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China has unveiled what is quoted as being the fastest rail link in the world, as recently reported by AFP. A super high-speed bullet train, reaching a speed of 400 kilometres per hour, connects the modern cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan.
The official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, reported that the ten and a half hour trip of 1,069 kilometres had been reduced to just three and a half hours.
Aimed at eventually linking Guangzhou, a business vibrant centre in southern China near Hong Kong, with the capital Beijing, Xinhua added. The project, which started in 2005, is part of a high-speed network of 42 lines that is expected to be completed by 2012.
"The train can go 394.2 kilometres per hour, it's the fastest train in operation in the world," Zhang Shuguang, head of the transport bureau at the railways ministry, told Xinhua.
By comparison, the average for high-speed trains in Japan was 243 kilometres per hour while in France it was 277 kilometres per hour, declared Xu Fangliang, general engineer in charge of designing the link. However, France’s TVG has the capacity of travelling at 515 kph, though it normally runs at around 300 kph.
A Japanese built train, the JR-Maglev MLX01 achieved speeds of 581 kph, in December 2003. However, the Maglev line it needed to run on was only 30km in length. Travelling at 430 kph the train reached its destination in under five minutes.
In Europe High-speed rail travel has caused the cancellation of some intercity flights. Approximately 90% of travelers now prefer to take the train between London and Paris. Flights between Paris and Brussels have been permanently cancelled.
“If you are travelling less than 15000 km, taking the train wins,” said Rail Europe CEO Pierre-Stephane Austi. Railway stations are being redesigned as bustling centres in their own right. “They are modern, bigger, more beautiful, offering centres of real shopping and leisure.”
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