Siemens Charger
The Siemens SC-44 Charger is a diesel-electric passenger locomotive designed and manufactured by Siemens Mobility for the North American market. The first production unit was unveiled on March 26,2016, the SC-44 Charger locomotive is powered by a 4,400 hp Cummins 16 cylinder QSK95 4-stroke high speed diesel engine, which is designed to meet EPA Tier IV emissions standards that took effect in 2015. Top speed in service as per PRIIA specifications is 125 mph, the overall design and layout of the locomotive is shared heavily with its electric counterparts in Europe and the United States, diesel equipment aside. Power to the AC traction motors is delivered from the alternator via four IGBT inverters. Contingent on successful completion of testing, the first locomotives to operate for Amtrak are scheduled to service by the end of 2017. In November 2015, the states exercised the option to purchase 29 more locomotives, California added a firm order of two locomotives in 2016. Out of 63 locomotives ordered,22 will go to California,8 to Washington state, MARC announced in August 2015 that it is seeking $58 million to purchase eight locomotives to replace their aging electric fleet, with deliveries planned for late 2017.
The purchase was approved by the Maryland Board of Public Works on September 16,2015, the MARC order uses part of the Amtrak state-corridor options. Brightline purchased ten locomotives with options for an additional eleven, the locomotives will be used in pairs, bookending five passenger cars on a new rail system between MiamiCentral and Orlando International Airport Intermodal Terminal. The locomotives for Brightline are built with a front end. Northern Lights Express, a proposed higher-speed passenger service in Minnesota, has tabbed Charger locomotives to power the train when it opens in 2020, however, no purchase has been made. Multi State Diesel Electric Locomotive Procurement, The Siemens Charger, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Multi State Diesel Electric Locomotive Procurement, The Siemens Charger, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Siemens Charger data sheet Raw Footage of Siemens Charger SC-444601 Cummins QSK95 Testing
Travel class
A travel class is a quality of accommodation on public transport. The accommodation could be a seat or a cabin for example, higher travel classes are designed to be more comfortable and are typically more expensive. While an airline may only have two or three classes of service, they use approximately ten to fifteen different booking codes in order to control the amount of each fare level sold. The booking code used by airlines and agents is typically, the first letter of the fare basis shown on the ticket, airlines only used a few codes, and these were almost identical across the industry. Typical examples were F or P for First Class, J or C for Business, with the advent of cheaper fares and more frequent travel, airlines increased the number of available fare types and the number of booking codes required to differentiate among them. There is now no industry standard with regard to airline booking codes, most low-cost carriers have greatly simplified the fare classes they use to only a few codes, unlike full-service airlines, which use many more.
In Mexico, bus services often have designated levels of service, the top of which is de lujo or clase lujo, followed by plus clase, primera clase, and segunda clase. Before cruise ships dominated the passenger trade, ocean liners had classes of service, often categorized as First Class, Second Class. Companies such as Cunard Line continue this tradition, offering Queens Grill, Princess Grill and Britannia cabins, each of which have their own allocated lounges, trains often have first class and second class. For trains with sleeping accommodations, there may be levels of luxury. Prior to 1949, most railway bureaus had a three-class structure, as with most contemporary cases, few people could afford first class or even second class, so at times there would be no first class or second class service available in some trains. Some went as far as offering a fourth class service with goods wagons, in 1949, the first Limited Express with Reserved Seating appeared with the Railway Bureau of Taiwan, and it offered a three-class service, inherited locally from Japanese colonial rule.
This structure was the norm for all trains, normal or express, in 1953, the Equality Express was introduced with second class carriages only. Eventually, all save for the sole Limited Express offered only second class service. This resulted in the quality of service being associated with the speed of the train, the Diesel Limited Express was introduced in 1956 with one class only. In 1960, with the reforming of Limited Expresses, all passenger trains officially offered only one class, all expresses had only second class carriages and other trains only third class. As time passes, more types of carriages were introduced, there are generally two classes, known as first class and second class, or the equivalent in the local language. The three-tier class structure was abolished on most European railways in the 1950s in favor of a two-tier structure, trains in Great Britain provide a two-tier class structure, with the higher tier called first class
Red Line (Los Angeles Metro)
The Red Line is a heavy rail subway line running between Downtown Los Angeles and North Hollywood via the districts of Hollywood and Mid-Wilshire. In North Hollywood it connects with the Orange Line service for stations to the Warner Center in Woodland Hills and it is operated by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The Red Line, which is one of six forming the Metro Rail rapid transit system. Together with the Purple Line, these two rail lines combine to form L. A. Metro Rails busiest line. As of October 2013, the combined Red and Purple lines averaged 169,478 boardings per weekday, the Red Line begins at Union Station and travels southwest through Downtown Los Angeles, passing the Civic Center, Pershing Square and the Financial District. At 7th St/Metro Center, travelers can connect to the Metro Blue Line, from here, the train travels between 7th Street and Wilshire Boulevard west through Pico-Union and Westlake, arriving at Wilshire/Vermont in the citys Mid-Wilshire/Koreatown district.
