motor cars was accelerated to 250 km/h on a straight section, but this has not been documented anywhere, and the full train does not yet produce such a speed. At the moment, it is on the basis of the Ivolga that a passenger train is being created that can accelerate to 250 km/h, and time will tell whether Tverskoy Vagonostroitelny will be able to accomplish this task, but for now two trains have been built, which from 2017 will be tested on the Kiev direction of the Moscow Railway.
Steam locomotive type 2-3-2
The beginning of the 20th century was marked by a real boom in speed records in a variety of industries. Planes, cars, steam locomotives - all this moved faster and faster, and new records were set almost every year, and every developed country sought to join the elite by having high-speed transport. I did not lag behind in this direction and Soviet Union, especially considering our distances. In 1936, the first project of the 2-3-2k steam locomotive of the Kolomna Plant appeared, which developed a power of 3070 hp, which allowed it to accelerate to 150 km/h. Through modification, the maximum speed increased to 170 km/h. The locomotive was successfully tested and showed excellent results, but the outbreak of war did not allow serial production of the model. At the same time, they worked at the Voroshilovgrad Plant in parallel to refine the steam locomotive, and created a slightly faster model under the number 2-3-2B, which had a design speed of 180 km/h. He set his last record in 1957, when he reached a speed of 175 km/h.
EP20
EP20 is one of the most successful Russian electric locomotives recent years. It is designed to replace the old Czech ChS8 and ChS200 on Russian roads, the service life of which is coming to an end. The maximum design speed of the locomotive is 200 km/h, and there is no doubt that under certain circumstances it can move faster, but there is no data on this in open sources no, so we will consider it a maximum of 200 km/h. The fastest locomotive route is the Nevsky Express, which travels the distance between Moscow and St. Petersburg only 5 minutes longer than the Sapsan, which once again proves that there was no such need for the purchase of the Sapsan. The design of the EP20 turned out to be so successful that Russian Railways immediately placed an order after testing in 2011, and currently 60 locomotives of this brand have been produced at the Novocherskassk Electric Locomotive Plant, and a total of 200 of these machines are planned to be built.
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ER 200
The boom in high-speed transportation began in the 60s, when the first high-speed trains began to appear in Japan and Western Europe. In Russia, there were simply no roads for such trains, but the status of a great power simply did not allow not to have at least one similar route, and besides, the passenger traffic between Moscow and Leningrad was simply enormous. The terms of reference were approved in 1967, and for six years 50 different enterprises worked on its creation, and in 1973 the first train was assembled at the Riga Carriage Works and went into testing, which lasted another 6 years. The train set off on its first voyage in 1979, and went into permanent operation only in 1984. Why the process dragged on for almost 20 years is a huge mystery, and given the fact that by the end of the 80s repairs were already required, then one can only be surprised at the slowness Riga Carriage Works. The final design speed of the ER-200 was 200 km/h, and during testing it accelerated several times to 210 km/h. He covered the distance from Moscow to Leningrad in just under 5 hours, which was a pretty decent figure for his time, and even now only Sapsan and Nevsky Express travel faster than him. A total of 2 trains were built, and a pair of spare head cars. The ER-200 was in operation until 2006.
Ep200
The top three fastest domestic trains opens with the experimental locomotive EP200, built at the Kolomensky Zavod in 1996. The EP200 appeared at an extremely unfortunate time, when it seemed to be very necessary, but there was no money for its creation, testing and modification. The design speed of the locomotive was 250 km/h, but in operation the speed was limited to 200 kilometers. There is no exact data on the maximum speed during testing.
For all its high-speed advantages, it was not destined to go on regular flights. At first, the EP200 did not shine with reliability, especially at high speeds. And after eliminating the shortcomings, it was never accepted, and in 2009 it was finally written off with the wording “Russian Railways does not need electric locomotives of this type,” which looks not just strange, but simply like direct sabotage in favor of the German Sapsan, since it was precisely its competitor, especially since based on the EP200 it is already at full speed The development of EP250 and EP300 was underway, the operating speed of which was supposed to be 250 and 300 km/h, respectively. After all the misadventures with the locomotive, the Kolomensky Plant focused on the production and improvement of TEP70 and EP2k. Perhaps in the near future we will still see high-speed locomotives and trains that will leave the gates of the Kolomna plant, but it will not be EP200.
Falcon 250
The fate of this train was no less sad than the EP200. The technical requirements for the development of a new train for high-speed transportation were ready in 1993. The leading development company was the Central Design Bureau for MT "RUBIN". Sokol 250 went to its first tests in 1998, during which everything possible was tested, and the composition itself was developed maximum speed at 236 km/h, while its design speed was 250 km/h. During the tests, quite a few different but correctable shortcomings were found, and in fact the train was 90% ready. However, for unknown reasons, the project was canceled and the Falcon was sent to a museum. In fact, along with this locomotive, all the developments in creating such high-speed trains were ditched, and if we now try to do the same thing, we will have to start virtually from scratch again.
