Economic analysis of costs in high speed railway at different speeds to implement the optimal speed in Iran

The present research establishes an economic-based analysis to distinguish the relationship between the operating speed and overall costs of the high speed railway (HSR) system. In order to implement the HSR system, determining the optimum operating speed is a challenging issue from the economic point of view. This research seeks to determine the influence of speed on the effectiveness and profitability of the HSR, by identifying the influential parameters and their possible effects on economic evaluations. Due to the availability of speed information and operational data in the European HSR network, the scattered data of the entire HSR network in the Europe are collected as a case study. Then, average operating speeds of the trains are calculated based on train specifications, distance, wasted time and travel time. Afterwards, operation costs associated with different speeds are estimated, taking into account the duration time of projects and the real-time value of costs. The research is eventually led to an optimum speed of 250 km/h, based on results obtained in the chosen case study.