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High Speed Rail, Technology Development of

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Transportation Technologies for Sustainability

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Definition of the Subject

High-Speed Rail is an advanced railway technology for carrying passengers at high speeds. It can be defined as the infrastructure capability to support high-speed rolling stocks. In the transport literature, rail (or railway) and train are often used synonymously [15]. In this section of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability the term will be used as High-Speed Train with reference to the technological development of both the vehicle (the train) and the track (the railways) but also with a reference to the trainas a carrier and high-speed train not as a single element but as a system. Moreover, the main focus is on the passenger transport, although some emphasis will be made on the freight transport. Late twentieth century witnessed the return of the train as an important passenger transport mode and the reason for this is the rapid development of the high-speed rail technology. Twenty-first century is witnessing even a larger impact of train as a transport...

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Abbreviations

Dedicated lines:

In transport and telecommunication, dedicated lines are special rail, road infrastructure, cable or other facilities dedicated to a specific application. In transport technology examples can be found in bus, train, and subway systems running on dedicated lines.

Induced traffic/demand:

Induced traffic (or demand) is the volume of traffic that is drawn to a new road by additional capacity [8]. Induced demand occurs from a number of different sources such as new infrastructure, capacity increase, and infrastructure improvement or land use and location changes.

Shinkansen:

Shinkansen (new trunk line in Japanese) refers to the high-speed trains in Japan but also to the world’s first HSR corridor, Tokaido Shinkansen, which was opened between Tokyo and Osaka in 1964. The main reason for the development of the Shinkansen network was to increase the network capacity between major cities of Japan. Shinkansen runs on dedicated railways designed only for high speed.

TEN:

Trans-European Network (TEN) Program comprises of a large number of projects in telecommunications, transport, and energy [13]. Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) Network is an important part of this program aiming to establish and develop the key links and interconnections needed to eliminate existing bottlenecks to mobility fill in missing sections and complete the main routes – especially their cross-border sections cross natural barriers and improve interoperability on major routes [33]. TEN-T includes projects such as road, rail, seaport, inland waterway, airport, shipping management, air traffic management and navigation networks. Number of total rail projects makes almost 50% of all transport projects and high-speed rail network is one of the most important projects of TEN-T. With projects such as the PBKAL (Paris-Brussels-Köln-Amsterdam-London) network and Southwest Europe network, high-speed rail lines are expected to create substantial reduction in travel times, increase the capacity and promote alternative transport to air and road transport.

TGV:

TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) is the name given to the high-speed trains in France, which later on adopted by other countries using the same technology. French TGV is the first high-speed train in Europe, started to serve between Paris and Lille in 1981. Unlike Shinkansen, TGV operates on conventional tracks as well, thus, it can serve in city centers as well as regions by reducing its speed and this leads to a better connectivity between regional and urban network and significant cost savings. French recorded the highest speed ever reached on wheel on steel trains as high as 574 kph in 2007 during test drives [34].

Tunneling Effects:

A notion brought up by Graham and Marvin [18] referring to the possible effects of transport systems connecting specific areas in a region and bypassing others. This leads to some highly mobile socio-economic groups traveling through these places without even noticing the existence of them. Connecting places via high-speed systems may create adverse impacts as it may push disconnected places to the periphery (see also space-time compression by Harvey [21]).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Transport Studies Unit, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK

    Dr. Eda Beyazit Ms. & Dr. Moshe Givoni

Authors
  1. Dr. Eda Beyazit Ms.
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  2. Dr. Moshe Givoni
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Correspondence to Eda Beyazit Ms. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Mehrdad Ehsani

  2. Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Fei-Yue Wang

  3. Center for Urban Transportation Research, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

    Gary L. Brosch

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Beyazit, E., Givoni, M. (2013). High Speed Rail, Technology Development of. In: Ehsani, M., Wang, FY., Brosch, G.L. (eds) Transportation Technologies for Sustainability. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5844-9_902

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