One of the advantages of being an expat in many of the developed countries around the world is the pleasure of traveling by high-speed rail, or HSR as insiders call it.
Many European and Asian nations left the U.S. in the dust many years ago when they constructed train systems that regularly hit speeds over 200 mph. Compare that with Amtrak’s Acela Express, which tops out at 150 mph and covers only the northeast corridor of the U.S.
Now comes word from Singapore’s “Straights Times” newspaper that Singapore and Malaysia have initiated a project to build a new high-speed rail system between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia within the next decade. When completed, the nearly 220-mile-long high-speed rail line will whisk passengers between the two cities in just 90-minutes for an estimated US$68, about the same price as a one-way flight between Singapore and KL. The high-speed train, though, will terminate in the business center of each city.
The only high-speed rail project currently under construction in America is in California. The troubled project eventually will connect Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento by 2030 at speeds up to 220 mph.
The first high-speed rail system was built in densely-packed Japan in 1964, according to a report by sustainablecitiescollective.com, an online community for urban planning and sustainability professionals. Japan’s bullet trains run on nearly 1,700 miles of track at speeds exceeding 200 mph. An additional 486 miles is under construction.
Germany’s first HSR debuted in 1991 with trains topping 186 mph. The country now has 266 miles of high-speed track with another 266 miles under construction.
Late to the game, but closing the gap quickly, is China. The Asian powerhouse has been building a high-speed rail system for only eight years, but it already boasts the largest system in the world, over 5,800 miles of track, including the longest line in the world, stretching 1,428 miles from Beijing to Guangzhou. If that isn’t impressive enough, China has another 8,799 miles of HSR under construction.
Two other European countries, Spain and France, also have well-developed HSR systems. In fact, Spain operates the largest high-speed rail system in Europe, nearly 2,000 miles of track, with another 1,118 miles under construction. France launched its famous TGV high-speed rail in 1981. The TGV lays claim to the fastest HSR trains in the world with speeds well over 200 mph.
But China’s Shanghai maglev train, which uses a different technology from other HSR systems, holds the world’s speed record of 268 mph.
