There's a short 10-line story over at N-TV (German commercial news network) that concerns the railway folks.....Deutsche Bahn.
There's this discussion going on about upping the current top speed of certain ICE (the high speed inner-city railway service) from 250 kph to 265 kph (164 miles per hour).
Why the discussion? Well....between construction work and heavy thunderstorms in May/June....trying to keep on schedule is now a problem (right now, they are managing to keep on schedule for 77-percent of the ICE train schedules). The general goal is a minimum of 80-percent. Their definition statement of 'on-time'? Well....as long as you arrive within six minutes of the scheduled time....you are 'on-time'.
As for the 265 kph idea? The route and condition of the track will be the defining factor in this examination. My humble guess is that the first time you have some derailment.....the speed will be immediately lowered. Course, it might take five years to reach that one incident.
Back in the late 70's when I was first introduced to railway service in Germany, with the old style trains.....you were pretty lucky if the train topped out at 120 kph. So it is a unique experience to get on an ICE-train and travel at 250 kph.
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