Including service to San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles, the California High-Speed Rail Authority estimates that 50 million riders will use the system annually, generating about $3.4 billion of fare revenue.
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For example, most of the companies that run Japan's Shinkansen or bullet train lines operate at a profit, as do some fast trains on France's state-owned SNCF network.
Passenger revenue of JR Central Shinkansen in Japan FY 2012-2021. In the fiscal year 2021, Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central) earned around 589.8 billion Japanese yen of revenues from its high-speed railway Shinkansen, increasing from roughly 417.3 trillion in the preceding year.
Profitability and debtOne major concern of the high-speed rail network is the high amount of debt incurred. As of 2022, the China State Railway Group has had a debt of around US$900 billion, according to Nikkei.
JNR also had more than ¥25 trillion in debts due to decades of losing money operating its trains. Along with a few other relatively minor debts, these totaled to ¥32.1 trillion or, in today's dollars, about $550 billion.
In 2016 it was revealed, that last year the Beijing–Shanghai High-Speed Railway Company (BSHSRC) has total assets of ¥181.54 billion ($28 billion), revenue ¥23.42 billion ($3.6 billion) and a net profit ¥6.58 billion (US$1 billion), thus being labeled as the most profitable railway line in the world.
The train company, also known as JR Central, turned in an operating loss of 184.7 billion yen. Both the net loss and the operating loss are the first for the business since it was spun off and privatized in 1987.
Unsurprisingly, riding a bullet train isn't cheap. You pay a base fare for your journey, depending on distance and time, plus a bullet train supplement.
The train used for the movie, the “Nippon Speed line” is fictional, although it bears some similarities to the real Shinkansen on the line between Tokyo and Kyoto.
According to a study by the Los Angeles Times, the most current projected fare for the train, $86 a ride, would still be one of the most inexpensive high-speed rail trips on a per-mile basis. When funding for the project was first approved, however, tickets were projected to be closer to the $50 range.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport union claims official data shows private train operators made £310 million in taxpayer-funded profits between March 2020 and September 2022.
With high-speed rail, train travel is always faster than driving. In many cases, it's even faster than flying, once you factor in the whole air travel song-and-dance.
1: Shanghai Maglev - 460 kph/286 mph (China)The world's fastest public train is also unique – it's the only link in the world currently carrying passengers using magnetic levitation (Maglev) rather than conventional steel wheels on steel rails.
As of 2021, China had by far the longest highspeed railway network in the world with almost 40,500 kilometers of highspeed rail lines; the country was followed by Spain and Japan, both with more than 3,000 kilometers of highspeed rail each.