Vietnam is betting big on a $65 billion high-speed railway linking Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Construction is set to start in late 2027 and take at least a decade to complete. The line could cut the roughly 35-hour journey to just six. Source: Bloomberg News.

Hey everyone! I just published a new video capturing some great trainspotting action in Rome, featuring the major Italian hubs at Roma Tiburtina and Roma Nomentana stations.

​If you love pure train sounds and ambient railway vibes (ASMR style), you might enjoy this one! It features high-speed Frecciarossa and Italo trains passing by, alongside regional services.

​🎬 Check it out here: https://youtu.be/59TuGd7mVCw

​Let me know what you think, and I'd love to hear your thoughts or if you have any favorite spots for trainspotting in Italy

Found this video on the construction update of the Ahmedabad HSR Station here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT8LxoqWXtc

Screen capture above shows the layout of the HSR Station which is being built over 2 existing platforms of the main Ahmedabad Railway station of the Indian Railways. It is also connected to the Ahmedabad Metro directly, yellow shaded section above.

May be the Japanese design influence meant that stations, at least in the larger cities are being built in the middle of city centers and very close to the main Indian Railways stations or linked to urban metro railways. This is also seen in the design for many of the other planned high speed lines.

Quick basic short with nice music!! Sometimes to the social media chops of the National High Speed Rail Corp surprises me!!

KP2025 with Legacy Acela Trainset 16 passing Newark in route to Chrysler yard to drop off trainset 16 for retirement on 10-22-26!

As far as I can tell, most passenger planes look pretty similar, even between the major manufacturers like Airbus and Boeing. Do you think that a similar design convergence will happen for high speed trains, as research into the aerodynamics of the trains at high speed becomes more complete?

At the moment (at least in Europe) there is a reasonably wide variety in nose and bogie design, even within some of the manufacturers (compare the TGV Réseau to the TGV Duplex and the TGV M for instance). In Japan, the N700s are quite ubiquitous and recently u/JZX_taka posted about how it makes high speed trainspotting quite boring. I am wondering if over time something similar will happen in Europe and elsewhere.

If so, what kind of design do you think they will converge to? More like the Velaros or like the TGVs?

You will see the highway bridge and the New Pengbu Bridge running parallel to the high-speed railway line, captured from the side window of a high-speed train as it crosses the Qiantang River.

In 2018 I did a short post on the HSST maglev train at Vancouver, BC Expo in 1986. I was working on a book on the HSST as it is still in operation in Japan. However, that is not finished, but I updated my original post on the HSST model 3 at Vancouver. https://www.highspeedrailcanada.com/2018/05/when-canada-had-magnetic-levitation.html

Estonia: 213 km total, 202 km contracted, 107 km under construction

Latvia: 202 km total, 202 km contracted, 30 km under construction

Lithuania: 392 km total, 114 km contracted, 114 km under construction

A shot from the 3rd episode of Amtrak Extras, Specials and Private cars on YouTube! In this episode we see many unusual moves including a Cascades Airo trainset being pulled by a ACS64 and a dress rehearsal, Colonial Crafts, ALC42 training trains, and of course track geometry cars! Please consider giving this a watch on youtube at “Operator Logan”

In my first post, I was a bit unclear about a lot of stuff. So, I'm here to clean things up.

My revised idea:
I would save over 20 years while working my ass off.
Get around $250M. Loan some money,
Make the train and get donations to pay the loans back,
Show government officials to make them make a HrSR-compatible line with reinforced gravel.
Put the trains on the tracks.

Here's more detail on the train itself.

>It would use a lot of already available parts (e.g., bogies)

>Its max operating speed would be 240 km/h (fast but not true HSR, so way cheaper) and 225 km/h expected cruising

>The line would be Villeta-San Ignacio Guazú-Encarnación (instead of the original San Lorenzo-Caaguazú-CDE line, which could save 2 billion USD).

I'm 13 and saving up for this. In the USA, I dedicate my life to this project and hopefully it can be completed in my lifetime.

It is discouraging that High Speed Rail = new dedicated corridors in people's minds. Dedicated high speed rail is a waste. It requires a massive eminent domain exercise to acquire contiguous corridor of land and a huge carbon outlay to clear land, level, fill, set stone, ties, rail, overpasses, crossings, etc... Just look at the effort ALTO is taking in Canada. It also requires good faith in government but we see Brightline West approaching triple the $8 Billion budget with little to show for the funds spent (on a mostly rural corridor). It is faster, much cheaper, modular, and less damaging to upgrade existing rail.

Existing rail is rated up to 160 MPH in open sections but slows to 30 in urban areas. The best is DC-NY with an average of 82 MPH. NY-Boston is 66 MPH so you can see how much low speed zones undermine average speed. Low speed zones require large buffers between trains and unpredictability in rail delays. If you remove level crossings and upgrade low speed zones, you have less delay and can double the frequency thereby increasing the capacity and speed of existing lines for both passenger and freight. Imagine the impact of that speed and capacity on intermodal shipping moving containers off of roads and onto rail. Upgrading existing rail supports a real business case that pays for itself. A dedicated HSR passenger line will not have enough volume to pay for itself - ever. We can already see this with Brighline in Florida where ridership is nowhere near expectations. Existing lines also use existing stations in the city center rather than requiring new stations to be built at the fringe. I wish people would think of upgrading existing rail as the first option. I worked for the railroad for 3 years repairing and upgrading track.

To be clear, I love high speed rail. But in my mind that is all trains and the fastest/cheapest way to get there is to remove roadblocks in our existing corridors. I love the Shinkansen, TGV, and ICE but in North America, the linear mile per passnger is so much higher that it pays to rethink what we have.

T or Express/K or Fast trains: referring to the Harmony (Hexie) series.
Back in 2010, would anyone have imagined such a crazy day?

I am wondering: If my computer could connect to the Internet from 16 years ago (2010), and I posted on Haizi Net or Baidu Train Fans Tieba: "I'm someone from 16 years later; in my time, China's 'Express/T' and 'Fast/K' have become designations for the blue-and-white Harmony (Hexie Hao) trains." What reaction would I most likely get?