Standards
Most of the above high speed lines are assumed to be 25 kV AC (except for Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and Norway which use 15 kV, and old Italian, part of Belgian and part of Russian high speed lines which use 3 kV), a majority left-hand running (except in Germany, Spain, Russia, and Shanghai Maglev Train.), almost all use conventional tracks and generally use standard gauge (except in Finland, Russia etc.) on their high speed lines, even where the national gauge is different. This will enhance interoperability should high speed lines in different countries meet. There are many different train protection systems in use. In Europe, however they will be replaced by the ERTMS/ETCS system in most countries (using standard gauge) before 2020, which will further enhance interoperability.
Read more about this topic: Planned High-speed Rail By Country
Famous quotes containing the word standards:
“With his brows knit, his mind made up, his will resolved and resistless, he advances, crashing his way through the host of weak, half-formed, dilettante opinions, honest and dishonest ways of thinking, with their standards raised, sentimentalities and conjectures, and tramples them all into dust. See how he prevails; you don’t even hear the groans of the wounded and dying.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In full view of his television audience, he preached a new religion—or a new form of Christianity—based on faith in financial miracles and in a Heaven here on earth with a water slide and luxury hotels. It was a religion of celebrity and showmanship and fun, which made a mockery of all puritanical standards and all canons of good taste. Its standard was excess, and its doctrines were tolerance and freedom from accountability.”
—New Yorker (April 23, 1990)
“Today so much rebellion is aimless and demoralizing precisely because children have no values to challenge. Teenage rebellion is a testing process in which young people try out various values in order to make them their own. But during those years of trial, error, embarrassment, a child needs family standards to fall back on, reliable habits of thought and feeling that provide security and protection.”
—Neil Kurshan (20th century)