By Ed Perkins

The United States forms committees and does studies; Europe and Asia build and operate. That's been the recent picture for high-speed rail, and it continued through 2009. European railroads completed some important links in 2009, and several Asian countries are operating long stretches of 160-mph-plus systems. If you've ever been on a modern high-speed train, you'll know that train travel -- and especially fast train travel -- is vastly superior to flying and much more senior-friendly. And if you haven't tried it yet, you're in for a real treat.

Europe's latest opening is in Italy: The railway system there just closed the final Bologna-Florence gap in the main north-south trunk, and trains can now operate at high speed the entire Naples-Rome-Florence-Bologna-Milan-Turin route, with only a few big-city slow stretches. My friend Don just booked himself for a trip in March on a train that will make it nonstop from Rome to Milan in 2 hours 59 minutes. That's an average speed of more than 130 miles per hour, including the slow going through the environs of the larger cities.

Belgium's new links from Liege to the German border and from Antwerp to the Dutch border are ready for your next trip, completing that small nation's current system plan. Coupled with the new high-speed "south" line in the Netherlands, through high-speed "Thalys" trains now run from Paris to Amsterdam, using conventional (but very good) rails only from Brussels to Antwerp.

Turkey opened about half of its high-speed Ankara-Istanbul system last year, but the remaining half -- closest to Istanbul -- won't open until 2011.

Other European countries are taking a bit of a breather on new openings. The French and Spanish are working on some isolated stretches near their Mediterranean border, but the big new French line -- Paris to Strasbourg -- opened more than a year ago. Germany plans to open a 62-km stretch between Munich and Augsburg in 2010, but most major expansions are slated for 2011 through 2015. Still, Europe currently has about 4,000 miles of high-speed lines in operation and it's just waiting for you to try them. And longer-term plans call for lots more expansion, as well as new lines in Portugal, Poland, Russia and Sweden.

China is leading the way in Asia, with close to 6,000 miles under construction to add to the 700 high-speed miles already in operation. Other countries are sticking with what they already have, at least for a while. Japan's 1,500-mile system won't expand again until 2011, Korea is pausing after completing most of a Seoul-Pusan system, and Taiwan's Taipei-Kaoshang line is completed. In the longer term, India, Iran and Saudi Arabia are building systems, but they won't open until at least 2015. Elsewhere, Argentina, Brazil, and Morocco are planning high-speed lines, but you'll be a lot older before you ride any of them.

If you're heading for Europe or Japan, you have to face the question of whether to buy individual tickets or a rail pass. The answer depends on the kind of trip you take: For a lot of short hops over a period of a week or more, individual tickets are probably your best bet, but for a few days of long-haul trips, with stopovers in between, a pass can be attractive. Many European rail passes are now available in "flex" options, which allow unlimited train travel on a specified number of days during a period of one or two months. In Japan, only the regional passes for Hokkaido and Japan East offer flex options; the nationwide pass and other regional passes are available only full time, valid for travel on every day (but with no provision to stay somewhere a few days) during periods of four to 21 days.

Websites such as Rail Europe (www.raileurope.com) make it easy to compare options for Europe. Japan Railways Group (www.japanrail.com) operates the best site I know for Japan rail passes.

 

© Ed Perkins

Travel | High Speed Rail: More Openings -- But Not Here