By modern standards high speed in 225 km/h or better and ultra high speed is in the 320 km/h bracket. The Spanish, Japanese and the French are eyeing up 350km/h. The French have put in many thousands of miles at 400 km/h+
The French set the traditional locomotive + train benchmark in 1955 at 331 km/h and began operating 200kph trains in the mid 1960's. The 1955 record stood until Sept 2006. The German's and Japanese followed and the UK beat the whole lot of them with the HST in the mid 1970's, CIE could have of course purchased HST off the shelf they certainly had the cash in the early 1980's
I have been roving the country with my track measuring kit and we have a lot of work to do
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