Up to this point, the track is shared with the Metro Purple Line, at Wilshire/Vermont, from here, the Red Line travels north along Vermont, and west along Hollywood Boulevard, traveling through Koreatown and Hollywood. Finally, the line turns northwest and crosses into the San Fernando Valley and this route matches a branch of the old Red Car system, dismantled during The Great American Streetcar Scandal. Trains run between approximately 4,30 a. m. and 1,00 a. m. the following morning, on Friday and Saturday evenings, trains are extended until 2,00 a. m. of the following morning. First and last train times are as follows, To/From North Hollywood Eastbound First Train to Union Station,4,31 a. m, last Train to Union Station,12,54 a. m. Westbound First Train to North Hollywood,4,30 a. m, last Train to North Hollywood,12,17 a. m. Trains on the Red Line operate every ten minutes during peak hours Monday through Friday and they operate every twelve minutes during the daytime weekdays and all day on the weekends after approximately 10 a. m.
Night service can range between 10–20 minutes, the Red Line project consisted of the current Red Line and Purple Line corridors, plus other corridors that were never built. To Fairfax Avenue, north along Fairfax to the San Fernando Valley. This zone stretched on either side of Wilshire Boulevard from Hancock Park to west of Fairfax, congress passed the ban in 1986. Subsequently, any plans for a subway west of Western Avenue diverted the line south around the zone, using Crenshaw and San Vicente Boulevards. The passage of the legislation forced the SCRTD to terminate the route at Western Avenue, and no longer qualify for the current round of Federal funding for the remaining miles of the rail line. Bound tunnel and turn north on Vermont, west on Sunset, north to the San Fernando Valley, the line would turn north along Highland Avenue to Universal City and North Hollywood
Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center
The Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center is an intermodal transit center in Anaheim, United States. The station opened in 2014 and replaced a depot and train platforms used by Amtrak. The steel-framed building’s entrance is a 120-foot-tall glass wall, the structure has a compound curved shell that is covered with air-filled plastic pillows through which sunlight illuminates the interior. The arched roof is illuminated with multicolored lights visible from the surrounding area, ARTIC is located in the Platinum Triangle and near the Anaheim Resort, areas of Anaheim which include major points of interest. It is directly accessible by bicycle from the Santa Ana River Trail, city officials had originally projected daily ridership of 10,000 but a typical weekday sees about 2,400 transit riders with 3,900 during concert and sporting events at the nearby venues. Amtrak trains had 270,819 boardings and alightings in fiscal year 2015 at the station, a branch of the Southern Pacific Railway was extended to Anaheim in 1875.
In 1887, a line to San Diego was built through the Town by Santa Fe Railway. By 1921, there were two Southern Pacific depots and one Santa Fe depot, the Pacific Electric Railway was planning on a line to connect with the community. In October 1986 a new station was constructed about 600 feet northwest to a site where Anaheim Stadium was just across the parking lot, the San Diegan moniker was retired on June 1,2000 when the service became known as the Pacific Surfliner. The Orange County Line began service to the station in 1990 as the Orange County Commuter, in 1994, the line became Metrolinks fifth route known as the Orange County Line with the purchase of the railroad right-of-way, Surf Line, from Santa Fe. The Inland Empire–Orange County Line that runs from San Bernardino through Orange County to Oceanside does not stop here, both Metrolink lines stop at Orange, the next stop to the south. An average of 500 Metrolink and 400 Amtrak passengers boarded trains daily in the last year of operation of the previous Anaheim station, the 16-acre station is near two freeways, State Route 57, and Interstate 5.
