HighSpeedRail

Peruvian authorities are developing a plan for a high-speed railway along its coast, supported by a South Korean company, Transport and Communications Minister César Sandoval confirmed on Friday.

“The government of President Dina Boluarte has established a new policy to revolutionize the national railway infrastructure. This is a strategic commitment that promotes a portfolio of national projects aimed at connecting and integrating—safely, quickly, and sustainably—more than 33 million Peruvians,” Sandoval said.

The pre-feasibility study to be conducted by Asian technicians envisions a length of approximately 2,446 kilometers, connecting the northern region of Tumbes (near Ecuador) to the southern region of Tacna (near Chile).

It will feature stations in 10 coastal regions: Tumbes, Piura, Lambayeque, La Libertad, Áncash, Lima, Ica, Arequipa, Moquegua, and Tacna.

The train is expected to cover the entire Peruvian coast in just 16 hours. Sandoval described the project's impact as “transformative,” estimating it will carry 113 million passengers and over 61.5 million tons of cargo annually.

The High Speed Rail Network is expected to be completed in 20 years and a European study estimates the cost of implementation will be €546 billion.

Fancy a trip from Athens to Istanbul in four hours? Or perhaps hopping on board in Madrid and getting off in Milan is more to your taste.

It sounds like a train travellers dream but that's the plan for the European High-Speed Rail Network, promoted by the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) and expected to be adopted by the European Commission.

The ambitious network, connecting all major EU cities, is expected to cover more than 49,400 kilometres of track carrying trains travelling at speeds from 250 km/h to 350 km/h.

Speaking in Athens, CER's Executive Director Alberto Mazzola told Euronews that the European Commission's Sustainable Transport and Tourism Committee is putting train travel at the top of the list of priorities for greener and more resilient transport.

"I understand that the European Commission, probably on 21 October, will present the Masterplan for High Speed Connections for all capitals and major cities. We believe it is feasible," he says.

The cost of the high-speed electric train connecting Las Vegas to the Los Angeles area just went up, now estimated at $21.5 billion, according to a document obtained by 8 News Now.

A U.S. Department of Transportation document says Brightline West is seeking a $6 billion loan, raising the projected cost by nearly 40%.

The Europe-wide study, covering 142 international routes across 31 countries, found that flying is cheaper than taking the train on more than half of all cross-border journeys. And when it comes to the UK, the situation is among the worst in Europe: trains are more expensive than flights on a staggering 95% of routes to and from Britain.

Low-cost carriers like Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air dominate the skies with fares that often come in at less than the price of the bus to the airport. Greenpeace points out that this is only possible because aviation fuel is tax-free and airline tickets escape VAT—while rail operators are clobbered with full VAT, rocketing energy costs and sky-high track access charges.

The result? Families hoping to make climate-friendly choices are effectively punished for trying. As the report highlights, a flight from Barcelona to London can cost just €15—while the train on the same route is an eye-watering €389.

A Reform government would scrap new high-speed rail schemes expected to be announced by ministers within weeks, the party’s deputy leader said.

Richard Tice told companies considering bidding for contracts to build Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) they should “not bother” as the party would “spend the money instead on things the country needs more”.

NPR is a proposal to boost east-west rail connections across northern England. Labour is expected to make a commitment to NPR in the coming weeks. Mr Tice made his comments in a forward to a report by centre-right think tank Policy Exchange.

• 299.8km Yan'an - Xi’an (famous as the home of the Terracotta Army)
• 98.3km Panzhou - Xingyi
• 77.5km Jingmen - Jingzhou

The Webuild Group, in consortium with Ghella, Pizzarotti and SELI, has been awarded a 1.6 billion EUR contract for the Paola–Cosenza section of the Salerno–Reggio Calabria high-speed rail line in Italy.

Webuild holds a 60% share of the contract, which has been commissioned by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana (RFI), part of the FS Italiane Group.

The project involves doubling 22.2 kilometres of railway, most of it underground, including construction of the new Santomarco Tunnel. At more than 15 kilometres in length, the twin-tube tunnel will run roughly 100 metres from the existing single-track tunnel, which will be decommissioned when works are complete. Excavation will employ four tunnel boring machines.

In a project update for state lawmakers released Friday, the California High-Speed Rail Authority unveiled the latest ridership and revenue projections for the Central Valley line and several other potential routes. The new data — the project’s first in two years — paints a harsh picture of an unprofitable bullet train, beset by too few riders in the state’s agricultural heartland, and costs for upkeep that would dwarf the money it makes unless it expands.

Authority officials have previously acknowledged that the 171-mile Merced to Bakersfield line would require a subsidy to operate, a point often drowned out in the narrow debate that surrounds the project. Authority CEO Ian Choudri, now one year into the job, seems to be betting that a blunt conversation and new funding strategy — free of government aid — could convince lawmakers to endorse a new direction.

But there’s a potential catch: It only might be feasible if the project is allowed to put the northernmost extension to Merced on hold.

