3 ms·
In a proper high-speed system that would be more like 180MPH The current record for highest average speed on a rail line is China's 176mph average Shijiazhuang
by ubernostrum 11y ago
In a proper high-speed system that would be more like 180MPH
The current record for highest average speed on a rail line is China's 176mph average Shijiazhuang-Zhengzhou. Prior record holder was 173mph on the Champagne-Ardenne to Lorraine run on the LGV Est corridor of the TGV.
All high-speed rail systems have stretches where they go faster than that, but average speeds are nowhere near what you're proposing. Unless, of course, your argument is that no "proper high-speed system" exists anywhere in the world today.
- mikeash 11y agoIn what world is 176MPH "nowhere near" 180MPH? I was explicitly approximate, and being 4MPH off is pretty good!
- ubernostrum 11y agoI mean "nowhere near" in the sense that the outliers -- the current and previous record holder for average speed -- haven't managed to crack your proposed 180mph criterion for "high speed", and the non-outliers definitely aren't coming close to that number. Common definitions of "high speed" rail kick in at 200kph or 250kph, which are 124mph and 155mph respectively. Even if we go with the higher of those numbers, that's still around a 13% minimum difference in average speed between what's accepted and what you're proposing. (for non-Americans, what I'm arguing with here is the idea that ~290kph would be the minimum average speed to call something "high speed rail")
- mikeash 11y agoWell that sure is nitpicky but if it makes you happy.... My actual point is that Acela is painfully slow and proper high-speed rail is much, much faster. A 13% difference in the numbers is not really relevant, especially when I took pains to indicate that it was approximate, and never said that was some sort of minimum.