this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2024
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That type of high speed rail is extremely unlikely to ever be a reality in NZ. Thanks to narrow gauge we are limited in a way Europe isn't. But it is possible for narrow gauge to support far faster trains than we have. Other folks have looked into it and apparently we should be able to get up to 160kph: https://andrebrett.com/2022/01/11/better-average-speeds-mean-better-passenger-rail-for-nz/
But an express train at 160kph just about makes community Napier -> Wellington feasible, certainly Palmerston North -> Wellington.
I think the shinkansen in Japan has dual tracks for both fright and bullet trains, or at least sections of it anyway. https://www.railjournal.com/in_depth/hokkaido-shinkansen-prepares-for-launch/
It's definitely a different rail gauge, I didn't know they had dual gauge track though.
Yeah my thought was to upgrade the line from Wellington up to Auckland with wider gauge 250kph rail but leave the old narrow stuff too for legacy users.
That would be cool, no doubt about it.
An Autorail service would also be very cool.
If we were to try to put in high speed rail, we would need to do significant work to the rail to get it ready for high speed. Part of this would could involve that track being upgraded to standard gauge. This wikipedia page talks about how Japan, India, Spain, and others have built their high speed trains in a different gauge than the rest of the country.
I'm assuming by high speed we are talking 250kph+. If we're talking 160kph, then this article talks about how Australia has already done it on narrow gauge.
Yeah in the NZ context I think looking at the Australian style narrow-gauge high speed is the only realistic option. One of the reasons we have narrow gauge now is our challenging terrain, and even if you could get the bits that are on land straight enough and flat enough, you'd likely also need to upgrade so many bridges and viaducts that you just would never get enough track capable of 250kph to make the investment worthwhile.
Especially coupling the challenge of the project with our terrible infrastructure capabilities post 80s reforms. We would be spending so much money on outside consultants and contractors that we'd probably barely get the main trunk on standard gauge. No doubt on narrow there would still need to be improvement works, but to a degree getting that average speed up above 120kph is probably as much as anything else just faster units and a will to schedule passenger rail past freight.
Yeah I think if we are going for bang for buck, faster units is a good bet. There will still be stretches where they need to slow down, but if you could have them doing long straights at 120kph+ then you can get that average speed up and beat car trips in terms of time.