The Honda Center is across Katella Avenue on the side of the site. The station has access to the Santa Ana River Trail and bicycle racks. Besides local bus service provided by OCTA and ART, travel service to intercity/international destinations is provided from the complex, for example, Megabus began a bus service between the terminal, Los Angeles, San Jose and San Francisco when the rail station opened in 2014. Greyhound began operations the day at the new center. Tres Estrellas de Oro moved their services to Tijuana and Guadalajara, the tubular steel-framed 67, 000-square-foot building has a compound curved shell that is covered with a 200, 000-square-foot ethylene tetrafluoroethylene roof system. This allows diffuse sunlight to illuminate a major portion of the buildings interior, at night, the structure can be illuminated in any color with the 1,354 energy-efficient lights glowing through the air-filled plastic pillows which make up the arched roof
Greyhound Lines
Greyhound Lines, Inc. usually shortened to Greyhound, is an intercity bus common carrier serving over 3,800 destinations across North America. The companys first route began in Hibbing, Minnesota in 1914, since October 2007, Greyhound has been a subsidiary of British transportation company FirstGroup, but continues to be based in Dallas, where it has been headquartered since 1987. Greyhound and sister companies in FirstGroup America are the largest motorcoach operators in the United States, carl Eric Wickman was born in Sweden in 1887. In 1905 he moved to the United States where he was working in a mine as an operator in Alice, Minnesota. In the same year, he became a Hupmobile salesman in Hibbing and he proved unable to sell the car. In 1914, using his vehicle, a 7-passenger car, he began a bus service with Andy Anderson. Heed, by transporting iron ore miners from Hibbing to Alice at 15 cents a ride, in 1915 Wickman joined forces with Ralph Bogan, who was running a similar service from Hibbing to Duluth, Minnesota.
The name of the new organization was the Mesaba Transportation Company, by the end of World War I in 1918, Wickman owned 18 buses and was making an annual profit of $40,000. In 1922, Wickman joined forces with Orville Caesar, the owner of the Superior White Bus Lines, four years later, Wickman purchased two West Coast operations, the Pioneer Yelloway System and the Pickwick Lines, creating a national intercity bus company. The Greyhound name had its origins in the run of a route from Superior, Wisconsin to Wausau. While passing through a town, Ed Stone, the routes operator. The reflection reminded him of a dog, and he adopted that name for that segment of the Blue Goose Lines. The Greyhound name became popular and applied to the bus network. Stone became General Sales Manager of Yellow Truck and Coach, a division of General Motors, Wickman, as the president of the company, continued to expand it so that by 1927, his buses were making transcontinental trips from California to New York. In 1928, Greyhound had an annual income of $6 million.
In 1929, Greyhound acquired additional interests in Southland Transportation Company, the Gray Line, Greyhound acquired an interest in Northland Transportation Company, and renamed it Northland Greyhound Lines. By 1930 more than 100 bus lines had been consolidated into what was called the Motor Transit Company, recognizing that the company needed a more memorable name, the partners of the Motor Transit Company decided to rename it after the Greyhound marketing phrase used by earlier bus lines. Wickmans business suffered during the Great Depression, and by 1931 was over $1 million in debt, as the 1930s progressed and the economy improved, the Greyhound Corporation began to prosper again
Superliner (railcar)
The Superliner is a type of bilevel intercity railroad passenger car used by Amtrak. Pullman-Standard built the first cars, known as Superliner I, in 1975–1981, Bombardier Transportation built a second batch, the design descends from the Budd Hi-Level, employed by the Santa Fe on its El Capitan. Car types include coaches, dining cars and sleeping cars, the first Superliners entered service in February 1979. Amtrak employs the Superliners on all its Western and some Eastern long-distance routes, Superliner coaches can be found on short-distance corridor services. Derivative designs such as the California Car and Surfliner are used in California, Amtrak assumed control of almost all private sector intercity passenger rail service in the United States on May 1,1971, with a mandate to reverse decades of decline. Amtrak retained approximately 184 of the 440 trains which had run the day before, to operate these trains, Amtrak inherited a fleet of 300 locomotives and 1190 passenger cars, most of which dated from the 1940s–1950s.
No new sleeping cars had been built for service in the United States since 1955, Amtrak employed a mix of inherited cars on its long-distance trains in the Western United States. Most these were conventional single-level, but Amtrak had inherited 73 Hi-Levels from the Santa Fe, the Budd Company built these between 1954–1964, the bilevel design was well-suited to the long distances in the west. When Amtrak issued a request for proposal in 1973 for a new passenger car it was assumed that the design would be bilevel. Thirteen companies responded to the RFP, Amtrak selected the proposal by Louis T. Klauder & Associates, the design was finished by mid-1974 and Amtrak invited four companies to bid on its construction, Budd, Pullman-Standard, and Rohr, with Pullman-Standard winning the contract. The Superliners resembled the Hi-Levels but differed in several ways, the most obvious difference was the height, at 16 feet 2 inches the Superliners are 8 inches taller. The Superliners used 480 volt head end power, which Amtrak had just adopted as its standard, the Hi-Levels, which used steam heating and diesel generators, would be converted to match this standard.
