It will come as no surprise that China is home to the world’s fastest trains. The “fastest of the fast” is another story, however, as a recently-released report has revealed that title goes to a train with its principal stop as our very own Nanjing.
Compiled biennially, the “World Speed Survey”, by Jeremy Hartill of the UK-based Railway Performance Society, using data for the second quarter of 2019, reveals that China now has a slew of services that boast average speeds of more than 300 km/h between stops. Railway Gazette International notes this as being, “a milestone which no other country has achieved”.
China’s domination of the fast-train league table has come about after the recent raising of top speed to 350 km/h on the Beijing to Shanghai line. Limits were curtailed following the 2011 crash in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, that is China’s only high-speed-rail disaster.
The fastest high-speed train in China, and by extension the world, is the G17 service from Beijing South Railway Station to Nanjing South Railway Station, departing the former at 19:00 each day and arriving Nanjing at 22:13.
- Automated High-Speed Train to Take us to Great Wall of China!
- “The Hulk” Debuts in Nanjing; Salaries Cut Over Train Failures
- Mouldy Food Puts High Speed Train Catering Company Under Fire
The G17 service, operated by a CR400AF-B member of the Fuxing high-speed-train family, therefore covers the 1,023-kilometre distance between the two stations with a start-to-stop average speed of 318 km/h.
With the train’s terminus in fact Shanghai Hongqiao Railway Station; the G17 then does the final leg in exactly 1 hour, making for a sedate average of 295 km/h.
The same is true for the returning leg, on the G22, initially to Nanjing, and then on to Beijing in 3 hours, 16 minutes, some 3 minutes slower than the G17, but enough to put it second in the world record books. The G22 departs Nanjing South at 20:02.
If one were to guess as to the next fastest country on the “iron road”, many might think of Japan, with her infamous “bullet train”, or France, well known for her TGV. Yet, it is not so.
- Six Caught Taking “K-Powder” in Toilets of Train in Nanjing
- Nanjing Police Seize Thousands of Fake Train Tickets
- “Ghost Stations”; Nanjing’s Forgotten High-Speed Rail Stops
Italy is in fact in silver postion on the podium. Her service from Milan to Reggio Emilia clocks an average speed of 272.4 km/h, while bronze goes to France at just half a km/h slower on the TGV service from Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine.
Fourth place goes to Japan for the bullet train between Omiya and Sendai, and fifth to Spain for the Zaragoza to Guadalajara service.
Most interestingly, Africa also makes her debut this year into the top ten of the world’s fastest trains, where Morocco runs a service between Kenitra and Tangier with an impressive average speed of 232.7 km/h. The connection that entered service last year is Africa’s first high-speed train.
Finally, it should be noted that the world top ten is for conventional trains only, i.e. wheels running on iron rails, and does include the magnetic levitation variety, such as Shanghai’s hugely-unprofitable MagLev, with its top speed of 431 km/h.
