Chinese Rail Transport Appreciation & News

A staff member hands out a souvenir to a passenger who is about to take train G1305, the inaugural high-speed train service at Shanghai South Railway Station in east China's Shanghai, Jan. 5, 2025. Shanghai South Railway Station on Sunday launched its first high-speed rail service with the departure of the inaugural train G1305, marking a significant milestone in its development. (Photo by Chen Haoming/Xinhua)



Train G1305, the inaugural high-speed train service at Shanghai South Railway Station, pulls out of the station in east China's Shanghai, Jan. 5, 2025.



A passenger (2nd R) poses for a souvenir photo with two train attendants before boarding train G1305, the inaugural high-speed train service at Shanghai South Railway Station in east China's Shanghai, Jan. 5, 2025.



An aerial drone photo taken on Jan. 5, 2025 shows an exterior view of Shanghai South Railway Station in east China's Shanghai.

taxiya said:

冲高试验 is a test article of all HSRs. The speed in this test is the highest posssible speed. It is far higher than Max speed which is higher than normal operational speed.

Here is a CCTV report of CR380 reaching 486.1 kmph in the test.

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So we have three figures:

1. Operational speed, 400kmph for CR450. In all operational lines, this would be the regular top speed.
2. Max speed, 450kmph for CR450. This is the top speed that the track, signal can tolerate. So it is still an operational speed that is within the regulation. But it wouldn't be used to plan the time table.
3. Absolute Max speed, 600kmph for CR450, 486.1 kmph for CR380. These are like speed before a supercar driver felt loosing control or engine is sounding weird. They are only ment for knowing the upper limit, but never allowed to operate with passengers.

This route is track and wheel, not related to maglev.

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Sounds like CR450 intends to break the 574.8kph record set by TGV in 2007, if not the 603kph set by Japan's maglev in 2015.

bd popeye said:

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A staff member hands out a souvenir to a passenger who is about to take train G1305, the inaugural high-speed train service at Shanghai South Railway Station in east China's Shanghai, Jan. 5, 2025. Shanghai South Railway Station on Sunday launched its first high-speed rail service with the departure of the inaugural train G1305, marking a significant milestone in its development. (Photo by Chen Haoming/Xinhua)

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Train G1305, the inaugural high-speed train service at Shanghai South Railway Station, pulls out of the station in east China's Shanghai, Jan. 5, 2025.

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A passenger (2nd R) poses for a souvenir photo with two train attendants before boarding train G1305, the inaugural high-speed train service at Shanghai South Railway Station in east China's Shanghai, Jan. 5, 2025.

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An aerial drone photo taken on Jan. 5, 2025 shows an exterior view of Shanghai South Railway Station in east China's Shanghai.

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That station was built in 2006 and was intended to serve conventional green/red/blue trains only. I have more questions than answers. If the Shanghai South Railway Station already has enough empty platforms to serve new HSR EMUs, why did they build a whole new massive HSR station in Songjiang District right across the street from the Songjiang South Railway Station on the Shanghai-Hangzhou HSR? Isn't the Shanghai South Railway Station much closer to the city center and financial district? As built, the South Railway Station has 11 platforms, which is smaller than most post-2010 HSR stations, but bigger than older standard station (usually 7-9 platforms with 11-13 tracks total). I wonder if the Songjiang station was necessary given its size and distance from Shanghai city centre. Songjiang District is already being served by multiple metro lines, the old Songjiang Railway Station and the HSR Songjiang South Railway Station.

To reach those speeds, 400 kph, you need not only the locomotives and trains designed for that speed but extremely straight track with as few curved sections as possible. I would guess some lines have already been built to accommodate the higher speed. Otherwise you need tilting trains to traverse the curved sections at speed.

Right now maglev in China is still under development. Something like the Transrapid to Pudong Airport in Shanghai does not IMHO offer enough advantages vs conventional high speed rail. China is however researching higher speed maglev which should put maglev back in the race. Even Transrapid was supposed to be able to cruise at 550 kph. Although the implementation at Pudong is much slower. In part because of the relatively short track.

gelgoog said:

To reach those speeds, 400 kph, you need not only the locomotives and trains designed for that speed but extremely straight track with as few curved sections as possible. I would guess some lines have already been built to accommodate the higher speed. Otherwise you need tilting trains to traverse the curved sections at speed.

Right now maglev in China is still under development. Something like the Transrapid to Pudong Airport in Shanghai does not IMHO offer enough advantages vs conventional high speed rail. China is however researching higher speed maglev which should put maglev back in the race. Even Transrapid was supposed to be able to cruise at 550 kph. Although the implementation at Pudong is much slower. In part because of the relatively short track.

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A lot of the high speed track for 350 km/h service were designed to accommodate speeds up to 380 km/h, e.g. Beijing-Shanghai line.