Shanghai-Hangzhou Line Opens And Breaks World Record

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The blisteringly fast Shanghai-Hangzhou line has opened over in China, and it’s been reported that it opened with a bang, too; a world speed record kind of bang.

The Chinese have an intense sort of pride for their rail system, the kind of pride most people generally reserve for sports teams, supermodels, or concept cars. And so it’s not at all surprising that they’re pretty much whooping it up over this accomplishment the way we in the States might celebrate a Super Bowl win, only with less rioting.

For those of you calling foul on this particular achievement–after all, the French at last report held the world record for train speed at 356 miles per hour with its TGV system, so how dare the Chinese start claiming a record at 262 miles per hour?

Put up your torches and pitchforks, folks, and I’ll explain. The Chinese aren’t claiming a record for world’s fastest train, oh no–they’re claiming the record for world’s fastest scheduled train.  And that’s an important distinction; after all, the Chinese train ran that fast as part of a scheduled line, whilst the French achievement was not.

But don’t scoff at the Chinese record just yet–there’s word out of the various ranks of Chinese officialdom that they’re planning to get that line up to a whopping 312 miles per hour, which puts it within 44 miles per hour of at least matching the French record. And further word suggests that there are other countries looking to lay hands on this technology too, which manages to cover a distance of 126 miles in just 45 minutes, and for a pretty decent ticket price, too, at just $12 a ticket.

I don’t know about you, folks, but I certainly wouldn’t mind getting that kind of speed for that kind of price out of Amtrak. The airlines would have kittens, of course, but us regular folks would welcome it.