The Superliner I cars ride on Waggon Union MD-76 trucks, the trucks required more frequent overhauls than comparable domestic designs and were were notorious for their rough riding characteristics. The Superliner IIs ride on GSI-G70 outboard bearing trucks, found on the Horizon, the Superliner has a maximum speed of 100 mph. The Superliner I cars stored waste in onboard retention tanks, and this was an improvement on the Hi-Levels, which dumped directly to the tracks. Growing public concern about such dumping led to the adoption of a system in the Superliner IIs. They were the first long-distance cars with such a system, the Superliner I cars were retrofitted with a full-retention system in the early 1990s. The New York Times described the Superliner I interior color scheme as soft hues of beige, brown, for the Superliner IIs Amtrak introduced a new scheme incorporating gray and salmon
Orange Line (Los Angeles Metro)
The Orange Line is a bus rapid transit line in the Metro Busway network in Los Angeles County, California. The other line in the Metro Busway network is the Metro Silver Line, the Metro Orange Line bicycle path runs alongside part of the route. Unlike the Silver Line, which has a street-running sections within downtown Los Angeles and San Pedro, the Warner Center branch includes several blocks of street running in the Warner Center area. The line, which is operated by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, opened on October 29,2005, because of its many differences from a standard bus service, the authority has branded the transitway as part of the regions network of light and heavy rail lines. It appears on Metros Metro Rail & Busway map, Orange Line vehicles are painted in the silver-and-gray color scheme of Metro Rail vehicles. Likewise, it is one of the two bus lines that have been marketed with a color designation rather than its line number. The Orange Line is rarely referred to by its line number, the transitways color name, the Orange Line, refers to the many citrus trees that once blanketed the San Fernando Valley.
In the planning stages the transitway was known as the San Fernando Valley East-West Transitway, Metro Orange Line buses operate daily between 3, 45am and 1, 00am. Maximum recorded average weekday boardings were 31,904 during September 2013, while usage initially fell during the Great Recession with average weekday boarding running at 22,669 in 2010, it has since rebounded, averaging 28,263 weekday boardings so far in 2015. Collisions Collisions with automobiles occurred weekly during the first several months of operations, the Blue Line had a significant number of collisions in its early years and currently has the highest fatality rate in North America. Metro issued slow orders after two collisions in November 2005 involving an injured driver. Buses were required to slow to 10 mi/h vs. 25–30 mi/h, in December 2005, Metro called for the installation of red-light cameras at most intersections. Adding more buses requires platooning, or bunching, which is the running of convoys of two or more together, similar to what rail achieves in having multiple cars per train.
Greater signal prioritization is an option, and comes at the cost of decreasing cross street travel times, another alternative requires the changing of state law or the granting of a Caltrans exemption from state law and the purchasing of 80-foot-long buses. The majority of the Orange Line is built on part of the former Southern Pacific Railroad Burbank Branch railbed, the line had passenger rail service from 1904 to 1920, with stations at several locations including North Hollywood and Van Nuys. It had Pacific Electric Red Car service from North Hollywood to Van Nuys again from 1938 to 1952, the railbed was purchased by the predecessor to Metro in 1991 along with several other railroad rights-of-way for future use in transportation projects. Transit planners envisioned an extension of the Metro Red Line subway as the most natural option because the purchased right-of-way begins at North Hollywood station, local community groups fiercely opposed such alternatives and, in fact, any rail construction that was not completely underground.
Objections cited included noise and perceived danger to a large Orthodox Jewish community which the line bisects, groups were organized and funded by the community to kill anything but a subway
San Diego
San Diego is a major city in California, United States. It is in San Diego County, on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, approximately 120 miles south of Los Angeles and immediately adjacent to the border with Mexico. With an estimated population of 1,394,928 as of July 1,2015, San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest in California. It is part of the San Diego–Tijuana conurbation, the second-largest transborder agglomeration between the US and a country after Detroit–Windsor, with a population of 4,922,723 people. San Diego has been called the birthplace of California, historically home to the Kumeyaay people, San Diego was the first site visited by Europeans on what is now the West Coast of the United States. Upon landing in San Diego Bay in 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area for Spain, the Presidio and Mission San Diego de Alcalá, founded in 1769, formed the first European settlement in what is now California. In 1821, San Diego became part of the newly independent Mexico, in 1850, California became part of the United States following the Mexican–American War and the admission of California to the union.
