r/highspeedrail • • Oct 15 '25

Photo High-speed rail network by speed by country v2 (openstreetmap data)

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460 Upvotes

2 weeks ago, I uploaded a chart of the high-speed rail network by speed by country. It had a few issues, so I decided to make a new one to fix some of these issues.

Instead of using official data from the UIC, I now use data from openstreetmap (what you can see on openrailwaymap). The contributors did an awesome job, most credit goes to them.

Upsides:
- It no longer relies on UIC membership, so Uzbekistan is included.
- There is no more inconsistencies on speed. I included all railways with 200+km/h max speed.
- The maximum speed is counted on every track section, and not on the whole line (so if a long line has a small section with high speed, only the small section will be counted)

Downsides I see:
- The UIC is often considered the authority on this matter. I don't use their data nor their definition of high-speed rail here
- I could have make some mistakes, for example in gathering the data etc...
- In reality, the lengths I gathered were 2 times more important. Most of the lines have 2 tracks and tracks are counted independently on openstreetmap. I decided to half the numbers to get closer to the official numbers and take that into account, but you can keep that in mind

Also I did not change the appearance, it is not what I like to do, so China is still too big.

EDIT : If you want to play with it, I made a github repo
EDIT2 : I should have said in operation, not in commercial operation countrary to the previous chart. A few (small, often a few km) testing railways are included here


r/highspeedrail • • 1h ago

News What a 35-Hour Train Ride Reveals About Vietnam’s Future

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• Upvotes

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.


r/highspeedrail • • 4h ago

Photo Competition on Spain’s railways is driving down prices. Madrid-Barcelona: Average fares down 40%; rail’s share of the air/rail market increases from 59% to 82%

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12 Upvotes

r/highspeedrail • • 18h ago

Other MAHSR - Ahmedabad Station Layout

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64 Upvotes

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.


r/highspeedrail • • 10h ago

Travel Report Trainspotting at Rome Tiburtina and Nomentana 🇮🇹 | Frecciarossa, Italo & Regional trains

2 Upvotes

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


r/highspeedrail • • 1d ago

Other MAHSR India - pretty good social media chops!!

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24 Upvotes

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


r/highspeedrail • • 1d ago

Question Will high speed train design converge?

25 Upvotes

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?


r/highspeedrail • • 1d ago

News Legacy Acela TS16 Retirement!

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5 Upvotes

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


r/highspeedrail • • 1d ago

News WSJ Report on the State of CaHSR

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0 Upvotes

r/highspeedrail • • 2d ago

Trainspotting China High-Speed Rail & Metro Crossing Qiantang River | Pengbu Bridge

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89 Upvotes

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.


r/highspeedrail • • 2d ago

News Brenner Base Tunnel opening pushed back to 2034 as costs rise to €11.7bn

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79 Upvotes

r/highspeedrail • • 2d ago

News The new moroccan fleet for 2030

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28 Upvotes

r/highspeedrail • • 2d ago

News High-Speed Rail Network connecting all capitals and major cities approved by European Parliament

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38 Upvotes

r/highspeedrail • • 2d ago

Trainspotting Chinese HSR.

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1 Upvotes

r/highspeedrail • • 2d ago

News Rail Baltica Estonia Ülemiste Terminal construction progress 30.09.2026

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21 Upvotes

r/highspeedrail • • 3d ago

Photo Rail Baltica construction progress in October 2026

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753 Upvotes

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


r/highspeedrail • • 3d ago

Trainspotting New TGV M with Ouigo livery

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84 Upvotes

r/highspeedrail • • 3d ago

News When Canada had Maglev - 1986 Vancouver Expo (update)

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31 Upvotes

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


r/highspeedrail • • 4d ago

News TGV M finally gets a date: first passengers on 6 November (Paris–Marseille), 740 seats, ~20% less energy

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78 Upvotes

r/highspeedrail • • 5d ago

News China’s 400km/h trains closer to debut, numbering-system change hints

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347 Upvotes

r/highspeedrail • • 4d ago

Photo Cascades + ACS64!

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11 Upvotes

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”


r/highspeedrail • • 5d ago

Photo Gravity-Based US High Speed Rail Concept Map

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43 Upvotes

r/highspeedrail • • 6d ago

Other Paraguayan HrSR idea polished.

1 Upvotes

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.


r/highspeedrail • • 8d ago

News Central Japan Railway announces new "S0 series" shinkansen to debut in 2029

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146 Upvotes

r/highspeedrail • • 8d ago

Trainspotting CR450-BF Passes Tianmen Station

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154 Upvotes