High-speed railway construction stories of 5 developed countries
Báo Giao thông•24/10/2024
High-speed railways have been invested in, creating momentum for rapid economic development in many countries. However, few people know that behind these achievements is an investment journey full of thorns, challenges and obstacles...
"Brain-weighing" to make the first high-speed railway project In September 2024, the news that the Central Executive Committee agreed to invest in the North-South high-speed railway project was released, delighting millions of people and businesses across the country. After many years of careful research from relevant ministries and branches, with the strong determination of the entire political system, the high-speed railway (HSR) connecting the two regions of the country is gradually being realized. Expecting a socio-economic breakthrough from an unprecedented "super project" in the history of the country's transport infrastructure development, many people cannot help but wonder: Is this the right time for Vietnam to invest in a high-speed railway worth tens of billions of dollars? "In fact, countries with fast development of high-speed railways in the world also had an unfavorable starting point," said Mr. Tran Thien Canh, Director of the Vietnam Railway Authority, sharing the story of "joining hands" to build high-speed railways with Japan.
The Shinkansen high-speed train is a symbol and "national pride" of Japan (Photo: illustration).
Japan is the country that researched, invested and exploited the first high-speed railway line in the world. Before 1945, traditional railways were a very important form of transport in this country; from 1945 to 1960, the railway industry continued to be maintained but faced increasing competition from roads and airlines in terms of costs and travel time. Owning outdated infrastructure, poor investment in upgrading, being subject to the Government 's imposition of ticket prices to ensure social security, a heavy and inactive management apparatus... led to the railway industry facing the risk of bankruptcy. Therefore, a new, more modern and faster method of railway transport was needed. Japan decided to invest in the first high-speed railway line in 1950 when GDP per capita was only about 250 USD. At that time, there were many views on investing in the construction of railway lines on the North-South corridor such as: Building a new conventional railway line; Upgrading old railways into high-speed railways or building new high-speed railways. The government consulted the people and the majority agreed to build a new high-speed railway, in which the Shinkansen lines were separated from the existing narrow-gauge 1067mm lines. In October 1964, the first high-speed railway line was put into operation and the first Shinkansen train was put into operation right before the opening of the Olympic Games in Tokyo. This was truly a great breakthrough, a turning point for Japanese railways to maintain and strongly develop the railway industry as it is today.
Basically, the railway development process of all countries has gone through 3 stages, specifically:- Stage 1, railways developed strongly, playing a leading role.- Stage 2, with the development of road and air transport, the market share of railway transport decreased, gradually losing its leading role.- Stage 3, in response to the requirements of sustainable economic development, efficient use of resources, reduction of environmental pollution..., countries have researched and developed high-speed railways.Currently, Vietnam is in stage 2, while many countries in the world are in stage 3: Investing in developing high-speed railways to meet the requirements of becoming a developed country, with high income, efficient use of resources, and reduction of environmental pollution.
Thereby contributing greatly to the miraculous development of Japan, from creating new economic development space, distributing urban areas, distributing population, convenient transportation, bringing jobs and developing the country's socio-economy. Japan considers high-speed railways as a symbol, "national pride". Japan's lesson is also the lesson of many countries in the process of railway development. Japan's success in overcoming difficult times, developing high-speed railways is the basis for this type to spread to Europe (typically France, Germany, Spain, Italy), Asia such as Korea, Taiwan (China), China... For example, in France, in the context of the energy crisis in the 1970s, the degradation of the traditional railway system with a 150-year operating time, along with the strong development of highways and increasingly accessible price segments of air transport, made rail transport no longer an option for travel needs. Faced with the need to restructure economic development space and improve the competitiveness of railways, the French Government decided to develop a high-speed railway line (Train à Grande Vitesse - TGV) on the overloaded Paris - Lyon corridor. In 1981, France put into operation the first TGV line connecting Paris and Lyon, with an operating speed of 260km/h, but the design and test speed reached a world record of 380km/h. The birth of the TGV opened a new breakthrough development phase for the French railway industry. In 2007, France broke the world record for the test speed of an express train at 574.8km/h. To this day, this is still the world record for rail train technology. TGV technology has been exported to many European countries, to the United States, Morocco and South Korea. For the French, the TGV is a "national pride". How to choose passenger or freight trains? With high-speed railways, should passenger trains be operated separately or both? Mr. Tran Thien Canh shared that this is a concern that Vietnam has raised in working sessions with countries developing high-speed railways as well as international railway organizations. The answer is the same: Based on demand, that is, on a corridor, whichever method has the advantage, we will invest to develop it. If the demand for passenger transport is high, priority must be given to the method with the advantage in terms of speed and travel time because this is one of the measures of efficiency.
AVE high-speed train between Tarragona-Madrid in Spain (Photo: Internet).
