The direct railway line between Rome and Florence (direttissima, opened in 1977) was the first railway in the world that was built for speed 250km/h. It was one of the origins of the high-speed rail network in Europe. The design of the railway is advanced, including numerous mining tunnels and landscape viaducts. Nowadays it is under heavy traffic of high-speed trains with average interval being around 10min, according to my observations.
On 1970s the experience regarding aerodynamics of high-speed trains was limited. This railway was designed with 4.0m track interval, relatively modest tunnel cross-sections and primitive ventilation systems of the tunnels. That results in aerodynamic booms, once two trains meet in the tunnel. Within the following 10 years, track interval between 4.5m and 5.0m and extended tunnel cross-sections became the standard for high-speed rail design.
The direct railway line between Rome and Florence (direttissima, opened in 1977) was the first railway in the world that was built for speed 250km/h. It was one of the origins of the high-speed rail network in Europe. The design of the railway is advanced, including numerous mining tunnels and landscape viaducts. Nowadays it is under heavy traffic of high-speed trains with average interval being around 10min, according to my observations.
On 1970s the experience regarding aerodynamics of high-speed trains was limited. This railway was designed with 4.0m track interval, relatively modest tunnel cross-sections and primitive ventilation systems of the tunnels. That results in aerodynamic booms, once two trains meet in the tunnel.
Within the following 10 years, track interval between 4.5m and 5.0m and extended tunnel cross-sections became the standard for high-speed rail design.
Thanks for that! Very cool.