The Second Age of Rail: A History of High-Speed Trains

The complete story of the world’s high-speed railways, from Japan’s bullet trains to HS2 via France, Germany, and China

Speed on steel wheels has fascinated engineers for nearly two centuries. When a team of French experts accelerated a train up to 574.8 km/h in April 2007 they proved that the rail speed frontier was still unknown. Japan and France pioneered high-speed train technology in the 20th century, and now China and South Korea are on the cusp of developing inter-city rail travel at 400 km/h. In Europe, expansion of the already extensive network of high-speed lines may be dogged by delays over costs and noise, but the USA lags far behind, already outpaced by new lines in Turkey, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia—pilgrims to Mecca will soon be riding the desert rails at 300 km/h. Charting the events that have shaped these remarkable developments, this illustrated book is railway history in the making.