Fast trains before the bullet train
Fast trains existed long before the 1960s. Steam locomotives set speed records in the 1930s, and the British locomotive Mallard reached about 126 miles per hour (roughly 203 kilometers per hour) in 1938, a figure still cited as the steam record. German and American electric and diesel railcars also ran at high speeds on particular lines. However, these were fast trains on lines built for slower traffic, mixed with freight, curves and crossings. What was new in the 1960s was a whole railway designed for speed.
Japan’s Tokaido Shinkansen
Japan’s Tokaido corridor between Tokyo and Osaka was crowded with passengers and freight on narrow-gauge tracks by the 1950s. National planners decided to build a new standard-gauge line (wider than the older Japanese gauge) with gentle curves, no level crossings, and electric trains. Construction began in 1959 and the Tokaido Shinkansen opened on October 1, 1964, shortly before the Tokyo Olympics.
Trains were limited to 210 kilometers per hour at opening, among the fastest in regular service in the world. The journey between Tokyo and Osaka, about 515 kilometers, took roughly four hours at first and was shortened afterward, as operations settled and speeds were used more fully. The English nickname “bullet train” came from the rounded nose of the first trains and from their speed. The service was heavily used from the start and is often credited with proving that high-speed rail could be a lasting commercial success, although exact finances have been described differently by different writers.
Europe follows
European countries responded in different ways. Italy opened part of a high-speed line between Rome and Florence in 1977, one of the earliest in Europe. France’s TGV (train à grande vitesse) entered service between Paris and Lyon in 1981, with a top speed of 260 kilometers per hour at launch, using dedicated track. Over time the TGV network was extended to many other cities. Germany’s ICE trains began in 1991, and Spain’s AVE opened between Madrid and Seville in 1992. Other countries added their own systems, often sharing technical standards with neighbors to allow trains to cross borders.
A recurring pattern is that high-speed lines tend to be most successful on routes of a few hundred kilometers between large cities, where trains can compete with both cars on modern roads and highways and the jet airliners that serve the same city pairs. Dedicated tracks cost a lot to build, and countries have judged these costs differently.
Speed records
Test trains have run far faster than regular service. In 2007 a specially prepared French TGV set reached 574.8 kilometers per hour on a test run, a record for conventional wheel-on-rail trains. Commercial services in several countries now run at around 300 to 350 kilometers per hour. Above these speeds, air resistance, noise, track wear and energy use all rise quickly, so engineers weigh speed against cost rather than always seeking the fastest option.
Magnetic levitation
Maglev trains float above or beside a guideway using magnets, so there is no wheel-on-rail friction. The idea has long roots. The German engineer Hermann Kemper patented a magnetic levitation concept in 1934, and further research in Germany, Japan and elsewhere followed in the 1960s and 1970s. A low-speed maglev shuttle operated at Birmingham Airport in the United Kingdom from 1984 until 1995.
Germany developed the Transrapid system, and the first commercial high-speed maglev line opened in Shanghai in 2004, connecting the city’s Pudong airport with a metro station over roughly 30 kilometers. Japan runs the Linimo maglev line near Nagoya, opened in 2005, at moderate speeds. In Japan, a superconducting maglev (SCMaglev) has been tested on a line in Yamanashi, with test runs reaching about 600 kilometers per hour in 2015. Plans for a commercial Chuo Shinkansen line using this technology have faced delays, so dates should be checked against current reports.
Maglev has not displaced conventional high-speed trains. Its tracks are incompatible with existing rail lines, building new guideways is expensive, and conventional trains have kept improving.
A fair summary
High-speed rail grew from the idea that a dedicated, carefully engineered line could change what a train could do. Japan showed it in the 1960s, Europe built its own versions from the 1970s and 1980s, and other regions followed. Magnetic levitation remains an interesting branch of the family tree, and its future depends on cost, demand and politics as much as on engineering.