California’s high-speed rail project has entered a decisive new phase. After more than a decade of design work, property acquisition, and active construction, the backbone of the system in the Central Valley is well underway. Stretching over 100 miles and comprised of...
Here are the fastest trains in the world—by actual performance
Railway Gazette has updated its rankings of the fastest trains in the world—defined not by maximum speed but by the start-to-stop time between station pairs on a scheduled weekday run. (The article is here, but it’s paywalled.)
China ranks first in the 2025 survey. Its trains from Beijing to Nanjing travel 635 miles at an average speed of 197 mph, for a total trip time of 3h 13 m. (For comparison, the distance from Chicago to Atlanta is a little over 700 miles.)
China also runs trains from Nanjing to Jinan Xi—a distance of 383 miles—at an average speed of 196 mph, for a trip time of 1h 57m. (For comparison, it’s a little under 350 miles from Chicago to Cleveland.)
France ranks second. Its TGV trains travel from Champagne-Ardenne to Lorraine—a distance of 104 miles—in 36 minutes, with an average speed of 169 mph. (For comparison, it’s 115 miles from Indianapolis to Louisville.)
Japan ranks third in the survey, with trains from Omiya to Sendai that cover the 183-mile route—the distance from Chicago to Indianapolis—in 65 minutes, at an average speed of 169 mph.
At 217 mph, China’s trains also have the highest maximum speed. Indonesia, which has imported train tech from China, has 217 mph trains as well. In France and Japan, the maximum speed is 199 mph.
China’s average speed of 197 mph was unchanged from the previous (2023) edition of the survey, where it also ranked first. Japan and France switched rankings (i.e., Japan was second and France was third in 2023), and the fastest average speed for trains in both countries increased slightly from 2023 to 2025.
The top-10 list was rounded out by Italy, Taiwan, Spain, Morocco, Germany, an international route running from Paris to Brussels, and Saudi Arabia.
The Gazette noted that four continents now have high-speed trains: Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. But projects under development in Australia, Brazil, and Chile could extend high-speed rail to every continent except Antarctica.
North America’s only high-speed train—Amtrak’s Acela trains—ranked last in the list (i.e., 17th). Trains on its Baltimore to Wilmington line run at an average speed of 103 mph, covering the 69 miles in 40 minutes.
The 28 new trains in the Acela fleet—which are set to launch later this month, with runs from Washington, D.C. to Boston—will have a maximum speed of 160 mph. The new trains, built in upstate New York, have about one-fourth more seating capacity than the older trains.
The Gazette also noted an interesting development in China. It has trains that don’t rank in the top tier for fastest station-to-station runs—but “cover huge distances at an end-to-end average speed of 290 km/h [180 mph] including stops.” That’s the equivalent of a train running from New York to New Orleans in 7 hours.
The Gazette concluded that perhaps the “fundamental limit of what can be achieved on a day-to-day basis with today’s railway technology has been reached.” But, looking ahead, it noted that China is creating a new generation of trainsets, including trains with a top speed of roughly 280 mph and an operating speed of around 250 mph, which “could deliver a significant time saving and potentially start-to-stop average speeds of more than 350 km/h [217 mph] on the right routes.”
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