For the here and now speeds are being pushed up to 186 mph (300 km/h) in Europe, although in the UK speeds are likely to remain static. Longer Term, as mentioned before speeds are planned to be raised to 225 mph (360 km/h) for commercial use which is very fast, but quite feasible, for the TGV next generation, and the ICE will be capable of 330km/h or 206mph in 1999 although it will be limited to 300km/h in revenue service.
Despite the Speed Record by the French TGV of a whopping 320 mph (515 km/h) these speeds are not really viable commercially at the moment for a number of reasons. First of all, all pantographs have to make contact with an overhanging wire, when travelling at such speeds vibrations are immense. Also the dynamic pressures experienced by the track are overwhelming, and they would be worn out much faster, other than changing the physical size of the rails there is not a lot that could be done. Also there are a few other things, tracks and train wheels need to be absolutely perfect in order to run at such speeds. Already lasers are used in France to place sleepers millimetre by millimetre to ensure perfect straightness. However, wheels must be perfectly round too, and that is another problem. So going over 300 mph in the near future seems unrealistic.
People are starting to say that the upper limit for conventional steel on steel trains is 225mph, or 360km/h
Many people see the future in Magnetic Levitation (maglev) trains. These are trains that float on a magnetic field, and are propelled by electromagnets. This would no longer need physical contact anywhere, so no wearing out would occur and there would be the capability of aircraft speeds. However there are drawbacks, a lot of energy would be required to float the train and one has to beg the question of why not just fly. The major drawback of course is the lack of infrastructure. There is 25,000 miles (40,000km) of railway track in the UK alone, which would all have to be changed at great expense.
There is also the energy problem with maglev, it would take a lot of energy to float the trains and now that we are looking at having to conserve energy it might be the case that they just would not be commercially viable. Germany is the only country with definate plans for a commercial maglev service, a project called transrapid. Such trains may reach speeds of 500km/h (310mph).
The problem is that the faster trains go, the greater the resistive force in terms of air resistance they face. Vast amounts of energy has to be used to counteract this force which at speeds over 200mph (320km/h) can amount to several tons. To counter this force vast amounts of energy must be consumed. The whole enviromental point about trains is that they use up a lot less energy (and therefore pollute a lot less) than the equivalent number of cars on the road. If they go faster than 200mph (320km/h) they may start to loose this advantage and may even become more costly in terms of energy use than the car, like the aeroplane. I think we shouldn't really be pushing the top speed above 200mph (320km/h). I think we should instead concerntrate on bringing high speed train travel to more routes.
Remember that of the 5000 km of track that TGVs serve, only about 800km of it is on high speed track. The rest of the way they are limited to a top speed of about 220km/h (140mph) although they face speed restrictions on curves, stations and level crossings. This means their average speed is a lot lower than on high speed line. As a result there are quite a lot of projects to build new railways. All over europe high speed lines only make up a fraction of the whole network, there is a lot of work to be done to increase the number of high speed lines. Eventually most european cities will be connected with very high speed trains.
The rest of the world needs high speed railways, Africa, Asia and North America are places which could greatly benefit from high speed travel, at the moment they often still use steam engines, which are polluting and inefficient. Perhaps Transport Would be the key to getting development going in those countries. Capitalist trade it built around the ability to move goods and people around the place so clearly there is a need there. Also perhaps in the future cruises by train could be offered, whereby you could cruise around the world on a luxury high speed train like you do with ships. The high speed infrastructure could also be used by real business people, and the money from the cruises would go into infrastructure enabling further development for locals. Well more and more trains are becoming a more important form of transport, although they dithered somewhat when the car came along, now their speed is getting better the car can no longer compete.
See Also: Trains killing off Aeroplanes
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