The city is the seat of San Diego County and is the center of the region as well as the San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. San Diegos main economic engines are military and defense-related activities, international trade, the presence of the University of California, San Diego, with the affiliated UCSD Medical Center, has helped make the area a center of research in biotechnology. The original inhabitants of the region are now known as the San Dieguito, the area of San Diego has been inhabited by the Kumeyaay people. The first European to visit the region was Portuguese-born explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailing under the flag of Castile, sailing his flagship San Salvador from Navidad, New Spain, Cabrillo claimed the bay for the Spanish Empire in 1542, and named the site San Miguel. In November 1602, Sebastián Vizcaíno was sent to map the California coast, in May 1769, Gaspar de Portolà established the Fort Presidio of San Diego on a hill near the San Diego River. It was the first settlement by Europeans in what is now the state of California, in July of the same year, Mission San Diego de Alcalá was founded by Franciscan friars under Junípero Serra.
By 1797, the mission boasted the largest native population in Alta California, with over 1,400 neophytes living in, Mission San Diego was the southern anchor in California of the historic mission trail El Camino Real. Both the Presidio and the Mission are National Historic Landmarks, in 1821, Mexico won its independence from Spain, and San Diego became part of the Mexican territory of Alta California. In 1822, Mexico began attempting to extend its authority over the territory of Alta California. The fort on Presidio Hill was gradually abandoned, while the town of San Diego grew up on the land below Presidio Hill. The Mission was secularized by the Mexican government in 1833, the 432 residents of the town petitioned the governor to form a pueblo, and Juan María Osuna was elected the first alcalde, defeating Pío Pico in the vote
Rolling stock
The term rolling stock originally referred to any vehicles that move on a railway. It has since expanded to include the vehicles used by businesses on roadways. It usually includes both powered and unpowered vehicles, for locomotives, railroad cars and wagons. Rolling stock is considered to be an asset, or close to it, since the value of the vehicle can be readily estimated. The term contrasts with fixed stock, which is a term for the track, stations, other buildings, electric wires. In Great Britain, types of rolling stock were given code names and these codes were telegraphese, somewhat analogous to the SMS language of today. List of railway vehicles Great Western Railway telegraphic codes Great Western Railway wagons The dictionary definition of rolling stock at Wiktionary
Oxnard Transit Center
The Oxnard Transit Center, originally known as the Oxnard Transportation Center, is an intermodal transit center in historic downtown Oxnard, California. The station serves Amtrak and Metrolink trains as well as local and regional buses, ten Pacific Surfliner trains serve the station daily, and six Metrolink trains serve the station each weekday. The Coast Starlight operates one daily in each direction. Of the 74 California stations served by Amtrak, Oxnard was the 28th-busiest in FY2012, Oxnard Historic District The Southern Pacific Railroad constructed a spur at Montalvo in late 1897 on the original route connecting Ventura to Los Angeles through the Santa Clara River Valley. This spur was needed for shipping construction equipment to the site of a new sugar refinery. A wooden railroad trestle and rail line were constructed over the Santa Clara River as the spur headed south, the rail line turned here from the north-south alignment to east-west as they continued building the tracks to Santa Susana in the Simi Valley.
With the completion of the Santa Susana Tunnel, this became the most direct route between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the new settlement was named after the factory owner and in 1904 traffic on the coast railroad line was rerouted through Oxnard. In 1987, this new station was constructed on the end of the curve while the former station remained at the southerly end. The former depot has continued in use as a maintenance and freight yard office by Union Pacific, Metrolink service started in 1994 after the Northridge earthquake damaged Simi Valley Freeway and the Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed to temporarily fund the extension of service. In 2015, a southbound Metrolink train left this station and crashed into a truck at Rice Avenue about 2 miles from the station injuring several passengers and an engineer. A Rice Avenue overpass that would take the rerouted State Route 1 over the line has long been proposed at the site where the accident occurred. The new overpass would include an interchange with State Route 34 that parallels the line to Camarillo
Chicago Union Station
Chicago Union Station is a major railroad station that opened in 1925 in Chicago, replacing an earlier station built in 1881. It is the only remaining intercity rail terminal in Chicago, as well as being the primary terminal for commuter trains. The station stands on the west side of the Chicago River between West Adams Street and West Jackson Boulevard, just outside the Chicago Loop, including approach and storage tracks, it is about nine and a half city blocks in size. Its facilities are underground, buried beneath streets and skyscrapers. Chicago Union Station is the third-busiest rail terminal in the United States, after Grand Central Terminal and it is Amtraks overall fourth-busiest station. It handles approximately 120,000 passengers on a weekday and is one of Chicago’s most iconic structures, reflecting the city’s strong architectural heritage. In addition to standing out architecturally, Union Station has features that reflect its commitment to sustainability, in 2011, its lighting system was replaced with more energy-efficient light bulbs and motion sensors, reducing the station’s carbon footprint by 4 million tons annually.