Salvation for high-speed rail apparently lies in Gilroy, the world’s garlic capital, and its potential to connect Silicon Valley to the Central Valley — or even as far south as Palmdale — by 2038.

CHSRA has released an updated report that seems to downgrade the stub to Merced, and instead prioritize connecting to Gilroy and the Caltrain corridor.

All aboard the future of East Coast travel! Starting Thursday, Aug. 28, customers can travel on Amtrak’s NextGen Acela – America’s high-speed train – connecting the Northeast Corridor between Washington, D.C., New York City, and Boston.

The latest setback came when Brightline deferred an interest payment on $1.2 billion of bonds issued through the municipal-bond market. This move, while permissible under bond documents, has heightened investor anxiety. The company's financial struggles have been compounded by the cancellation of a $200 million grant from the Florida legislature, which was set to fund a commuter rail project operating alongside Brightline tracks.

The company's bond ratings have been downgraded by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings, with some bonds now classified as junk. This has led to a decline in the market value of Brightline's bonds, with the value of $2.5 billion of notes issued for its California high-speed rail project falling by about $230 million.

Investors are calling for more clarity from Brightline's management regarding its financing plans for both its Florida and Southern California lines. Largest holders of Brightline's outstanding municipal bonds, such as Nuveen Asset Management and First Eagle Investment Management, are monitoring the situation closely.

The Strait of Messina Bridge has been approved and canceled multiple times since the Italian government first solicited proposals in 1969. Premier Giorgia Meloni’s administration revived the project in 2023, and this marks the furthest stage the ambitious project— first envisioned by the Romans — has ever reached.

“From a technical standpoint, it’s an absolutely fascinating engineering project,’’ Salvini said.

The Strait of Messina Bridge would measure nearly 3.7 kilometers (2.2 miles), with the suspended span reaching 3.3 kilometers (more than 2 miles), surpassing Turkey’s Canakkale Bridge, currently the longest, by 1,277 meters (4,189 feet).

With three car lanes in each direction flanked by a double-track railway, the bridge would have the capacity to carry 6,000 cars an hour and 200 trains a day — reducing the time to cross the strait by ferry from up to 100 minutes to 10 minutes by car. Trains will save 2/12 hours in transit time, Salvini said.

Train enthusiasts in Derby this weekend will get a first-hand look inside HS2 next-generation rolling stock from Hitachi and Alstom, as the UK’s flagship high-speed project tries to show progress despite spiralling delays and cost overruns.

Visitors to Alstom’s historic Litchurch Lane Works in Derby will be able to step inside a full-scale model of HS2’s Class 895 train this weekend, marking the first time the public can physically experience the future of high-speed rail travel in the UK. The mock-up forms part of “The Greatest Gathering”, the UK’s rail industry’s flagship showcase event celebrating 200 years since the dawn of the modern railway.

Pictures of the concept interiors, developed jointly by HS2 Ltd, West Coast Partnership Development and the Hitachi-Alstom High Speed joint venture, were first revealed in October 2024, but this is the first public showing of the carriage interior — an airline-style design that HS2 says will set a new benchmark for UK rail comfort and accessibility.

Spain’s high-speed rail system has achieved record-breaking success in 2024, with passenger numbers and market competition reaching historic levels. This surge follows a transformative period marked by the liberalization of the rail sector, which has attracted new operators and led to an unprecedented rise in both supply and demand.

According to the latest Annual Railway Sector Report from Spain’s National Commission on Markets and Competition (CNMC), ridership and service frequency are not only exceeding pre-pandemic levels but have also significantly outpaced 2023 figures. Spain is now one of Europe’s standout examples of how competitive rail markets can drive growth and innovation in public transport.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday the Transportation Department is rescinding $4 billion in U.S. government funding for California's High-Speed Rail project.

"This project was severely overpriced, overrregulated, and never delivered," Trump said in a social media post. "The railroad we were promised still does not exist and never will."

In a separate statement from Trump's, the department said there was no viable path forward for the High-Speed Rail project and it was considering potentially clawing back additional funding related to the project, calling it "grossly over budget."

Faced with a daunting new NATO spending target, Italian politicians propose that a long-discussed €13.5 billion bridge to Sicily should be defined as military expenditure.

The government of Giorgia Meloni is keen to advance with the pharaonic scheme to span the Strait of Messina with what would be the world’s longest suspension bridge — a project that has been the dream of the Romans, dictator Benito Mussolini and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

There are some clear grounds on which Italy might be able to build a case for the bridge. Of the 5 percent of GDP NATO target, only 3.5 percent needs to be core defense spending, while 1.5 percent can be steered to broader strategic resilience such as infrastructure. An Italian Treasury official also suggested that branding the bridge as a military project would help the government overcome some of the economic and technical barriers that have stopped it being built in the past.

The €14bn first phase of the “Grand Projet Ferroviaire du Sud-Ouest” (GPSO) extends the Tours-Bordeaux high-speed route that opened in 2017.

