Question: What are the factors (both technical and operational) that affect the average speed of passenger and goods trains?
Answer: A train runs a 100 km line at 50 kmph. If we neglect accelerating and decelerating time, we have time of the journey 2 hrs. But if the train must stop somewhere en route for to give way to another train (eg. on a single track line) , it must stop for 6 minutes (0.1 hrs). Then (again neglecting accelerating and decelerating time) we have real speed 100/2.1=47.62 kmph. Increasing the top...
more... speed twice to 100 kmph changes the theoretical time to 1 hr and real time to 1.1 hrs so the real speed is 100/1.1 = 90.91 kmph - not twice as much.
In the real world we may have more stops, longer stops but also top speed not improved so much, some tracks that cannot be upgraded to high speeds (too steep slopes, too tight bends etc.). Then, much of the higher top speed is "eaten" by the remaining factors.
Answered by: Przemyslaw Kowalik from Lublin University of Technology
Source: Researchgate.net
please wait...Translate to EnglishYo, so basically, there are a bunch of things that can mess with the speed of trains - both passenger and goods ones. Imagine a train running a 100 km track at 50 kmph. If it don't gotta slow down or speed up, it should take 2 hours, right? But if it gotta stop along the way for like 6 minutes to let another train pass on a single track line, the journey time goes up to 2.1 hours, bringing the speed down to 47.62 kmph. And even if you double the max speed to 100 kmph, the real speed gonna be around 90.91 kmph - not exactly twice as fast, cuz there's other factors messin' with it. In reality, you might have more stops, longer stops, and tracks that just can't handle super high speeds, like when they too steep or got tight turns. So, even if you boost the top speed, other stuff gonna slow you down. Peace out!