Efficiency - Totalitarian Myth

22-1-21 HSR and Myth of Chinese Efficiency - PolyMatter > .

22-1-27 Chinese think China will overtake US. Author of Unrestricted Warfare - Lei > .

High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail transport that runs significantly faster than traditional rail traffic, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines built to handle speeds in excess of 250 km/h (155 mph) and upgraded lines in excess of 200 km/h (124 mph) are widely considered to be high-speed. The first high-speed rail system, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, began operations in Japan in 1964 and was widely known as the bullet train. High-speed trains mostly operate on standard gauge (representing virtually the only standard gauge mainline railways in countries like Japan, Spain or India) tracks of continuously welded rail on a grade-separated right-of-way that incorporates a large turning radius in its design. However, certain regions with wider legacy railways, such as parts of the former Russian Empire (including Russia and Uzbekistan), have sought to develop a high speed railway network in Russian gauge. Thus far, no high-speed rail is planned or has been built on narrow gauge with the Spirit of Queensland achieving the highest top speed in revenue service on Cape gauge at 160 km/h.

Many countries have built and developed, or are currently building, high-speed rail infrastructure to connect major cities, including Austria, Belgium, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Only in Europe and Asia does high-speed rail cross international borders. China has built over 37,900 km (23,500 mi) of high-speed rail, accounting for more than two-thirds of the world's total.

High-speed rail is the fastest ground-based method of commercial transportation. China has the fastest conventional high-speed rail in regular operation, with the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway reaching up to 350 km/h (217 mph). The Shanghai Maglev Train, opened in 2004, is the fastest commercial passenger maglev in operation, at 431 km/h (268 mph). In 2007, a Euroduplex TGV train broke a record of 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph), making it the fastest conventional wheeled train in the world. The Chuo Shinkansen in Japan is a maglev line under construction from Tokyo to Osaka at commercial speeds of 505 km/h (314 mph), with operations due to start in 2027.

Higher-speed rail (HrSR), also known as high-performance rail, higher-performance rail, or almost-high-speed rail, is the jargon used to describe inter-city passenger rail services that have top speeds of more than conventional rail but are not high enough to be called high-speed rail services. The term is also used by planners to identify the incremental rail improvements to increase train speeds and reduce travel time as alternatives to larger efforts to create or expand the high-speed rail networks. Some countries use the term medium-speed rail, or semi-high speed rail instead.

Though the definition of higher-speed rail varies from country to country, most countries refer to rail services operating at speeds up to 200 km/h (125 mph).

The concept is usually viewed as stemming from efforts to upgrade a legacy railway line to high speed railway standards (speeds in excess of 250 km/h (155 mph)), but usually falling short on the intended speeds. The faster speeds are achieved through various means including new rolling stock such as tilting trains, upgrades to tracks including shallower curves, electrification, in-cab signalling, and less frequent halts/stops.