By 2032, when it’s scheduled to be operating, the GPSO will cut travel times between the major cities in France’s southwest amid population growth in the Occitanie and Nouvelle-Aquitaine regions.

It’ll cut an hour off the 4h10 trip from Paris to Toulouse, and nearly an hour off the 2h01 journey between Bordeaux and Toulouse.

The project would have involved construction of around 280km of high-speed line and aims to shorten journey times and improve economic integration. While initially proposed in the 1990s, the project gained momentum in 2013 after being reaffirmed as a priority by various governmental bodies.

Alignment studies and environmental impact assessments have been taking place. However, there has been strong opposition, which became apparent in extensive public consultations that took place in 2024. Particular concern was expressed on the impact of construction on Île-de-France residents and the environment.

The Île-de-France regional government has echoed these concerns and has been particularly vocal in its criticism, with Valérie Pécresse, the region’s president, calling the €11bn project “economic madness”.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is expected to tell Parliament on Wednesday that there is "no reasonable way to deliver" the railway line on schedule and within budget - but is not expected to say when the route will finally start operating.

She is set to outline the findings of two reviews into HS2, one of which points to a "litany of failure" leading to missed deadlines and ballooning costs. It is the latest setback for the high-speed rail project, which has been scaled back and delayed repeatedly. Alexander is expected to say that Conservative governments presided over the cost of HS2 rising by £37bn between 2012, when the line was first approved, and the general election last year.

She is set to release two reports into HS2 in a bid to "draw a line in the sand" and mark a government reset in how major infrastructure is delivered.

Lithuania’s Transport Minister, Eugenijus Sabutis said he will not seek European Union funding for the planned extension of the high-speed Rail Baltica railway section to Vilnius, citing a lack of readiness from the EU to finance this part of the project.

The national budget also lacks the necessary funds to build European-gauge railway between Kaunas and Vilnius, the minister told TV3 News on Thursday.

Kaunas, Lithuania’s second-largest city, sits on the main Rail Baltica route, while Vilnius is currently connected via a conventional rail line. Sabutis argued that the existing infrastructure is sufficient for now.

“Replacing it with a European-gauge line will definitely be necessary sooner or later, but probably not sooner,” said Sabutis.

The first high-speed line in the Czech Republic has received the key stamp. The Ministry of the Environment has issued a positive opinion on the environmental impact assessment (EIA). According to the Minister of Transport Martin Kupka (ODS), the construction of the section between Prosenice and Ostrava-Svinov, the so-called Moravian Gate, can now proceed to the next phase of design preparation.

Land acquisition is also to begin. The state wants to finance the construction in the form of a PPP project. The Ministry of Transport has previously estimated the costs of the line section with the designation VRT Moravian Gate at 96 billion crowns. Construction work is scheduled to begin in 2028, and the ministry expects the line to be operational in 2033.

Project leaders have been focused on completing the 171-mile Bakersfield to Merced line, which was expected to cost taxpayers an estimated $35.3 billion with a completion date sometime between 2030 and 2033, according to the California High Speed Rail Project’s 2024 business plan.

Consultants have now been informed and documents obtained by KCRA 3 show the Bakersfield to Merced project estimate could now grow by up to another $3.2 billion, reaching a total of $38.5 billion. In the project update report, project leaders pointed to inflation and the rising cost of certain materials, such as concrete and copper as some of the reasons for the possible increases. A spokesperson for the High-Speed Rail Authority confirmed the information.

PAKISTAN’s federal minister for railways, Hanif Abbasi, says the government has approved in principle plans to introduce a new high-speed rail service linking Lahore and Islamabad in the province of Punjab. After a meeting with Punjab senior minister, Maryam Aurangzeb, on April 26, Abbasi says the new line could reduce journey time between the two cities from 4 hours to 2h 45min.

Funding for the project, estimated at up to $US 10bn, has yet to be agreed and Aurangzeb is liaising with Pakistan Railways (PR) over a number of potential options, including a public-private partnership (PPP) model.

France's Alstom is in talks about supplying high-speed double-decker trains for use through the Channel Tunnel, but no contract has been signed yet, the train maker said on Wednesday.

Alongside the fleet renovation, OUIGO plans to expand its network. From December 2025, a new daily service will connect Paris to Hendaye, via Dax, Bayonne, Biarritz, and Saint-Jean-de-Luz. This extension towards the southwest will add another daily connection to Bordeaux as part of the same operation.

On the Paris–Rennes line, a third OUIGO high-speed round-trip will be introduced from December 2025, supplementing the existing two daily services. An additional third round-trip on the Paris–Rennes route using OUIGO Train Classique is scheduled to start on 12 May 2025.

The Paris–Montpellier service via Lyon Saint-Exupéry will see the addition of a third daily high-speed round-trip during the summer of 2026. Furthermore, the Paris–Lyon high-speed link, which currently operates two daily round-trips, will add a third round-trip during weekends starting in December 2026.