Trivia: Most interesting high-speed railway in Europe

[PTR 444]

I’ve never actually traveled along any proper high-speed lines in Europe (generally those where the speed limit is above 140mph/225km/h), so would be interested to know which you find the most interesting in terms of acceleration, scenery and on-board train experience? Additionally, what would you say is the most scenic high-speed rail service overall that spends the majority of its journey on dedicated high-speed tracks?

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

From memory, Frankfurt-Cologne is pretty good, travelling through the Taunus hills with good views (and you can feel the gradient changes as it's an undulating line).
Paris-Marseille also good once you've got off the northern plain and are in Burgundy and beyond (also steeply graded north of Lyon).
I've spotted Mont Blanc from a TGV south of Lyon on this line, and there are several crossings of the Rhone, plus Mont Ventoux rising east of Avignon.
Other LGV's out of Paris are all very flat until you reach some hills or the coast.

Naples-Rome was interesting, and the southern link to Salerno passes "round the back" of Vesuvius.
Bologna-Florence (78km) is 93% in tunnel, but it does emerge briefly in the gaps between the 9 tunnel sections.
Florence-Rome is good too in the hilly bits.
Turin-Milan-Bologna is pretty much flat, but you do see Milan's skyscrapers emerging from the haze.
That's also true of the northern approach to Madrid (from Valladolid/Segovia) over the vast Spanish meseta.

The Gotthard Base tunnel is 230km/h but there is no view for 57km (longer than the Channel Tunnel, but as the speed is faster, transit time is similar at 20 minutes).
The Lötschberg Base tunnel is similar at 37km.
Luckily you can still do both of the old winding Swiss routes with shorter tunnels and superb views, if you have the time.
The other base Alpine tunnels under construction (Brenner, Semmering, Koralm, Mont d'Ambin) will be similarly tedious.

Erfurt-Nuremberg should be good, through the Thuringian/Bavarian hills.
Zamora-Ourense in Spain ought to be good too, though it bypasses a superb mountain classic line.
I've done Madrid-Alacant and the southern half of that is through very rough, volcanic country.

Your 220km/h includes quite a few German/Austrian upgraded fast lines (ABS rather than NBS).
Berlin-Hanover/Hamburg/Leipzig are all tediously flat.
I found Linz-Vienna interesting (views of the Danube), and when the Basel-Karlsruhe line's upgrade has finished I suspect it will be quite scenic.
The "CMK" in Poland (the central part of Warsaw-Katowice/Krakow routes) is 200km/h but due to go up to 250km/h - also very flat.

 

[Jamesrob637]

Madrid to Barcelona is very like Star Wars in places with its desert-like atmosphere.

 

[railfan99]

Madrid to Barcelona is very like Star Wars in places with its desert-like atmosphere.

In October 2022 when doing this for the first time, occasionally the thought occurred to me, save for a few trees visible that I could be crossing Australia's Nullarbor.

It was fascinating to go (over, not under IIRC) the 'classic' double line more than once.

Generally I prefer to travel on historic. non-HSR routes but on this occasion we were travelling Girona-Barcelona-Madrid and return on one day to briefly see a relative. 1500lm by rail for the day.

Paris-Marseille also good once you've got off the northern plain and are in Burgundy and beyond (also steeply graded north of Lyon).
I've spotted Mont Blanc from a TGV south of Lyon on this line, and there are several crossings of the Rhone, plus Mont Ventoux rising east of Avignon.
Other LGV's out of Paris are all very flat until you reach some hills or the coast.

Paris to Montpellier and on to Barcleona (the latter section not high speed as per the OP's request) was pleasant, and had flamingos near a power station that one could photograph at 300 or 320kmh.

Being in first class on the TGV and enjoying a soft drink (too early for a 'beverage') added to the enjoyment.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

HS1 must be pretty good. High speed tracks all the way and an interesting mix of rural and urban throughout. Would have been better if the Thames Crossing was a bridge instead of a tunnel though.

 

[nw1]

From memory, Frankfurt-Cologne is pretty good, travelling through the Taunus hills with good views (and you can feel the gradient changes as it's an undulating line).
Paris-Marseille also good once you've got off the northern plain and are in Burgundy and beyond (also steeply graded north of Lyon).
I've spotted Mont Blanc from a TGV south of Lyon on this line, and there are several crossings of the Rhone, plus Mont Ventoux rising east of Avignon.

Strangely I was going to suggest these two as well. Frankfurt-Cologne has a few tunnels but plenty of open stretches as well, and at least two (IIRC) wide valleys; IIRC these valleys contain the intermediate stops of Montabaur and Limburg-Süd.

The other base Alpine tunnels under construction (Brenner, Semmering, Koralm, Mont d'Ambin) will be similarly tedious.

Makes you wonder whether it's money well spent. Presumably one reason to choose rail over air is the views.

I found Linz-Vienna interesting (views of the Danube), and when the Basel-Karlsruhe line's upgrade has finished I suspect it will be quite scenic.

Is that a new HSL, or is it an HSL shared with a classic line?
I ask as I did that in 2011, and while the line was very fast, it seemed more like a WCML-style four-tracked line with local stations on the outer two lines. Parts of the Rhine route, south of Karlsruhe, such as through Baden-Baden, were similar.

Most disappointing was probably Karlsruhe to Stuttgart. Was anticipating that to be scenic, passing the northern Black Forest, but was stuck in tunnels most of the way...