TEP 80
Ahead of its time - this is exactly what they said about the fastest Russian locomotive. It’s funny to say, but the fastest locomotive in Russia is not an electric locomotive, but a diesel locomotive TEP-80. When it was created, the TEP 70 was taken as a basis, which was not so fast, but had excellent potential for development. The TEP 80 was equipped with a one and a half times more powerful engine with a capacity of 6000 hp, and it was this engine that allowed the locomotive to accelerate during testing to a record speed for Russia of 271 km/h. By the way, this record has not been broken by more than one diesel locomotive in the world to this day.
It was manufactured at the Kolomensky Plant in 1988-89, but the chaos in the country of the Soviets was not conducive to such breakthrough developments. The tests were carried out by the plant, and with the collapse of the union, no one needed the diesel locomotive at all. The speed record was set in 1993 and recorded on camera. Why this project has not yet been restored remains a mystery, but it has gone into oblivion just like Sokol and EP200 and is gathering dust in a museum, never going on regular flights, although our railways still need such locomotives, but If necessary, it will have to be built from scratch.
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The high-speed train "Sapsan" of the Velaro RUS series - the first train of this class in Russia, capable of reaching a speed of 250 kilometers per hour - will depart on the evening of December 17 for the first regular flight from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
Below is data on high-speed trains in the world.
InterCity is the UK's high-speed train network, covering all big cities England, Scotland and Wales. The network is divided into seven directions, each of which serves a specific area of Foggy Albion.
The Intercity brand was introduced in 1950 as the name of a train destination London Wolverhampton. Rolling stock in different time included 7 classes of trains, of which the most widely used today are: “Intercity 125” (maximum operating speed 200 km/h) and “Intercity 225” (maximum operating speed 225 km/h). Trains designed and built subsidiaries British Rail.
TGV (TGV, French for "high-speed train") is a French network of high-speed electric trains developed by Alstom and the national French railway operator SNCF. The first line was opened in 1981 between Paris and Lyon.
The TGV network covers cities in the south, west and northeast of France: Lyon, Tours, Le Mans, Lille, Marseille, Strasbourg, as well as several cities in Switzerland. TGV lines are connected to other high-speed train networks: Thalis in the north and east (Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands) and Eurostar in the west (UK).
TGV trains are capable of moving at speeds of up to 320 km/h - this became possible thanks to the construction of special railway lines without sharp turns. The trains are equipped with powerful traction motors, articulated cars, lightweight wheeled bogies, and automatic locomotive signaling devices, thanks to which the driver does not need to concentrate on traffic lights when driving at high speeds. The vast majority of TGV trains are used for passenger transport, but there are also a few mail trains operating Paris-Lyon routes.
TGV uses specially built tracks called LVV (French ligne a grande vitesse - "high-speed line"), specially designed for travel at speeds of more than 300 km/h. TGVs can also travel along conventional railway lines at a speed of no more than 220 km/h.
The number of passengers carried by TGV trains throughout the history of their existence is approaching 2 billion. Annual passenger traffic is now around 130 million (2008).
Thalys is a network of high-speed railway lines connecting Paris (France), Brussels (Belgium), Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Cologne (Germany). The decision to build a high-speed line Paris - Brussels - Cologne - Amsterdam was made in 1987 by the national railway operators of the four countries participating in the project, and on June 4, 1996, the first train departed on the Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam route.
The intermediate points through which Thalis trains travel are Antwerp, Rotterdam, The Hague, Liege and Aachen. Trains run both on specially dedicated high-speed lines and on old tracks for regular trains. In the future, it is planned to completely switch to high-speed lines. Lines are planned via Cologne to Frankfurt am Main. The obstacle to this is insufficient nutrition contact network in Germany. Travel time from Brussels to Paris is usually 82 minutes (distance approximately 300 km). The maximum permissible speed (depending on the type of track) is 300 km/h
Talis operates train models similar to TGV produced by the French company Alstom.
Eurostar is a railway network connecting London and Kent in the UK with the cities of Paris, Lille (France) and Brussels (Belgium). Eurostar trains cross the English Channel via the Eurotunnel, which runs under the channel.
The Eurostar train is essentially an extended modification of the TGV train, adapted for operation in the UK and the Eurotunnel. Differences include a smaller car volume that meets the British railway rolling stock gauge standard, UK-built asynchronous traction motors and an improved fire safety system in case of a fire in the tunnel.
The train was designed by GEC Alsthom (now Alstom) at factories in La Rochelle (France), Belfort (France) and Washwood Hat (England), and began operation in 1993.
There are two types of Eurostar trains: Eurostar Three Capitals (English: “Three Capitals”) consists of two head cars and eighteen passenger cars with two additional motor bogies; Eurostar North of London (English: "North of London") consists of 14 passenger carriages. Both types of trains consist of two parts that are not articulated in the middle, that is, in the event of a breakdown or emergency in the Eurotunnel, half of the train can be uncoupled so that it leaves the tunnel under its own power. Each half of the composition has its own number.
All Eurostar trains are suitable for operation on LGV AC lines (including the Eurotunnel line and standard lines in the UK), Belgian DC lines and the UK third rail systems common in the south of the country.
