The world's "fastest" passenger train service, measured by average trip speed, is currently the CRH Wuhan-Guangzhou High-Speed Railway. The train averages about 200 miles an hour, but reaches top speeds of between 210 and 220 miles an hour. The thing really rips.
I recently took a ride, paying about 70 dollars to get from central China to the coast in a little more than three hours. I taped some of the ride, posted on the right, so you can see and feel the bullet train as it barrels through rural Hunan province.
Compare China's high-speed rail to our fastest train, the Acela, and it's sobering to see how we're being left behind in the development of rail infrastructure. The Acela can go 150 m.p.h., but averages 100 or less between Washington and Boston.
Critics say China's HSR is a boondoggle, a massively expensive showpiece project that squanders energy and saddles the government with costly debt service. Ticket prices cannot be raised high enough--ridership is too low as it is.
Still, this is how China invested its stimulus money and I think the bet on HSR will eventually pay off.
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