Executive Overview: World Railways

We make no apologies for returning to the theme of high-speed rail in the Executive Overview to this year's edition of Jane's World Railways. Since our remarks in the 2007-08 edition, several of the projects then under construction have been commissioned and are delivering their promised improvements to the communities they serve, others have moved closer to fruition or have been adopted for development. Moreover, 2007 has seen a remarkable new world speed record for rail set in France, confirming the country's continuing commitment to the development and improvement of high-speed rail technology.

And it is not just the technological development of high-speed rail that is the focus of industry attention: commercial initiatives are also being pursued. Here, a key development in 2007 was the establishment of Railteam, an international alliance of operators of high-speed services formed to ease cross-border travel in Europe. Its members are the national rail operators of Austria (?BB), Belgium (SNCB), France (SNCF), Germany (DB) and Switzerland (SBB), plus NS Hispeed, which will operate trains using the new HSL-Zuid line in the Netherlands, and Eurostar UK. Also participating are the three international high-speed subsidiaries, Alleo (SNCF and DB), Lyria (SNCF and SBB) and Thalys (SNCB, SNCF, DB and NS).

Railteam is investing some EUR30 million in interconnecting its members' distribution systems to simplify reservations and ticketing for international travellers. It is also planning improvements to passenger communications, initially by establishing information points at five principal hubs - Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, Lille and Stuttgart. In addition, Railteam has implemented a facility that enables passengers to join the next available train if their connection is missed by a late-running inbound service, irrespective of their ticket type. A 'rail miles' loyalty scheme is also planned.

Creating Railteam is a laudable response to a justified criticism that operators in Europe have been tending not to think of passenger needs beyond their own services. With the Continent's high-speed network, which stood at around 5,000 km in 2007, set to expand to 7,600 km by 2010 and to triple to 15,000 km by 2020, developing the concept of a pan-European system is vital if rail is to provide a serious challenge to air and car.

France's rail industry grabbed the headlines again in 2007 when a specially adapted TGV trainset set a new world speed record for conventional lines of 574.8 km/h - 357.2 mph. The TGV V150 (150 metres per second) set, comprising two 'POS' power cars, two Duplex trailers equipped with outer power bogies and a third intermediate trailer, reached this speed on 3 April near Reims on the new LGV (Ligne ? Grande Vitesse) Est Europ?ene, which opened for commercial traffic in June 2007. The previous 'official' maximum achieved by a TGV, also record-breaking, was 515.3 km/h, set in 1990, although earlier in 2007 a modified TGV set achieved an unofficial speed record of 554.3 km/h in the build-up to the April trial.

Image: Specially adapted TGV V150 high-speed trainset photographed on the new LGV Est Europ?enne near the village of Le Chemin in eastern France during a trial run on 3 April 2007 when a new world speed record for rail of 574.8 km/h was achieved. (David Haydock) 485 of 3,460 words