From memory, Frankfurt-Cologne is pretty good, travelling through the Taunus hills with good views (and you can feel the gradient changes as it's an undulating line).
Paris-Marseille also good once you've got off the northern plain and are in Burgundy and beyond (also steeply graded north of Lyon).
I've spotted Mont Blanc from a TGV south of Lyon on this line, and there are several crossings of the Rhone, plus Mont Ventoux rising east of Avignon.

I remember seeing Mont Ventoux for the first time during pre-HSL days on that section (1999), when I travelled by Eurostar and TGV from Waterloo to Montpellier.

At the time it was the biggest mountain, measured from base to top (around 2000m), that I had seen by quite some way in my entire lifetime, and consequently it was seriously impressive. (Previously I hadn't seen any mountains more than around 1000m base-to-top; I'd seen, and even been up (via cable car or short ascent from road) mountains of only slightly lesser elevation in the Massif Central but they already rose from a plain of around 600-700m and thus were similar in base-to-top height to UK mountains such as Snowdon).

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Is that a new HSL, or is it an HSL shared with a classic line?
I ask as I did that in 2011, and while the line was very fast, it seemed more like a WCML-style four-tracked line with local stations on the outer two lines. Parts of the Rhine route, south of Karlsruhe, such as through Baden-Baden, were similar.
...

I remember seeing Mont Ventoux for the first time during pre-HSL days on that section (1999), when I travelled by Eurostar and TGV from Waterloo to Montpellier.
At the time it was the biggest mountain, measured from base to top (around 2000m), that I had seen by quite some way in my entire lifetime, and consequently it was seriously impressive. (Previously I hadn't seen any mountains more than around 1000m base-to-top; I'd seen, and even been up (via cable car or short ascent from road) mountains of only slightly lesser elevation in the Massif Central but they already rose from a plain of around 600-700m and thus were similar in base-to-top height to UK mountains such as Snowdon).

Basel-Karlsuhe is a major upgrade of the existing line, with some new sections bypassing slow bits.
I've assumed it will be 230km/h like the other upgraded lines, but maybe with some higher speed sections where it is new-build.
They've had construction problems with some of the new route, so not sure when it will be finished.

From the LGV, Mont Ventoux dominates the skyline for a while as you circle west of Avignon, and is unmistakeable with its white limestone summit (not snow!).
And of course beloved of all Tour de France fans.

Another good line is Kassel-Fulda-Wurzburg (Germany's first NBS, part of the Hanover-Munich axis).

 

[Teebs]

Strangely I was going to suggest these two as well. Frankfurt-Cologne has a few tunnels but plenty of open stretches as well, and at least two (IIRC) wide valleys; IIRC these valleys contain the intermediate stops of Montabaur and Limburg-Süd.

Makes you wonder whether it's money well spent. Presumably one reason to choose rail over air is the views.

Wikipedia says passenger numbers went up by 30% the year after the Gotthard base tunnel opened. Views are lovely, but most passengers are choosing between car, train and plane for convenience and cost. Regardless, I think a big part of the business case for these tunnels is taking freight off the roads and containers definitely don't care about the views.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Wikipedia says passenger numbers went up by 30% the year after the Gotthard base tunnel opened. Views are lovely, but most passengers are choosing between car, train and plane for convenience and cost. Regardless, I think a big part of the business case for these tunnels is taking freight off the roads and containers definitely don't care about the views.

Indeed the business cases for the long Alpine base tunnels is principally for freight, and also faster journey times between key domestic cities.
Countries with extensive high speed lines have achieved considerable modal shift with shorter journey times.
"Scenery" doesn't come high in the list of local priorities , but tourists will be interested in what they can see out of the window.

It's also worth saying that busy motorways with lines of trees blocking most views are also exceedingly tedious, and are much slower than a parallel HSL.

 

[Golghar]

Strangely I was going to suggest these two as well. Frankfurt-Cologne has a few tunnels but plenty of open stretches as well, and at least two (IIRC) wide valleys; IIRC these valleys contain the intermediate stops of Montabaur and Limburg-Süd.

When travelling in the direction of Cologne one gets a view on the left side of the town of Limburg with its Romanesque cathedral.

 

[dutchflyer]

Found this a fairly challenging request and am glad that LNW and nw1 have about neatly written what I more or less also got to.Have done nearly all-but most only once and then quite long ago, dedicated built lines in FRance (start with TGV), ESpana, DE=Germany (as such only a few, the east-west link to Berlin as starter after the reunification) and ITaly. I am now in TR=Turkey and hope (if a booking succeeds, it seems to be pretty full days ahead) to get a first here. Wiki and other sources mostly tell that PL=POland was nr 1, even in communist times, with its CKM=central magistral Warszawa-Krakow/Katowice, but then I think its is, or was then VMax of 200-already nearly double what could be run the old and also longer lines.
BUt world-wide the crown of victory must surely go to Japan with those splendid views on Mount Fuji with its snow capped top.
And oh: on many sectors of those hi-speed there is no view-as sound walls will not let you see that much. Quite often long sections are also right beside very busy motorways.

 

[stuu]

Scenically I would suggest that the Spanish routes from Madrid all have a lot of variety, and the emptiness of most of Spain means they aren't surrounded by noise barriers or unnecessary tunnelling to minimise disruption. Rome to Florence is good too, as is Wurzburg-Hannover

From a variety and railway interest point of view, I would have thought London-Amsterdam would be high on the list