In fact, in Japan, the Shinkansen line was initially planned to serve freight and passenger transport, but due to the huge passenger demand and the maintenance plan being carried out mainly at night, it was technically not feasible to arrange for the joint operation of both freight and passenger trains. Therefore, Japan decided to build a high-speed railway line for passenger transport only. This has created a breakthrough in the quality of railway services because the operation is separated from regular railway services. Existing railway lines are maintained to serve local passenger transport and freight transport. At the same time, coastal transport is promoted to serve freight transport due to lower costs. In Europe, with the policy of providing modern, convenient, high-speed services to promote competition compared to other modes of transport, especially air transport, Spain has chosen to build new high-speed railway lines separate from existing lines with a clear orientation towards passengers. Freight traffic is mainly handled by the conventional railway network, except for the route connecting to the French border. This decision was also controversial in the past. However, in reality, operating passenger trains exclusively is highly effective, especially for transporting tourist passengers. Spain is a country with a developed tourism industry, with a population of about 40 million people, but more than 80 million tourists come to Spain each year, so the demand for passenger transport is large. With the goal of "connecting the capital Madrid with all other centers in less than 4 hours", most of the newly built high-speed railway lines in Spain are designed for speeds of 300-350 km/h. Currently, there are 12 lines, 1,944 km long, operating at speeds of over 300 km/h, accounting for 62% of the total length of the country's high-speed railway. As of 2022, Spain's AVE high-speed rail system will be the longest high-speed rail network in Europe with more than 4,000km, second in the world after China. In Germany, with the sea in the North and industrial zones in the South, transport must combine passenger and freight trains; in which priority is given to passenger transport, freight is arranged at night or not during rush hour. However, organizing freight transport at night affects the maintenance plan. The Frankfurt - Cologne route only runs passenger trains at a speed of over 300km/h because of the large number of passengers. In Asia, in 2008, the 118km Beijing - Tianjin (China) route came into operation with a maximum speed of 350km/h (average speed of 240km/h), transporting 16 million passengers in the first year. Since then, with a high-speed railway network of more than 40,000km, China is the country with the largest high-speed railway length and accounts for more than 2/3 of the total high-speed railway length in the world. China's high-speed railway network has covered all 31 provinces/cities. The design speed of high-speed railways is > 200km/h for passenger transport only, of which the speed of 200-250km/h accounts for 60% (about 25,000km), the speed of 300-350km/h accounts for 40% (about 17,000km). By the end of 2023, China's high-speed trains have transported more than 3.85 billion passengers, accounting for about 75% of the railway industry's passenger transport output. Land prices increase, tourism "catches the wave" According to the consultant preparing the pre-feasibility report for the North-South Expressway project, the results of the study on the development of expressways in other countries show that expressways create conditions for people to travel easily, safely and conveniently. At the same time, restructuring and expanding the development space, accelerating the urbanization process, reducing traffic accidents, creating momentum for economic development; developing tourism, increasing labor productivity and many other benefits. The most obvious are saving time, reducing carbon emissions, better allocating resources, balancing production and consumption, developing industry, science and technology...
China's high-speed rail network in 2023 (Source: UIC).
With a punctuality rate of 99.9%, safety and environmental friendliness, the high-speed railway has contributed greatly to Japan's miraculous development through the redistribution of urban areas, population, convenient transportation, employment and national socio-economic development. The Shinkansen bullet train has become a symbol of Japan for its efficiency and speed. For example, the 454km Kanazawa line, after being put into operation in 2015, saved 3 hours and 47 minutes, affecting land prices (up 17%), hotels (up 127%), and the number of tourists (up 50%) compared to 2014. In Spain, with speeds from 250 to 320 km/h, the high-speed railway connects major cities, transporting about 20 million passengers/year, helping to reduce an average of 27% of travel time between regions. Convenient and fast travel has contributed to the development of tourism, contributing to GDP growth. In 2023, GDP reached about 2,734 billion USD, of which tourism accounted for about 13%, the number of tourists was about 87 million. The birth of the TGV high-speed train opened a new breakthrough development stage of the French railway industry. TGV has "shrunken" France and even Europe within a radius of 3-4 hours; connecting major cities in France. Within 10 years after the inauguration of the first TGV, the number of passengers has continuously increased sharply. It is estimated that the TGV system serves about 250,000 passengers per day, an average of 90 million people/year, and by the end of 2003, the TGV system had transported 1 billion passengers, by 2010 it was 2 billion passengers. The advantages that help TGV compete with air and road are travel time, diverse services, convenience, safety and much cheaper fares than airplanes. Environmental friendliness is an important factor for French people when choosing a means of transport and helps TGV have no rivals in distances under 1,000km, time under 3 hours. In China, after the 1,318km long Beijing - Shanghai railway line, with a speed of 380km/h , was put into operation in 2011, about 1.7 billion passengers in China traveled on this route, creating more than 850 million job opportunities. Land value in project areas increased by up to 13%, especially in areas near railway stations. Tourists to famous tourist attractions increased by more than 2.5 times. After only 10 years of putting the Beijing - Shanghai route into operation, GRDP along the route doubled. According to China National Railway Corporation (CR), if 100 million yuan is invested in high-speed railway, 1,000 million yuan can be earned from increasing the production value of related industries.
According to statistics from the International Union of Railways (UIC), the length of high-speed railways in operation worldwide is about 59,421km, transporting more than 3 billion passengers each year and is expected to double the length of high-speed railways within the next 30 years. Currently, 22 countries and territories have high-speed railways in commercial operation, including: Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, South Korea, China, Taiwan (China), Finland, Sweden, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Austria, Poland, Belgium, Morocco, Switzerland, UK, Netherlands, Denmark, USA, Serbia. 6 countries under construction include: India, Indonesia, Thailand, Portugal, Iraq, Iran.
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