[List] Countries with HSR

This is a list of countries in the world that have high-speed rail: conventional and maglev, as well as countries who intend to build HSR.

Feel free to contribute and I will update the post.

Countries with MagLev trains:
China (Shanghai)
Germany (test)
Japan (Yamanashi Test Track, will become part of Chuo Shinkansen line)

Countries with dedicated High-Speed Conventional Rail trains (150mph+):
Within Europe:
France
Spain
The United Kingdom
Germany
Italy
Turkey
Russia
Belgium
The Netherlands
Switzerland

In Asia:
Japan
South Korea
The Peoples' Republic of China
The Republic of China
Uzbekistan

No HSR Networks exist in the continents of South America, North America, Africa and Oceania.

________________________________________

Planned (2011-2035) - [for countries without HSR already]
In Europe:
Austria (155mph HSR planned)
Poland (150-155mph HSR planned)
Sweden (150-220mph HSR planned)
Portugal (running AVE trains)

In Asia:
Vietnam
The Philippines
Malaysia-Singapore (KL to S'pore)
Thailand
Laos
Burma/Myanmar
Indonesia
India (massive project in the works)
Gulf: Bahrain, Qatar and UAE
Saudi Arabia (separate from previous Gulf project)
Iraq

In Africa:
Morocco (Tangier to Casablanca)
South Africa

In the Americas:
The United States (California, Nevada/DesertXpress, etc)
Canada
Brazil
Argentina

In Oceania:
Australia

International networks:
Rail Baltica (various speed proposals)
Hungary-Romania (300km/h or 186mph)
Sino-Indochina
Sino-Russia
Sino-Europe proper

______________

Notes: speculative upgrades in Norway/Sweden and a few other countries are excluded until actual commitment to these HSR upgrades. Moreover, for simplicity "high-speed" excludes all rail networks that are not dedicated HSR in excess of 150mph/250kmh[which is actually 155mph]

Likewise, regional projects in given countries (Spain's extensions into France, Basque Country, etc) are excluded, as both country A and country B already have HSR and thus it constitutes an extension of their network (whether connected to it or not)

MPH provided since the bulk of the forum is American.

By your definition, Acela Express would place the United States, and thereby North America, on the current HSR map. If you choose not to recognize the current short stretch of 150 mph running, you could also include the proposed Constant-Tension Catenary improvements which will enable 160 mph running through large parts of New Jersey.

Asia:
Taiwan

Africa:
Pretoria to Johannesburg

MagLev:
Japan (Yamanashi Test Track, will become part of Chuo Shinkansen line)

kaitoku wrote:MagLev:
Japan (Yamanashi Test Track, will become part of Chuo Shinkansen line)

Does that mean it will become a conventional steel wheel on steel rail line?

mtuandrew wrote:By your definition, Acela Express would place the United States, and thereby North America, on the current HSR map. If you choose not to recognize the current short stretch of 150 mph running, you could also include the proposed Constant-Tension Catenary improvements which will enable 160 mph running through large parts of New Jersey.

I put emphasis on dedicated speeds of at least 150mph. Meaning throughout the route. Acela is therefore not qualified.

The proposed improvements you mention are included in the "etc" next to the United States. It would be absurd to write every single proposed route until they have enough money to actually start construction. Which is the case in California HSR and DesertXpress.

george matthews wrote:Asia:
Taiwan

Africa:
Pretoria to Johannesburg

Taiwan province is already included under its official [internationally unrecognized] name "Republic of China".

South Africa rail is 160km/h which is extremely slow, and does not even qualify as high-speed diesel (125mph/200kmh)

Johannesburg - Pretoria is Gautrain, and it's 160 km/h / 100 mph. Sort of like BART, and not HSR by the 150-mph threshold.

The US Northeast Corridor has parts that are at the 250-km/h / 150-mph threshold, so it's a borderline case.

Would using Wikipedia be cheating?
High-speed rail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
High-speed rail by country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Planned high-speed rail by country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fortunately, a well-written Wikipedia article is also well-referenced, and Wikipedia has an ideology that includes no original research. So one can check on an article's references to see if there are some good ones. I've found some, likeHigh speed lines in the world - UIC - International Union of Railways. I'd like to see sources on all the HSR lines, whether existing, under-construction, planned, or proposed. RR official organizations like that UIC site and RR trade publications like Railway Age would do nicely; some are online.

