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This article was first published 11 years ago

11 incredibly fast trains in the world

Last updated on: November 29, 2012 11:56 IST

Image: There are some incredibly fast trains in the world.
Photographs: China Daily/Reuters

While India has many fast trains, but they come nothing close to some of the fastest trains in the world.

Let's take a look at some of the fastest trains in the world.

Source: Business Insider

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Tags: , India

11 incredibly fast trains in the world

Image: CRH380A travels at more than 302 mph.
Photographs: Jianan Yu/Reuters

CRH380A

Top speed: 302 mp/h (486.02 km/h)

Country: China

Global rank: 1

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Tags: CRH380A , China

11 incredibly fast trains in the world


Photographs: Source: Wikipedia

Transrapid TR-09

Top speed: 279 mp/h (449.01 km/h)

Country: Germany

Global rank: 2

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11 incredibly fast trains in the world

Image: Shinkansen.
Photographs: Kyodo/Reuters

Shinkansen

Top speed: 275 mp/h (442.57 km/h)

Country: Japan

Global rank: 3

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Tags: , Japan

11 incredibly fast trains in the world

Image: Magnetic levitation train.
Photographs: Aly Song/Reuters

Magnetic levitation (maglev) train

Top speed: 270 mp/h (434.52 km/h)

Country: China

Global rank: 4

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Tags: , China

11 incredibly fast trains in the world

Image: TGV train.
Photographs: Charles Platiau/Reuters

TGV Reseau

Top speed: 236 mp/h (379.81 km/h)

Country: France

Global rank: 5

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11 incredibly fast trains in the world

Image: KTX.
Photographs: Stringer/Reuters

KTX 2

Top speed: 219 mp/h (352.45 km/h)

Country: South Korea

Global rank: 6

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Tags: , South Korea , KTX

11 incredibly fast trains in the world

Image: THSR 700T.
Photographs: Source: afkra.blogspot.in

THSR 700T

Top speed: 208 mp/h (334.74 km/h)

Country: Taiwan

Global rank: 7

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Tags: , Taiwan

11 incredibly fast trains in the world

Image: AVE.
Photographs: Heino Kalis/Reuters

AVE Talgo-350

Top speed: 200 mp/h (321.87 km/h)

Country: Spain

Global rank: 8

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Tags: , AVE , Spain

11 incredibly fast trains in the world

Image: Eurostar.
Photographs: Andrew Winning/Reuters

Eurostar

Top speed: 199 mp/h (320.26 km/h)

Countries: UK-France

Global rank: 9

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Tags: , UK

11 incredibly fast trains in the world

Image: ETR 500.
Photographs: Source: Wikipedia

ETR 500

Top speed: 190 mp/h (305.78 km/h)

Country: Italy

Global rank: 10

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Tags: , ETR

11 incredibly fast trains in the world

Image: HSL-1.
Photographs: Source: Wikipedia

HSL-1

Top speed: 186 mp/h (299.34 km/h)

Country: Belgium

Global rank: 11

Click NEXT to read a bit about high-speed trains...

Tags: HSL-1 , Belgium

11 incredibly fast trains in the world


Photographs: Nicky Loh/Reuters

High-speed train is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than traditional rail traffic.

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11 incredibly fast trains in the world


Photographs: Nicky Loh/Reuters

As of 2012 the maximum commercial speed was about 300 km/h (185 mph) for the majority of installed systems (China, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom), 310 km/h (195 mph) in Spain and 320 km/h (200 mph) in France.

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11 incredibly fast trains in the world


Photographs: Richard Chung/Reuters

High-speed trains travel at their maximum speed on specific tracks, almost all using conventional tracks, generally using standard gauge (except in countries like Russia, Finland and Mongolia, which continue to use Russian gauge), while avoiding at-grade crossings and minimising curvature of the right-of-way.

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Tags: , Russia , Finland , Mongolia

11 incredibly fast trains in the world


Photographs: Yuriko Nakao/Reuters

The world speed record for conventional high-speed rail is held by the V150, a specially configured and heavily-modified version of Alstom's TGV which clocked 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph) on a test run.

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Tags: TGV , V150 , Alstom

11 incredibly fast trains in the world


Photographs: Yves Herman/Reuters

The world speed record for Maglev is held by the Japanese experimental MLX01: 581 km/h (361 mp/h).

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Tags: MLX01

11 incredibly fast trains in the world


Photographs: Pascal Rossignol/Reuters

While high-speed rail is usually designed for passenger travel, some high-speed systems also offer freight service. For instance, the French mail service La Poste owns a few special TGV trains for carrying postal freight.

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Tags: TGV , La Poste , French

11 incredibly fast trains in the world


Photographs: Eric Gaillard/Reuters

The International Union of Railways and EC Directive 96/58 define high-speed rail as systems of rolling stock and infrastructure which regularly operate at or above 250 km/h (155 mph) on new tracks, or 200 km/h (125 mph) on existing tracks. However lower speeds can be required by local constraints.

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11 incredibly fast trains in the world


Photographs: Eric Gaillard/Reuters

In the United States, the United States Code defines high-speed rail as services "reasonably expected to reach sustained speeds of more than 125 mph (200 km/h)", although the Federal Railroad Administration uses a definition of top speeds at 90 mph (145 km/h) and above.

The Congressional Research Service uses the term "higher speed rail" for speeds up to 150 mph (240 km/h) and "very high speed rail" for the rail on dedicated tracks with speeds over 150 mph (240 km/h).

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11 incredibly fast trains in the world


Photographs: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

Some features are unique to high-speed rail: many conventionally-hauled trains - beginning with the French "Capitole", launched in 1967 - reach 200 km/h in commercial service, but are not considered to be high-speed trains.

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11 incredibly fast trains in the world


Photographs: Max Rossi/Reuters

For several decades the Japanese Shinkansen was the only high speed rail service outside of Europe. In the 2000s a number of new high speed rail services started operating in East Asia.