High-speed rail expands in Eastern Europe

[lpetrich]

Polish Pendolino launches 200 km/h operation - Railway Gazette

PKP Intercity launched its Express Intercity Premium services on four routes radiating from Warszawa with the timetable change on December 14. The trains are operated with a fleet of 20 non-tilting Pendolino trainsets certified to operate at up to 250 km/h.

PKP Intercity Pendolinos carries first passengers | Global Rail News in Poland

The Pendolinos are Poland’s first high-speed trains. During dynamic testing, the train broke both the Polish and Pendolino speed record, reaching a top speed of 293 km\h.

Its routes are

• Warsaw - Gdansk - Gdynia (160 km/h; 2h 28m to Gdansk)
• Warsaw - Krakow (2h 28m)
• Warsaw - Katowice (2h 34m)
• Warsaw - Czestochowa - Opole - Wroclaw (CMK trunk line; 90 km of it is 200 km/h; 3h 42m)

These lines have been heavily upgraded. Krakow - Warsaw - Gdynia is the main line, with the most trains.

-

Belgrade-Budapest HSR to be built by 2017 | Global Rail News
Beograd - Budapest railway upgrade agreement signed - Railway Gazette
It will reduce travel time from 8h to 2h 40m.

The agreements specify that a feasibility study and the project documentation should be completed by June 2015, with a view to construction works being completed by the end of June 2017. China would provide financial and technical support for the project, which is estimated to cost up to €2bn.

The line will be a mixed-traffic one with a maximum speed of 200 km/h. Serbia: 184 route-km, Hungary: 166 route-km.

The Serbian and Macedonian prime ministers also discussed plans to extend the upgrading project to include the route from Beograd to Skopje and Athens.

There are some political problems along the way.

A Belgrade-Skopje route would go near Kosovo or through it. Though many nations now recognize Kosovo as an independent nation, Serbia doesn't, and that could cause difficulty.

A worse one is Skopje-Athens. The problem begins with the name of the nation that Skopje is capital of: the Republic of Macedonia. Nearby Greece has an area that's also called Macedonia, and Greek officials have made a big issue out of how Macedonia is supposedly hogging that name. Even worse, some Greeks suspect that the Republic of Macedonia wants to annex other "Macedonian" territory. The United Nations uses "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia" (FYROM), and Greek officials consider "Northern Macedonia" an acceptable compromise. This may seem like a silly issue, but these nations have a nation called Romania nearby, despite Rome being nowhere near it.

The first big city on the way is Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city, in Greek Macedonia. It has a seaport, so it could be a good place to unload Chinese imports arriving by sea. Athens, about 500 km southward, also has one.

-

High-speed rail in Russia - Wikipedia -- that nation has gone the farthest:

• Moscow - St. Petersburg
• St. Petersburg - Helsinki
• Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod

with various plans for other lines, like a faster Moscow - St. Petersburg line and a Moscow - Kazan line.

[barciur]

• Warsaw - Gdansk - Gdynia (160 km/h; 2h 28m to Gdansk)

This route will get 200 km/h on part/most (?) of it as soon as it gets working ETCS (European Train Control System) system and certification for it. In a few years time, sections of the Warsaw - Krakow will also have their speeds increased to 230 km/h.

[Station Aficionado]

High-speed rail in Russia - Wikipedia -- that nation has gone the farthest:

• Moscow - St. Petersburg
• St. Petersburg - Helsinki
• Moscow - Nizhny Novgorod

with various plans for other lines, like a faster Moscow - St. Petersburg line and a Moscow - Kazan line.

If the price of oil stays low, at lot of Russian plans (rail and otherwise) will likely be delayed or canceled.