Up to Speed

Railways created a transport revolution in the 19th Century. As trains and lines get faster and more sophisticated, are we on the verge of a new leap forward?

All across the globe our roadways are clogged with traffic. Roadways are suffering from large populations that they were simply not built to support. In nations like the US, where many major roadways were constructed long before modern technology was available to support such wear and tear, the situation is critical. Coupled with this, air travel is no longer the glamorous experience it once was. Crowded airports, flight delays and onerous security checks all conspire to make flying more chore than pleasure.
    
In light of such conditions, the idea that we need smart transportation systems that equal the needs of the 21st Century is firmly upon us and, as a result, the concept of high-speed rail is taking up a renewed interest. High-speed rail may not be technically new, but with a new interest coming from nations such as the US and Britain, high-speed rail is taking on a fresh and exciting dynamic.

Currently in the UK for example the only evidence of any high-speed rail is the 109km rail link to the Channel Tunnel, which, critics say, just isn't enough. The argument is that, quite frankly, there is no reason why high-speed rail can't be done on a massive scale in Britain, the country that not only invented the railways but, through High Speed One, already has a state-of-the-art high-speed line (even if it is only 109km in length and fails to connect any major UK cities).

But if Britain, or the US, really is to implement a high-speed network, there surely is a long way to go. On April 16, 2009, Obama highlighted his ambition for the development of high-speed passenger rail lines in at least 10 regions. Mr. Obama said the $8 billion for high-speed rail in his stimulus package - to be spent over two years - and an additional $1 billion a year being budgeted over the next five years, would provide a "jump start" toward achieving that vision. In a recent statement Obama himself said: "I know that this vision has its critics. There are those who say high-speed rail is a fantasy. But its success around the world says otherwise."

In response to this, US Infrastructure examines some of Europe's high-speed rail networks and looks at the lessons that America can learn from them.

France

The first TGV service in France was launched in 1981 between Paris and Lyon, cutting the journey time between the two cities to under two hours. Since then the network has been massively extended, first to include a line between Lyon and Marseilles, and then new lines from Paris to Lille in the north, Alsace in the east and Le Mans going west. Today France's TGV network is nearly 2000 km in length, which is almost as large as Japan's leading network, and four lines are currently being built simultaneously, totalling over 640km in length, all due for completion by 2015.
  
It was actually President Sarkozy who accelerated the high-speed programme as a key point of his fiscal stimulus plan back in December 2008. At the time, he told a press conference: "It is certain we are not wrong doing this. Mobility is a need and the boss of SNCF, who is here, won't disagree." That boss is Guillame Pepy, but in contrast to Sarkozy's defiance, Pepy has noted several mistakes in the planning of the network. One of the biggest, he says, was not building the Paris-Lyon line as a four-track railway from the outset because, as is happening now in Japan with the Tokyo to Osaka line, the TGV line is now nearing saturation point. As a result planning is now underway for a second line between the two conurbations.
  
Nonetheless, as the French high-speed network continues to be built out and become interconnecting with neighbouring countries, it appears that a series of 'Trans-European Networks' could become a reality. In fact, plans show that the Paris to Lille and the Channel Tunnel lines will soon link through, via Brussels, into the new Dutch high-speed line up to Rotterdam and Amsterdam, cutting the journey time between Paris and Amsterdam to a mere two hours. Further to this, extensions to the Lyon to Marseilles line that are currently under construction (or in the planning stages) include plans to go south-east from Marseilles toward Nice and ultimately through to Italy, south toward Montpelier (through a 17-mile tunnel under the Pyrenees) to Barcelona, and easterly to Turin, Italy to join up with the North Italian high-speed network.

The interesting thing about TGV is that as its popularity has soared it has been paralleled by a willingness from the French authorities to help pay for the investment. In fact, only two percent of the cost of the original Paris to Lille line was paid for by local authorities, and by contrast the current Le Mans to Rennes line is covered by 39 percent by local authorities, showing a much greater cover over time. However, the TGV does still face a series of challenges. Outside of Paris, for example, there are currently only 18 TGV stations for the entire network. That means that there are currently no stops for medium or even some large towns, and research shows that, despite some people arguing otherwise, it is not the case that high-speed rail requires there to be few stations and only city-to-city services; in fact, evidence suggests that intermediate stations are, if suitably engineered, entirely consistent with the highest speed end-to-end running.

Italy

The Italians actually implemented high-speed rail three years before the French by opening a line from Rome to Florence in 1978. Now, 31 years later, the line has been extended north and south to form a nearly complete network from Milan to Naples via Bologna, Florence and Rome. The last major section, which is due to open later this year, will link Florence to Bologna and will include an impressive near-50 miles of tunnels, nine individual tunnels in all, to get the line through the Apennines, halving the existing journey time to just 30 minutes. In addition, a north-west to north-east line is also at various stages of operation, planning and construction, aiming to link Turin, Milan, Verona, Venice and Trieste by 2016.

In addition, from 2011, a competitor service will be set up in Italy that will also run on the Milan to Rome line. According to Boston Consulting Group study of a recent survey of 13,000 pan-European distance travellers from 13 countries, more than 30 percent of passengers would like to switch modes, and in some countries that proportion is actually as high as 65 percent. As the report says: "Considering the size of the market this presents a huge opportunity for alternative providers, particularly given the fact that by 2020 passengers will be to travel faster from A to B via high-speed rail than by plane on nearly half of Europe's busiest air routes."

Similarly to France there are still challenges that are facing the Italian network. While the location of Rome's city-centre station, for example, proves to be the network's greatest advantage in terms of city-centre business, it is also the network's biggest disadvantages in terms of fast, convenient access by car and public transport for those with further to go. In other words, it is those operators that can provide the most seamless door-to-door journey across multiple modes, usually by working with other companies, will have an obvious advantage. 

Spain

Spain entered the high-speed era back in 1992 when it opened the Madrid-Seville line. Today Spain is considered as the most ambitious country across Europe in terms of growth of a high-speed network. With its most recent completion of the Madrid to Barcelona line, Spain now boasts an impressive 1600km of high-speed rail in operation. Further to this, there is both another 2000km under construction and 16000km in the planning stages.

The network is also growing outside of the Spanish borders, with a key construction project currently working to connect the Spanish and French networks. As a result of this, an intense debate is now underway to decide whether the new line will carry freight and passenger traffic, or just passenger. But the most notable feature of Spain's high-speed rail has to be the sheer scale and rapidity of its development, especially considering Spain is a country without an especially strong railway tradition. Nonetheless, the growth has been immense. Back in 2005, for example, the Spanish Government published a national high-speed plan with a target to build 10,000 km of line by 2020, connecting all of the nation's capitals, accounting for 90 percent of the population. The proposal also estimated that the cost will be met from allocating 1.5 percent of the GDP to national infrastructure investment. With a budget of 250 billion euros, half of that will go to rail. In fact, this year alone Spain will be spending a massive total of 10 billion euros on rail infrastructure investment, with six billion going to high-speed rail. By comparison the UK has a £10 billion budget for capacity enhancement for the next five years.

What's more, the Madrid to Barcelona line, which only opened last February, offering riders a journey time of two hours and 38 minutes for the 592km journey, has now cut that journey time to two hours and 15 minutes. When the service opened it only had 16 percent of the combined train and air market, now it holds 48 percent and expectations are that this will rise to 70 percent, which aligns with other lines such as those from London to Paris and Brussels.