200 km/h is a very good sounding speed when it comes to trains and it would be great to have such sections in Romania as well. There have been discussions and proposals on this topic, but we are very far away. Why can it be assumed that we will have trains with a speed of 200 km/h? What is the difference between lines on which trains can reach speeds of 160 km/h and those on which they can reach 40 km/h more? How different are the costs?

In Romania, there were a few trains that reached 200 km/h, but these were only about test trains that reached this speed for a short time at the test center in Feurea or between Bucharest and Campina. The maximum speed of Romanian passenger trains is 160 km/h.

Costs increase fantastically between 160 and 200 km/h

The rail industry says that above 160km/h for every 10km/h you add, operating costs double, so at a commercial speed of 200km/h you could even be talking about a 7-8x increase in operating costs.

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A traditional line, on which trains can reach speeds of 200 km/h, requires more frequent inspections, more expensive safety systems and much more sophisticated and automated traffic control systems.

If we are talking about increasing the maximum speed of passenger trains from 160 km/h to 200 km/h, a very logical question arises: is it worth making such a large investment if the operating costs during the journey become extremely high? is shortened by only a few minutes.

High-speed train in Poland (photo by Mariia Skovpen, Dreamstime.com)

From Brazi to Citil, 42 km between Ploiesti and Bucharest, the fastest trains reach 140 km/h and take 21 minutes. If the maximum speed were 200 km/h instead of 140 km/h, the travel time would be reduced by five minutes. The fastest trains will run between Bucharest and Ploiesti in 32 minutes instead of 37 km/h, and this will require a large budget and a lot of patience, as the works will take a huge amount of time.

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The fastest trains take 96 minutes for the 186 km between Bucharest Băneasa and Medgidia. If the trains moved tens of kilometers at a speed of 200 km/h, the travel time would be reduced by 20 minutes. Between Pashkani and Roman is 40 km, the fastest trains reach a speed of 120 km/h, and the journey takes 25 minutes. If we replaced 120 by 200 km/h, the travel time would be 5-6 minutes less.

In recent years, the speed has also increased in Transylvania, on Corridor IV: for example, between Sighisoara and Mediaş is 39 km, and the IC train takes 20 minutes without stopping in the two cities, with a maximum speed of 150 km/h. If it was 200 km/h, the travel time would be 5-6 minutes shorter.

And mountains stand in the way of high speeds

Romania has modernized less than 10% of its railway network in the last 30 years and has done so at great expense. The modernization of Bucharest – Constanta costs about one billion euros, and the modernization of Brasov – Sighisoara, where the route is changed and long tunnels are built, will cost about the same. Increasing the speed to 200 km/h is more money, another “fun”.

In Romania, there are mountainous areas on some highways, and you can’t drive there even at 160 km/h, and certainly not at 200 km/h, because such high speeds require very wide turns. To have wide bends in mountainous areas, you also need to build long tunnels, and these tunnels cost tens of millions per kilometer and take years to build.

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The trains have a maximum speed of 80 km/h between Sinaia and Predial, and significant investment will be required to increase their speed to 120 km/h. In other mountainous areas of the country, such as the Ault Valley, there are many sections where the speed limit is only 40-50 km/h.

It costs a lot more because at 200 km/h you have a different type of rail, a different type of ballast compared to a Vmax of 160 km/h. And catenary has different components that have certain fastening systems, certain type of poles and very strong material.

For a line on which trains develop even 200 km/h, the problem is not the crossing with the railway, but the crossing or crossing. Cancellation of railway crossings in various settlements is a problem and causes many disputes with local authorities.

At a speed of 200 km/h, almost everything is different, but the trains are also different, and the production of trains that can reach such speeds costs more.

To ensure safe driving at a speed of 200 km/h, ERTMS/ETCS level 2 and GSM-R signaling systems must also be installed, which further increases costs.

If we had high-speed lines, we would also need trains to match

And if we had sections where trains could develop 200 km/h, we would have to have rolling stock capable of developing such speeds, which we do not have now, because we have few cars and locomotives that could develop 200 km/h hours We don’t have electric frames that can go that fast, the fastest are the Hyperion trains from Softrans which can go 160km/h. And the new Alstom trains, which will start arriving in December, can reach a maximum speed of 160 km/h.

The double-decker carriages on Regio CFR Călători trains reach a top speed of 100 km/h, like many of the old locomotives of private companies. The saddest thing is that there are not many long sections where you can accelerate to 100 km/h, considering that the average speed on the network is about 44-45 km/h.

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And if we have a section of 200 km/h, then it will have to be maintained constantly. For example, there were some restrictions on the 160 km/h sections on the Bucharest-Constanța section, just as for a while there were also restrictions on the 140 km/h sections between Bucharest and Ploiesti.

Where in the region do trains reach a speed of 200 km/h? There are several sections in Poland, several tens of kilometers in Austria with a maximum speed of 230 km/h and 41 km in Serbia where trains can reach 200 km/h.

Photo source: Dreamstime.com