Spotlight Can ordinary railways run high-speed rail trains?
Can a normal railway run at a speed of 300km/h?
Theoretically, yes. For example, Beijing Chaoyang Beijing (Dongxing Liaison Line) takes the Beijing-Shenyang high-speed railway, Beijing Beijing West takes the Beijing-Shenyang high-speed railway south, and Beijing West Beijing Daxing (somewhere on the north side) takes the Beijing-Xiongxiong intercity, and the cars on it are all high-speed bullet trains.
I'm not joking to say that the high-speed train at Beijing West Railway Station can run on the Beijing-Shenyang high-speed railway. Otherwise, how do you think the Beijing-Xiong Intercity ran out of Beijing West Railway Station?
Potstickers can run if they want to, and potstickers can't run if they don't want to run. Technical conditions have never been the decisive factor restricting the operation of high-speed undercarriage across the line of general-speed railway, because theoretically the double line of 1435mm gauge + electrification + CTCS-2 train control system can meet the existing high-speed undercarriage of the national railway, which has never been difficult, and the key question is whether the potsticker thinks it is worthwhile.
For example, many general-speed railways that used to run 200-250km h EMUs in the Liuti era have no trace of high-speed undercarriages, and all freight trains and ordinary passenger trains are running, why?
Because most of these general-speed railways have parallel high-speed railways, under normal circumstances, the high-speed car bottom is directly on the high-speed railway, and there is no need to run according to the general-speed train on the general-speed line, which is not conducive to giving full play to the efficiency of the car bottom, and occupies the freight capacity, which is not cost-effective for potstickers.
On some of the higher standard general-speed railways (mainly 200 km h mixed passenger and freight), the national railway is happy to use more than 200 km h high-speed cars for passenger transport, these lines generally have the following characteristics:
1) Non-traditional trunk lines, no parallel passenger dedication, less freight, and abundant passenger space.
2) Have the conditions for direct communication with other passengers.
For this kind of line, it is obviously more cost-effective for the national railway to use the bottom of the EMU of more than 200km h as the main passenger force: first, the use of high-speed car bottom can justifiably set high fares and increase passenger revenue, and second, the use of high-speed car bottom is convenient for direct operation with other passenger dedicated lines, and absorb direct passenger flow for other trunk and branch passenger lines.
The use of ordinary speed car bottom can only set low fares, and can only be directly connected with the existing passenger and freight mixed trunk line, occupying the freight capacity of the passenger and freight mixed trunk line, the running time has also increased significantly, and the number of operating logarithms is limited, which is obviously not cost-effective.
Take Hengliu line as an example, the line is 200km h passenger and freight mix, to meet all types of car bottom line conditions, there is no passenger dedicated line, the line in Hengyang can be introduced both Beijing-Guangzhou line, can also introduce Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway, Beijing-Guangzhou line Hengyang-Wuchang passenger train to run 6-8 hours, and Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed rail Hengyang East-Wuhan train only need to run 2-3 hours.
Obviously, if Wuhan is the direct goal, from the perspective of running time, if the Hengliu line and the Beijing-Guangzhou line are directly connected, it will take a day for passengers along the line to go to Wuhan, and it only takes a morning or an afternoon to go through the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway.
As another example, the cross-sea section of the Beijing-Taiwan high-speed rail (Fuzhou Pingtan - Hsinchu, Taiwan) is likely to be mixed with passengers and freight in the future. As the first railway connecting the mainland and Taiwan, it is necessary to meet the freight demand between the mainland and Taiwan. After all, the freight of the railway is the profit-making department of the railway, and the passenger transport, including high-speed rail, is rarely profitable.
Therefore, technology has never been the fundamental factor restricting such problems, and the root cause lies in efficiency and demand.