Top 11 Fastest Trains In The World
Hundreds of years have passed since the invention of the railway. Railway transport has overcome a long evolutionary path of development from hand-drawn massive trolleys to modern super high-speed express trains operating on the principle of magnetic levitation, which has already become commonplace in many countries of the world. This collection will present the fastest trains capable of reaching speeds of at least 300 km per hour.
11th place. HSL 1 (High-Speed Line 1) – speed 300 km/h
HSL 1 is a Belgian high-speed train of the TGV series (Train à Grande Vitesse – “high-speed train” in French), whose operating speed is 300 km / h, runs on a high-speed railway line connecting Brussels with the French railway line LGV Nord. It was put into operation in December 1997.
10th place. THSR 700T – speed 300 – 315 km/h
THSR 700T is a high-speed train on the island of Taiwan, developed on the basis of Japanese Shinkansen trains. The train, with a maximum operating speed of 300 km/h, connects northern Taipei and southern Kaohsiung. It consists of 12 comfortable cars and can accommodate 989 passengers. The speed record for this train was set in 2005 and is 315 km/h.
9th place. InterCity Express (ICE) – speed 320 km / h
ICE – high-speed trains common in Germany and neighboring countries. On the Strasbourg-Paris line, InterCity Express has a speed of up to 320 km/h. Today, ICEs are the main type of long-distance train offered by Deutsche Bahn. These trains are also delivered to Russia, where they are used on the high-speed railway lines Moscow – Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow – St. Petersburg.
8th place. Eurostar – speed 300 – 334.7 km / h
Eurostar or British Rail Class 373 is a British high-speed electric train of the TVG series, running between the UK, Belgium, and France through the Channel Tunnel, which is the second-longest railway tunnel in the world. The capacity of the train is 900 passengers, the operating speed reaches 300 km/h, and the speed record for this train was set in 2003 and equals 334.7 km/h. The Eurostar train journey from London to Paris takes 2 hours and 16 minutes.
7th place. KTX Sancheon – speed 305 – 352 km/h
The Sancheon, formerly known as the KTX II, entered service in South Korea in 2009. It was built by Hyundai Rotem based on French TGV train technology and is owned by Korail, South Korea’s national railway operator. Although it can reach speeds of up to 352 km/h (the record was set in 2004), for safety reasons it does not go faster than 305 km/h. A comfortable train with a capacity of 363 passengers operates on the route Yongsan – Gwangju – Mokpo, and Seoul – Busan.
6th place. ETR-500 (Elettro Treno Rapido 500) – speed 300 – 362 km/h
Bologna and Florence and is 362 km / h. The train covers the distance from the center of Bologna to Milan in 56 minutes. Planned for 2014 is the release of six ETR-1000 trains, which will reach speeds from 360 to 400 km/h.
5th place. AVE Talgo-350 – speed 330 – 365 km/h
AVE (Alta Velocidad Española) is a trademark of the Spanish Railways operator Renfe-Operadora. The abbreviation also plays on the word “bird” (ave) in Spanish. All AVE class trains are high-speed, but the AVE Talgo-350 electric train with a capacity of 318 passengers is especially fast, accelerating to 330 km / h on the Madrid – Valladolid, and Madrid – Barcelona routes. In 2004, during testing, the train reached a speed of 365 km/h. Due to its duck-like appearance, the AVE Talgo-350 was nicknamed Pato (Spanish for duck).
4th place. CRH380A – speed 380 – 486.1 km/h
The Chinese train CRH380A is designed for a maximum operating speed of 380 km/h, while the speed record for such a train is 486.1 km/h. These iron monsters are manufactured by China’s largest railway manufacturer – CSR Qingdao Sifang Locomotive and Rolling Stock Company.
The high-speed 8-car train with an “airplane-type” interior can carry 494 passengers. In September 2010, the CRH-380A entered service for the first time on the Shanghai-Nanjing route. It later began making daily flights on the Wuhan-Guangzhou and Shanghai-Hangzhou lines.
3rd place. Shanghai Maglev Train – speed 431 – 501 km/h
The Shanghai Maglev is a Chinese high-speed maglev train that has been in operation in Shanghai since 2004. The maximum express speed is 431 km/h, which allows you to cover the distance from the city center to the airport (30 km) in just 7-8 minutes. In a test run on November 12, 2003, this train reached a speed of 501 km/h. The developers of the train are not the Chinese at all, but the Germans. The prototype of the Shanghai Maglev Train was the Transrapid SMT.
2nd place. TGV POS – speed 320 – 574.8 km/h
These French TVG trains run between France and Switzerland and between France and Germany. Operating speed – 320 km / h. At the same time , the TGV POS model holds the speed record among rail trains – in 2007 this train was able to accelerate to 574.8 km per hour.
1 place. Shinkansen series trains – speed 320 – 581 km/h
Shinkansen (Shinkansen – “new highway” in Japanese) – a network of Japanese high-speed trains, which are often called “bullets”, and for good reason – Shinkansen speed record for conventional railway lines is 443 km / h (the record was set in 1996) and on a magnetic suspension 581 km / h, which is an absolute world record for trains(record set in 2003).
The first high-speed train in Japan was put into operation in 1964. Today, Shinkansen express trains, consisting of sixteen cars, cover the distance between Osaka and Tokyo in 2 hours and 25 minutes. The train has a peculiar oblong nose, due to which it received the nickname “platypus”. By the way, Shinkansen trains have the status of not only one of the fastest trains, but also the safest – in 40 years of operation, there has not been a single major accident.
For More Updates Click Here.
