Some technical, financial and organisational aspects of high-speed trains

Abstract

The supply of high-speed train (HST) services which started in number of countries since the early 1980s is still an ambition far from realisation in the near future for many other countries. Provision of high speed trains requires the existing of certain characteristics, including high demand density which is often not granted in the domestic market alone, and consequently certain level of co-ordination and integration among neighbouring countries becomes a pre-condition for the establishment of such services with the resulting problems of operational and technical compatibility. This paper reviews the main aspects of the high-speed trains and presents the main characteristics and the requirement for the expansion of such services.