U.S. High-Speed Rail Projects Aim to Catch Up [Slide Show]

The Obama administration will make up to $13 billion available for high-speed railroad projects across the nation, which lags far behind the fast railways of Asia and Europe

ITALY Italy's ETR 200 (or ElettroTreno 200) was an early electricity-driven high-speed train introduced in 1936 whose maximum speed topped out at 160 kilometers per hour. Although the production of the ETR 200 was halted by World War II and many were damaged by Allied bombings, the ETR 200 and its successors remained in service until the early 1980s... COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA
ENGLAND The British Rail Class 395 is a dual-voltage electric train that has been in service since June. The U.K.'s Southeastern train operating company uses the high-speed trains in the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, which opened in 1994 and connects England and France... COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA/MATTBUCK
UNITED STATES Amtrak's Acela Express is the nation's only high-speed rail line, with a top speed of 240 kilometers per hour. The Acela has since 2000 operated along the U.S.'s Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C., and Boston, with stops in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City along the way... COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA/CHAOHWA
TAIWAN Taiwan's high-speed rail network, which launched in January 2007, covers about 335.5 kilometers from Taipei City to Kaohsiung City. These high-speed trains have a top operating speed of nearly 300 kilometers per hour... COURTESY OF ARTHUR CHAPMAN, VIA FLICKR.COM
Advertisement
JAPAN Japan's JR West 500 series "superexpress" trains are designed to reach a top speed of 320 kilometers per hour, although they operate at a maximum of 300 kilometers per hour in service... COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA/BAKAONIGIRI
SPAIN Spain's Alta Velocidad Española (AVE) Class 102 is a group of high-speed trains operated by the country's state railway company Renfe Operadora and run on a dedicated high-speed track... COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA/BENJAMI VILLOSLADA I GIL
SOUTH KOREA The HSR-350x, aka the Korean G-7, reaches a maximum speed of 352.4 kilometers per hour. It was developed primarily to reduce traffic problems and to raise the nation's science and technology level to that of the world's leaders, at the time known as the G-7... COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA/LAKSHMIX
FRANCE France's TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse, for "high-speed train'") claims the world speed record at 574.8 kilometers per hour (in April 2007) as well as the record for the fastest scheduled rail journey with a start-to-stop average speed of 279.4 kilometers per hour... COURTESY OF WIKIPEDIA/BABSKWAL
Advertisement

Newsletter

Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter.