Increased speeds

The table below shows how top vehicle speeds have increased since 1985. Experts forecast that by 2020 the technology will exist to create a passenger train that can travel up to 400kph.

While 400kph passenger trains do not currently exist, HS2 is designing a track that will be capable of carrying trains up to this speed in the future. It is highly unlikely that a high speed train would be required to exceed this speed in the UK, even if the technology existed. This is mainly due to the fact that the overall time saved at speeds beyond 400kph would be so small that it would not justify the additional energy used and environmental impacts of going faster.

Table 1

Year	1985	1995	2009	2020
Speed (kph)	270	300	350	400