This is the short Reference list on the countries with ambitions on the super high speed and high speed railroading. The list is at first very short and we will make humble effort to lengthen it gradually. Many countries have their own super high speed railroading pages on 4rail.net pages.   

 Europe     Asia      North America     Other areas

Europe   

 Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg    

Following the foosteps of their southern neighbor, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have currently a reasonably good high speed network operating Thalys TGV type trains between France and these countries. The immediate future will also bring Ansaldo-Breda Albatrosses (V250) to these rails as well as some ICE3/Velaro and AGV units from 2010 onwards. 

As small nations (in area) the always expensive track building started relatively late, but the work has progressed steadily and now its much easier to hop on the trains instead of boarding an airliner from Brussels to Paris.    

While the competition is opening up on rails for EU member countires in 2010, these areas might as well be interesting for newcomers like Air France - Veolia, and for old players as new routes, like Deutsche Bahn, Eurostar and SNCF.   

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 France   

The French high speed trains story marks the beginning of the super high speed railroading of the world. The TGV line between Paris and Lyon in the beginning of the 1980s was the very first route of its kind in the world and the super high speed corridors have been added ever since to meet the passenger demand. Interestingly, the return of these routes is calculated carefully, and only the profitable routes built. While the demand in most areas goes up all the time, more and more routes become profitable. The French train industry giant and the builder of many super fast and ather types of trains is Alstom. Over 500 TGV type trains has entered the tracks from Alstoms factories. While the TGV is the main line product, the flagship will be the AGV from 2011 onwards. In 2009 France had about 50% share of the super high speed lines and trains in Europe as well as superb operations knowledge.   

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 Germany   

While the French were the first to start with the super high speed railroading the Germans split their interest between the "conventional" rails and the Magnetic levitation trains. The conventional rails super high speed era started for real with the advent of the ICE3 in the 1990s. From this for the next decade in early 2000s evolved the current international best seller Velaro trains family, which can easily up to 360 km/h (224 mph) speeds. The magnetic levitation trains never got anywhere, on the German soil anyway and the first operating system of its kind is built in Shanghai China. In early 2009 there were also talks about selling the whole technology to the Chinese. The Maglev simply is too expensive for the Europe, but within limits for the China. 

The Germany is expanding its conventional rail super high speed networks continuously with NBSs (NeuBau Strecke, "new rail line"), thus shortening the travel times between different regions and obsolidating the airlines in the distances of 700 km or less and competing seriously with distances up to 1000 km.

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 Italy   

Italy may be less known for its super high speed railroading but the country is as far sighted in its building of networks and technologies as the larger railroading nations Germany and France. Italy has an impressive super high speed network with considerable mileage added every year. This added mileage has also linked the country to the rest of Europes super high speed corridors via several routes through Switzerland. 

As a well developed railroading country the super high speed train types include the above ETR600 and soon the AGV for the new private rail operator NTV. Italys train industry is also world famous for developing highly popular tilting Pendolino trains, although the current manufacturer is the French Alstom. With the tilting mechanism Pendolinos can achieve high speeds on concentional rail lines lowering the cost of high speed implementation. Pendolinos in the area are operated by Italian Trenitalia and Cisalpino (Treniltalia+SBB/CFF of Swtizerland) branded trains between Italy and Switzerland.        

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 United Kingdom    

United Kingdom is the birth place for railroading. While the forst 200 years the developments only took place within the country, the building of the Channel Tunnel started a completely new era, with easy access on rail to France, Belgium, Germany and over a dozen other countries. After the catastrophic era of neglecting the infrastructure in the early 1990s, fixing and building of the railroading infrastructure started again. After the Channel Tunnel the next high technology finished parts for the super high speed network were two parts of the HST1 (High Speed Track 1) from the Channel Tunnel to reach the center of London. There are also plans to start implementing the HST2 Northwest of London soon.   

The British have the regulations of their own on railroading as well. Only "tried" solutions are accepted. If you take a look at the train in the picture, you notice that it definitely is a TGV unit, but a closer look also reveals a number of differences. At the time when the Eurostars were built the loading gauge was more restricted on the British side and the power in many places was provided with a third rail! With HST1 now available, it would be probable that the future will see Velaro and AGV trains extending their trips to British side as well. Provided of course that the Biritish can also accept the tired solutions from the rest of the European Union.  

Another interesting British phenomenon is the largest fleet of Pendolinos (type 390) in traffic. 53/57 (4 are in order) tilting units are using the (almost) conventional lines under Virgin Trains brand. Virgin trains also has Voyagers and the future Japansese built 8,5 billion euro high speed trains. With its large population, Britain will certainly have a great railroading future as well as show the way to the rest of the world on the opening markets, now and 200 years ago.

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Asia   
 The Japanese   

The story of the bullet trains dashing through the Japanese Shinkansen track back in 1964 is awesome. Although the speed of 210 km/h (130 mph) now seems little, the Shinkansen (translating "the new rail line") and the term "bullet train" show brilliant product development and excellent story telling capacity from the manufacturer. The result: Everyone knows Japanese are tough high speed train manufacturers. Kawasaki has now designed a train for top speeds of 350 km/h (217 mph) which will be finished in 2011.  

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