page_title: High-speed rail
section_title: Early German high-speed network
hierarchical_section_title: High-speed rail / History / Early research / Early German high-speed network
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Deutschlands erster "Fliegender Schotte" in Berlin. die erste deutsche Schnell-Triebwagen der Reichsbahn, wurde auf der Strecke Berlin-Hamburg in den Verkehr gestellt. Der Schnell-Triebwagen erreichte eine Stundengeschwindigkeit von 155 Km. Der Schnell-Triebwagen vor seiner ersten Probefahrt nach Hamburg auf dem Lehrter Bahnhof in Berlin.
context_page_description: High-speed rail is a type of rail transport that runs significantly faster than traditional rail traffic, using an integrated system of specialized rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, new lines in excess of 250 kilometres per hour and existing lines in excess of 200 kilometres per hour are widely considered to be high-speed. The first high-speed rail system, the Tōkaidō Shinkansen, began operations in Japan in 1964 and was widely known as the bullet train. High-speed trains mostly operate on standard gauge tracks of continuously welded rail on grade-separated right-of-way that incorporates a large turning radius in its design, however certain regions with wider legacy railways, such as Russia have sought to develop a high speed railway network in broad gauge.
  Several countries have built and developed high-speed rail infrastructure to connect major cities, including Belgium, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Morocco, The Netherlands, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uzbekistan.
context_section_description: On 15 May 1933, the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft company introduced the diesel-powered "Fliegender Hamburger" in regular service between Hamburg and Berlin (286 km or 178 mi), thereby achieving a new top speed for a regular service, with a top speed of 160 km/h (99 mph). This train was a streamlined multi-powered unit, albeit diesel, and used Jakobs bogies.
  Following the success of the Hamburg line, the steam-powered Henschel-Wegmann Train was developed and introduced in June 1936 for service from Berlin to Dresden, with a regular top speed of 160 km/h (99 mph). Incidentally no train service since the cancelation of this express train in 1939 has traveled between the two cities in a faster time as of 2018. In August 2019, the travel time between Dresden-Neustadt and Berlin-Südkreuz was 102 minutes. See Berlin–Dresden railway.
  Further development allowed the usage of these "Fliegenden Züge" (flying trains) on a rail network across Germany.
  The "Diesel-Schnelltriebwagen-Netz" (diesel high-speed-vehicle network) had been in the planning since 1934 but it never reached its envisaged size.
  All high-speed service stopped in August 1939 shortly before the outbreak of World War II.
caption: The German Fliegender Hamburger
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