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How do you use high-speed trains?

Started by Václav, March 21, 2015, 12:44:18 PM

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Václav

March edition of magazine of Czech national transporter (České dráhy - ČD pro Vás) inspired me to ask how do you use high-speed trains (or better: What infrastructure do you use for them?)

1. High-speed trains are fully isolated from other trains
2. High-speed trains may go to other tracks - but high-speed tracks are only for high-speed trains
3. High-speed trains may not go to other tracks - but normal trains may go to some parts of high-speed tracks
4. High-speed and normal trains may go to both types of tracks



I prefer the fourth way - because it is the simpliest. But somewhere I use the third way.

Chybami se člověk učí - ale někteří lidé jsou nepoučitelní

Bear789

A mix between 1 and 2.

I usually play very long games, starting in the early steam era. As soon as it becomes financially sustainable, I start adding express services on the busiest lines by adding express overpasses or "free" tracks without platforms at local stations, then when it becomes really busy I upgrade all the line to four tracks.
Whe I reach modern times, high speed services are usually upgrades of the old express services, so they are mostly on dedicated tracks, but sometimes near stations where they stop they use the regular tracks to reach the platforms. Also, since I don't upgrade all the expresses all at once (actually sometimes some expresses are never upgraded because there isn't enough traffic to justify that), it might happen that high speed trains share some parts of the line with older slower express services. In this cases I upgrade the tracks only on those sections when high speed trains can take advantage of it: there's no reason to let trains run a bajillion miles an hour if that means that they'll be constantly stopping at signals because there's something slower in front of them; I find it better to let everything run smoothly at lower speeds.

Ters

My train setup is probaly somewhat special as my intercity trains, high-speed or not, for the most part only stop at two stations. (Difficult to match capacity and demand otherwise.) My passenger trains also have a dedicated platform, with only a few lesser lines sharing a platform. Freight lines often run orthogonally to the passenger lines. As such, my high-speed trains have dedicated lines as a more natural consequence of how the network forms than by concious design. As tracks converge just outside or inside cities, high-speed and non-highspeed lines may converge for a few signal blocks. In a few instances, I've built four-tracked lines, when some freight lines have happened to be able to share tracks with a passenger line, only for me having to separate them when top-speed for passenger trains significantly differ from freight. In these cases, it's actually the freight tracks that must bypass the stations.

DrSuperGood

Quote3. High-speed trains may not go to other tracks - but normal trains may go to some parts of high-speed tracks
Is the only real way to run high-speed trains. High speed trains need to run on high-speed tracks suitable for them at all times otherwise your profit is heavily reduced (due to the huge speed bonus on passengers). There is no penalty for running a low speed train over high speed track as long as the section is used by high speed trains and that the low speed trains are not bottlenecking the line.

At times you are forced to mix traffic (eg passenger and mail trains) of which either might not be "high speed". Example in Pak64 where high speed mail only opens up as an option really late game meaning that you are forced for several decades to mix 280 km/h passenger trains with 145 km/h mail trains. Building dedicated lines for it would only be worth while if the mail is bottlenecking the high-speed train traffic.

Quote1. High-speed trains are fully isolated from other trains
This is the other ideal, however as mentioned above it might not always be possible due to pakset restrictions and economy.

Ters

Quote from: DrSuperGood on March 21, 2015, 08:38:12 PM
At times you are forced to mix traffic (eg passenger and mail trains) of which either might not be "high speed". Example in Pak64 where high speed mail only opens up as an option really late game meaning that you are forced for several decades to mix 280 km/h passenger trains with 145 km/h mail trains. Building dedicated lines for it would only be worth while if the mail is bottlenecking the high-speed train traffic.

Forgot about the mail. I do try to move the mail over to the freight tracks at this point, although there is not always a parallel freight track. I seem to recall that the 200 km/h mail car from 1924 (the matching passenger cars are just 160 km/h) can still work in a long enough and full enough train, or at least not at too much of a loss just to fill the gap. I know at least Sweden still use such mail cars (unmanned and in dedicated trains apparently), although Norway has replaced them with containers years ago.

gauthier

Quote1. High-speed trains are fully isolated from other trains
except near terminus stations of high speed lines. Since these areas are usually lacking place, due to both concentration of many lines and the city growing around. Otherwise, high speed trains have their own tracks and never go on "classic" tracks.

I also usually play from 1930 to ~2020. At the beginning, there is only few money so I build tracks in a rather twisting way because I can't terraform much. Then, when it's time to start high speed service, I have more money so I can terraform and build high speed lines in a more straight way.
high speed lines: straight, dedicated to high speed trains => maximum efficiency
And I can swim in credits for the rest of the game :p