Abstract: This paper analyzes the main factors related to the maximum design speed of urban railways and studies the advantages and disadvantages of increasing maximum design speed. Based on the practical line data, the paper calculates the operational performance, including traveling speed, energy consumption and time saving, of urban rail systems under different maximum design speeds of 80km/h, 100km/h and 120km/h by the TraMCES simulator developed by the Key Laboratory of Traffic and Transport Systems of the Ministry of Railways of China. The simulation results for an urban rail line of 37km long with average distance between station of 2.64km show that the average travelling time under the maximum design speed of 100km/h may decrease by 12.1% but its corresponding energy consumption will increase by 22.7% while comparing with that of 80km/h.

Key words: urban railways, design speed, line design, energy consumption

摘要： 简要分析了影响城市铁路最高设计速度的主要因素，研究了提高设计速度的利弊。以实际线路为背景，运用铁道部重点实验室开放实验平台TraMCES，从旅行速度、能耗、时间节约等角度模拟计算了80km／h、100km／h以及120km／h等设计速度下城市铁路系统的各项运营指标。通过对一条平均站间距为2.64km、全长37km的线路的案例分析，结果表明：与80km／h最大设计速度相比，100km／h的最大设计速度可以压缩旅行时间12.1%，但能耗将增加22.7%.

关键词: 城市铁路, 设计速度, 线路设计, 能耗