Page 43 - 360.revista de Alta Velocidad - Nº 5

Technological, economic and sociological factors on the maximum design speed of high speed trains

Table 1 shows the results of the analysis. With 600 km/h a train journey between the
stations in Paris and Vienna would take approx. three hours. 83 Mio passengers would use
the 1145 km line with intermediate stops in Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Munich and Salzburg. The
400 km/h train covers the distance within around 4 hours and attracts 69 Mio passengers,
while the 300 km/h version takes around 5 hours and attracts 55 Mio passengers.
The transport performance is raised by two thirds between 300 and 600 km/h from 19 to 31
bn. pkm/year. The acceleration from 300 to 400 km/h generates almost half of this benefit
(5 bn. pkm/year). The increase from 500 to 600 leads to an increase of 2.6 bn. pkm/year.
So the benefit gets smaller with rising speed, which is directly related to the travel time
savings.

Table 1: Growing Demand on the reference line Paris - Vienna depending on the speed

300 km/h 400 km/h 500 km/h 600 km/h

Travel time Paris-Vienna [h:min] 4:42 3:51 3:23 3:03

Passengers [Mio/year] on reference line 55.3 69.1 77.2 83.0

Passenger km [Bn.Pkm/year] on reference 19.00 24.84 28.38 30.99
line
Mechanical energy consumption (at
wheel level) [MWh] for one run Paris 19.2 31.6 44.8 60.8
Vienna

Hence the doubling of the travel speed from 300 to 600 km/h results in a reduction of travel
time by 35%, an increase of travel demand by 63% and an increase of energy consumption by
216%.

The heaviest usage of the line can be found between Paris and Strasbourg, between Stuttgart
and Munich and on the Austrian part of the line. Despite the strong national traffic volumes, the
international traffic profits most of the new travel speed. The traffic volume between Austria
and Germany as well as between Austria/Germany and France is growing much stronger than
the national ones.

4.3 Impact of very high speed on the operation

The increasing traffic volume effects a more intensive train operation as shown in Figure 4.
One train per hour and direction with a capacity of 800 passengers is necessary when the
line is designed for 300 km/h. With 600 km/h two and a half trains per hour and direction
have to circulate. Additional trains run between Paris and Strasbourg and between Stuttgart
and Vienna. More additional trains are necessary between Stuttgart/Munich and Salzburg/
Vienna.
A train every 15 minutes will run between Stuttgart and Munich with 300 km/h. This increases
to a frequency of every 10 minutes between the two cities with 600 km/h. All these values are
valid in the morning peak hour.

International Congress on High-speed Rail: Technologies and Long Term Impacts - Ciudad Real (Spain) - 25th anniversary Madrid-Sevilla corridor 41