China launches the world fastest train.

[Stinky The Clown]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1eed4d72-f351-11de-a888-00144feab49a.html

Chinese Harmony train sets speed record

By Tom Mitchell in Wuhan

Published: December 28 2009 02:00 | Last updated: December 28 2009 02:00

China streaked ahead of its western and Asian rivals at the weekend by unveiling the world's fastest longdistance passenger train service.

The Harmony express raced 1,100km in less than three hours on Saturday, travelling from Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province, to the central city of Wuhan. The journey previously took at least 11 hours. The improvement illustrates how China's huge investment in infrastructure is dramatically shrinking the country, yet the economics of the new service, which runs 56 times a day, remain unproven amid a build-it-and-they-will-come approach to transport.

"China has focused on building expressways but that is an American method," said Zheng Tianxiang, a Guangzhou-based infrastructure expert and government adviser. "Expressways are not suited for China, which has large numbers of people but little space to spare. China should learn from Japan and Europe."

The Harmony express, which reached a top speed of 394km per hour in pre-launch trials, travelled at an average rate of 350km per hour on its debut. This compared with a maximum service speed of 300km per hour for Japan's Shinkansen bullet trains and France's TGV service. In America, Amtrak's Acela "Express" service takes 3½ hours to trundle between Boston and New York, a distance of only 300km.

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Meanwhile, our support for cutting edge rail infrastructure continues unabated:

[RetroLounge]

1. We got better performance, speed, and service with these

:hi:

RL

[YOY]

2. The problem with Amtrak is not solely the tech.

It's the fact that we do not own our own rails. Not that a good amount of HSR wouldn't fix things.