To give you an idea of what I'm looking for, here are some references on Gautrain's maximum speed:
LOOK AND FEEL | Gautrain - The Gautrain Project
HIGH SPEED TESTING OF TRAINS IN FULL SWING | Gautrain - The Gautrain Project
Train assembly to boost East-Rand (South Africa Engineering News; line voltage)

lpetrich wrote:Johannesburg - Pretoria is Gautrain, and it's 160 km/h / 100 mph. Sort of like BART, and not HSR by the 150-mph threshold.

The US Northeast Corridor has parts that are at the 250-km/h / 150-mph threshold, so it's a borderline case.

Would using Wikipedia be cheating?
High-speed rail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
High-speed rail by country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Planned high-speed rail by country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fortunately, a well-written Wikipedia article is also well-referenced, and Wikipedia has an ideology that includes no original research. So one can check on an article's references to see if there are some good ones. I've found some, likeHigh speed lines in the world - UIC - International Union of Railways. I'd like to see sources on all the HSR lines, whether existing, under-construction, planned, or proposed. RR official organizations like that UIC site and RR trade publications like Railway Age would do nicely; some are online.

To give you an idea of what I'm looking for, here are some references on Gautrain's maximum speed:
LOOK AND FEEL | Gautrain - The Gautrain Project
HIGH SPEED TESTING OF TRAINS IN FULL SWING | Gautrain - The Gautrain Project
Train assembly to boost East-Rand (South Africa Engineering News; line voltage)

Ironically, my primary source of information was wikipedia.

george matthews wrote:

kaitoku wrote:MagLev:
Japan (Yamanashi Test Track, will become part of Chuo Shinkansen line)

Does that mean it will become a conventional steel wheel on steel rail line?

No. It will be maglev. The term "shinkansen" merely means "new trunk line", not a designation specifically of a steel rail/steel wheel line. The term "line" or "sen" is also used for highways.

Smart wrote:This is a list of countries in the world that have high-speed rail: conventional and maglev, as well as countries who intend to build HSR.
...
Planned (2011-2035) - [for countries without HSR already]
...
In the Americas:
...
Canada

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uU3Q3A1GPd4

http://www.uic.org/IMG/pdf/20111101_a1_ ... _world.pdf

Europe:
In service: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, UK
Under construction:
Planned: Poland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden

Asia:
In service: China (Communist), China (Taiwan), Japan, South Korea, Turkey
Under construction: Saudi Arabia
Planned: India, Iran

Others:
In service: USA
Under construction: Morocco
Planned: Brazil

I don't want to argue about whether Turkey belongs in Europe or in Asia -- I like the term Eurasia.

The other listed nations. Note that some of them have max-speed proposals less than 250 km/h, and thus may not qualify.

Austria: ots.at: ÖBB dementieren Meldungen über Verschiebung des Westbahn-Ausbaues (in German)
Hungary/Romania: Couldn't find speed info
Lithuania/Latvia/Estonia http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sou ... ncl_en.PDF (max proposed speed: 200 km/h)
Russia: Russia-InfoCentre :: First high speed train Sapsan arrived in St Petersburg from Moscow, Railway Gazette: Russia to announce high speed line plan, Railway Gazette: RZD launches Moscow - St Petersburg high speed line project
Uzbekistan: Railway Gazette: Talgo 250 arrives in Toshkent, Uzbekistan’s high-speed trains said to lack suitable tracks - Central Asia Online
Iraq: Alstom in deal to build high-speed rail in Iraq - Telegraph
Gulf Cooperation Council (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman): nothing I could find on projected speeds
United Arab Emirates: High speed Dubai to Abu Dhabi rail plan revealed | ArabianSupplyChain.com -- 200 km/h
South Africa: High speed Durban–JHB rail link viable, says Prasa's Montana (300 - 350 km/h)
Canada: High-speed Quebec City-Windsor rail link could cost $21.3B | CTV News, http://highspeedrail.ca/ (has more news articles)
Argentina: Railway Gazette: Argentina confirms high speed rail consortium, Railway Gazette: Pointers February 2009 (now on hold)
Philippines: Couldn't find speed info
Vietnam: Sơ sài dự án hàng tỉ USD | Đô thị | Người Lao Động Online (in Vietnamese)
Thailand/Laos: International Railway Journal - International Railway Journal (unavailable to nonmembers; speed: 250 km/h)
Myanmar/Burma: High-speed rail between Yunnan and Myanmar on agenda CCTV News - CNTV English (speed: 170-200 km/h) Railway Gazette: China starts work on line to Myanmar (speed: 140 km/h)
Malaysia/Singapore: Main - Malaysia - KL mulls Penang-Singapore high-speed rail link @ Tue Sep 21 2010
Indonesia: Couldn't find speed info
Australia: Australian Very Fast Trains-A Chronology (Background Paper 16 1997-98)