Eurostar North of London trains have never been used for international transport: they carry passengers from London to cities north of the capital, but these services are currently not profitable due to the serious decline in prices for domestic air travel.
The annual passenger traffic of the Eurostar network is more than 9 million people (2008).
Intercity Express (ICE) is a high-speed train network common in Germany and covering the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark and France. Developed and put into operation by Deutsche Bahn. IN given time The rolling stock is manufactured by a consortium led by Siemens AG. The total length of the sections where Intercity Express can reach speeds of more than 230 km/h is 1200 km.
Intercity Express provides passenger transportation to all major German cities: Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Hanover, Stuttgart Bremen, Nuremberg, Dresden, Leipzig, Cologne, Bonn, and also connects Germany with neighboring countries through flights to Amsterdam (Holland), Liege and Brussels (Belgium), Paris (France), Zurich and Basel (Switzerland), Vienna (Austria), Aarhus and Copenhagen (Denmark). Unlike the French TGV or the Japanese Shinkansen, Intercity Express was not developed as a single system and therefore not all sections of the latest generation trains (ICE 3) can reach their maximum speed of 330 km/h. The section with the most routes is the Munich - Augsburg high-speed section, which carries more than 300 trains per day.
Unlike most high-speed train networks, which tend to radiate from one main point (TGV from Paris, Shinkansen from Tokyo), the Intercity Express network has four branches running from north to south, and three - from east to west. Three of the four north-south lines start in Hamburg and end in Munich.
"Shinkansen" (Japanese: "new line") is a high-speed railway network in Japan, designed to transport passengers between major cities of the country. Owned by Japan Railways. The first line opened between Tokyo and Osaka in 1964.
The Shinkansen network uses 1435 mm European gauge, which distinguishes it from the older Japanese railway lines, which have a 1067 mm gauge. Shinkansen lines are electrified using a single-phase alternating current system of 25 kV 60 Hz; on mini-Shinkansen lines the voltage is 20 kV.
The oldest Shinkansen line (Tokyo-Osaka) is currently also the busiest: it carries about 375 thousand passengers daily. In total this system High-speed trains carry 150 million people a year (409 thousand people a day), and the total number of passengers who have used the Shinkansen services since its inception has exceeded 6 billion.
The total length of the Shinkansen lines is 2,459 km. They cover all major cities of the islands of Kyushu and Honshu.
The Shinkansen system has six main lines: Tokyo-Osaka, Osaka-Hakata, Tokyo-Hachinohe, Omiya-Niigata, Takasaki-Nagano and Yatsushiro-Kagoshima, and 2 more lines known as "Mini Shinkansen": Fukushima-Shinjo and Morioka-Akita.
Shinkansen trains can have up to 16 cars, each 25 meters long, with the head cars usually being slightly longer. The total length of the train is about 400 meters.
Initially, the Shinkansen network was intended for both passenger and freight transportation around the clock. Freight services were later canceled and a service break was introduced on all lines from 0:00 to 06:00.
The maximum normal train speed achieved on the Nozomi route (on the stretch between the cities of Hiroshima and Hakata) is 300 km/h.
"Shanghai Maglev" (from the English maglev - magnetic levitation - "magnetic levitation") is the world's first commercial magnetic levitation railway line, operating in the city of Shanghai (PRC). It connects the Longyang Lu metro station with Pudong International Airport and covers a distance of 30 km in 7-8 minutes, reaching speeds of up to 431 km/h (average speed is 350 km/h). Designed and built by the German company Transrapid, opened in 2002, put into operation on December 31, 2002. Until 2010, the line was planned to be extended to Hongqiao Airport and further to southwest to Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, after which its length would be 175 km. However, construction was frozen due to the possibility of harmful effects of electromagnetic waves on local residents whose houses are located in close proximity to the future extension of the highway.
"Acela Express" (a combination of the English words acceleration and excellence - "acceleration" and "superiority") is a high-speed train connecting the American cities of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston. "Asela Express" runs along the "Northeast Corridor" railway line running parallel to the coast Atlantic Ocean through densely populated areas of the northeastern United States.
The total length of the high-speed line is 735 km, and its northern part is only 8 km longer than the southern part (372 km and 364 km, respectively). Almost the entire line is owned by Amtrak, with the exception of a small section in the northern suburbs of New York (between New Rochelle and New Haven) owned by Metro North Railroad, the operator of commuter passenger service to the north. from New York.
The rolling stock for Acela was produced at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries by a consortium consisting of the Canadian Bombardier (75%) and the French Alstom (25%). Each train has a capacity of 304 passengers and consists of two locomotives at either end of the train and six intermediate carriages: four business class carriages (2+2 seating arrangement), one first class carriage (2+1 seating arrangement) and one restaurant/bar carriage.
The maximum speed of Asela in regular passenger traffic is 241 km/h. The route speed is lower: when traveling from end to end along the entire 735-kilometer route, it is 109-113 km/h, depending on the route and the number of stops.
"Asela Express" starts its route daily at 06.00, runs at intervals of an hour or more (depending on the day of the week) and ends at 20.00.
Asely's annual passenger traffic is about 3.2 million people (2007). The express transports more than 8.7 thousand people per day.