…or when trains fly by with 400 km/h (250 mph)! The red arrow (the
translation for “frecciarossa”) as the new italian high-speed train is called
is supposed to reach 400 km/h albeit the operational speed is 360 km/h.
(215 mph). But as you can see the development never stops.

The trains get faster while airplanes hardly increased their travel speed in the past 40 years. But how far can trains’ speeds be increased without the risk of accidents. Imagine that: A train running 400 km/h does 113 metres per second. That’s awfully fast. Speaking of that, the brake way of this train is about 15 kilometres. So if there’s an obstacle on the tracks, then this train has hard chances not to hit this obstacle even if the emergency system is alarming 10 kilometres in advance.

However there have been rarely accidents on high-spped tracks in the past 10 years. As the technics are advancing every year so do the security concepts. And while there was no continuous train control (Linienzugbeeinflussung) 20 years ago, it has been evolved till now. Basically every modern train, be it some slower tramway or high-speed train (where LZB is mandatory!) is equipped with it and assists the train conductor when travelling this fast. On slower trains it helps optimizing the train flow when multiple trains have to share one track (suburban trains for example).

But back to Frecciarossa, the Pride of the Italian State train service (Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane S.p.A.) . This train seems to outwit the french TGV which runs at 380 km/h (225 mph). But the theoretical speed of 400 km/h has been reached on tests only and with a short train (8 cars) only. It is doubtful that the FSI will run only short trains.

So while this train is new, the train will still be tested and it’ll take another year or two until this red beast is travelling between Milano and Rome in 2hours 15minutes.

But if the train gets active and probably running it’s V_Max of 400 km/h, then it will beat the TGV, that’s for sure!

Italy’s new pride – The frecciarossa 1000 (Bombardier Zefira 350) 

…and the Mock-up of the same train at InnoTrans 2012