Speculative Beijing-London high-speed route: China to build high speed rail link to Europe

I used Google Translate on the German and Vietnamese ones.

lpetrich wrote:http://www.uic.org/IMG/pdf/20111101_a1_ ... _world.pdf

Europe:
In service: Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, UK
Under construction:
Planned: Poland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden

Asia:
In service: China (Communist), China (Taiwan), Japan, South Korea, Turkey
Under construction: Saudi Arabia
Planned: India, Iran

Others:
In service: USA
Under construction: Morocco
Planned: Brazil

I don't want to argue about whether Turkey belongs in Europe or in Asia -- I like the term Eurasia.

The other listed nations. Note that some of them have max-speed proposals less than 250 km/h, and thus may not qualify.

Austria: ots.at: ÖBB dementieren Meldungen über Verschiebung des Westbahn-Ausbaues (in German)
Hungary/Romania: Couldn't find speed info
Lithuania/Latvia/Estonia http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sou ... ncl_en.PDF (max proposed speed: 200 km/h)
Russia: Russia-InfoCentre :: First high speed train Sapsan arrived in St Petersburg from Moscow, Railway Gazette: Russia to announce high speed line plan, Railway Gazette: RZD launches Moscow - St Petersburg high speed line project
Uzbekistan: Railway Gazette: Talgo 250 arrives in Toshkent, Uzbekistan’s high-speed trains said to lack suitable tracks - Central Asia Online
Iraq: Alstom in deal to build high-speed rail in Iraq - Telegraph
Gulf Cooperation Council (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman): nothing I could find on projected speeds
United Arab Emirates: High speed Dubai to Abu Dhabi rail plan revealed | ArabianSupplyChain.com -- 200 km/h
South Africa: High speed Durban–JHB rail link viable, says Prasa's Montana (300 - 350 km/h)
Canada: High-speed Quebec City-Windsor rail link could cost $21.3B | CTV News, http://highspeedrail.ca/ (has more news articles)
Argentina: Railway Gazette: Argentina confirms high speed rail consortium, Railway Gazette: Pointers February 2009 (now on hold)
Philippines: Couldn't find speed info
Vietnam: Sơ sài dự án hàng tỉ USD | Đô thị | Người Lao Động Online (in Vietnamese)
Thailand/Laos: International Railway Journal - International Railway Journal (unavailable to nonmembers; speed: 250 km/h)
Myanmar/Burma: High-speed rail between Yunnan and Myanmar on agenda CCTV News - CNTV English (speed: 170-200 km/h) Railway Gazette: China starts work on line to Myanmar (speed: 140 km/h)
Malaysia/Singapore: Main - Malaysia - KL mulls Penang-Singapore high-speed rail link @ Tue Sep 21 2010
Indonesia: Couldn't find speed info
Australia: Australian Very Fast Trains-A Chronology (Background Paper 16 1997-98)

Speculative Beijing-London high-speed route: China to build high speed rail link to Europe

I used Google Translate on the German and Vietnamese ones.

The Turkey issue shouldn't be one, afterall the HSR link to Istanbul envisions a HSR network to the rest of Europe. Virtually all people using HSR in Turkey will be Europeans (people native to the Istanbul region) and European tourists.

Turkey itself an Asian ethnic majority nation within Europe, like Kalmykia.

I don't like your terminology in respect to China either, as China (Beijing) is building a HSR link to Hong Kong right now and Hong Kong is not Communist. (so "China (Communist)" doesn't work). Nor does China (Taiwan) work as Taiwan is part of China, regardless of the government (Republic of China or the Peoples' Republic of China) in charge.

Russia has a 250km/h link from Novgorod to St. Petersburg already. So it should be "in service".

Scratch Switzerland from your list. 200 kph (125mph) is the top speed, various academics have mentioned higher speeds, but the Federal Government isn't planning any.

If your going to denote China; let's follow this convention:

China (Communist)

China (Hong Kong)

China (Macau)

Republic of China or Taiwan.

I have no objection to people recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign country.

gprimr1 wrote:If your going to denote China; let's follow this convention:

China (Communist)

China (Hong Kong)

China (Macau)

Republic of China or Taiwan.

I have no objection to people recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign country.

Again, there is no Communist China.

Hong Kong does not have a HSR connection yet, and Macau has nothing planned.

Moreover, "I have no objection to people recognizing Taiwan as a country"

It's not internationally recognized as a country, it has no seat at the UN.