Chicago Union Station was designated as one of America’s “Great Places” in 2012 by the American Planning Association. The “Great Places” program by APA highlights places streets and public spaces around America that exhibit “exemplary character and planning. ”These places are unique in their cultural and historical significance, sense of community, and vision. Other criteria include “architectural features, accessibility and community involvement. ”Chicago Union Station is considered a “Great Public Space” by APA and these spaces are safe and inviting, well-maintained, and attractive, both visually and in functionality. In addition, local culture and history are reflected within the space, Union Station is laid out with a double stub-end configuration, with 10 tracks coming into the station from the north and 14 from the south. Because passenger trains do not pass through Union Station, all passengers traveling through Chicago must change trains to reach their final destination. There are 2 through tracks to allow out-of-service equipment moves between the north and south side, including one with a platform to allow extra long trains to board, between the north and south sides of the station is a passenger concourse.
Passengers can walk through the concourse to get from any platform to any other without stairs or elevators, odd-numbered platforms are on the north half of the station, and even-numbered platforms on the south half. The north tracks are used by Amtrak for the Hiawatha Service and the Empire Builder, and by Metra for the Milwaukee District West, Milwaukee District North, the south tracks are used for all of the other Amtrak and Metra services. Two station management structures, one on side of the terminal, monitor train-to-track assignments. The concourse has a level between platform and street level, containing a food court featuring local vendors as well as national chains. Located west of Canal Street, Union Stations headhouse occupies a city block
Inter-city rail
Inter-city rail services are express passenger train services that cover longer distances than commuter or regional trains. There is no definition of inter-city rail, its meaning may vary from country to country. Most typically, an inter-city train is a train with limited stops. Inter-city rail sometimes provides international services and this is most prevalent in Europe, due to the close proximity of its 50 countries in a 10,180,000 square kilometre area. Eurostar and EuroCity are examples of this and this use of the term appeared in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and has been widely imitated. The speeds of inter-city rail lines are diverse, ranging from 50 km/h in a mountainous area or on undeveloped tracks to 200–350 km/h on newly constructed or improved tracks. As a result, Inter-city rail may or may not fall into the category of higher-speed rail or high-speed rail, the average speed of inter-city rail service would be faster than 100 km/h in order to be competitive with car and other methods of transport.
50–100 km The distance of an inter-city rail journey is usually at least 50–100 km, although in large metropolitan areas commuter. 100–500 km A distance of 100–500 km is a common journey distance for inter-city rail in many countries, in many cases, railway travel is most competitive at about 2–3 hours journey time. Inter-city rail can compete with highways and short-haul air travel for journeys of this distance. 500–1,000 km In journeys of 500–1,000 km, development of high-speed rail in some countries increases the share of railway for such longer-distance journeys. The Paris-Marseille TGV and Tokyo-Aomori Shinkansen are examples of type of journey. In conventional non high-speed rail, overnight trains are common for this distance, in many other countries, such long-distance rail journey has been replaced by air travel except for tourism or hobbyist purposes, luxury train journeys, or significant cost benefit. Discount Eurail Pass in Europe, Amtrak in the United States, New high-speed lines from 200–350 km/h operation are constructed, and many conventional lines are upgraded to 200 km/h operation.
Currently there are seven High-Speed Inter-City lines in China, with up to 21 planned and they are operated independently from the often parallel High-Speed-Rail-Lines. Japan has six main regional railway companies, known collectively as Japan Railways Group or simply as JR. Many other cities are covered by a network of JRs limited express inter-city trains on 1,067 mm, narrow gauge, major cities are covered by convenient train services of every one hour or more frequent. In addition to the JR Group, Japan has several major regional carriers such as the Kintetsu, almost every major town and city in South Korea is linked by railway, run by Korail
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