Higher-speed rail (HrSR), also known as high-performance rail, higher-performance rail, semi-high-speed rail or almost-high-speed rail, is the jargon used to describe inter-city passenger rail services that have top speeds of more than conventional rail but are not high enough to be called high-speed rail services. The term is also used by planners to identify the incremental rail improvements to increase train speeds and reduce travel time as alternatives to larger efforts to create or expand the high-speed rail networks.
China Railway CR200J on Beijing–Shanghai railway.
Amtrak's Southwest Chief east of Los Cerrillos, New Mexico.
Cab display unit of ACSES, an approved PTC system
Concrete ties on a BNSF line
Inter-city rail services are express trains that run services that connect cities over longer distances than commuter or regional trains. They include rail services that are neither short-distance commuter rail trains within one city area nor slow regional rail trains stopping at all stations and covering local journeys only. An inter-city train is typically an express train with limited stops and comfortable carriages to serve long-distance travel.
A Acela Express high-speed train traveling on the busy Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C. in July 2011
A Moroccan inter-city train at the Rabat station
DF4D with 25G passenger cars used for K-series trains
A China Railway High-speed trains
