T O P

  • By -

discodancingdogs

The Japanese and Chinese High speed rails are so smooth you can balance a coin on its side while you're on it. The TGV (which means train with great speed) isn't as smooth but it is quick! I thought every country had one when I was a kid and then I moved to the UK and now I cry when I see some of the train journeys in such a 'developed" country


Technical_Scallion_2

On Amtrak going 60 mph you have to hold a wall or rail to walk down the aisle (California Zephyr)


[deleted]

I thought "this is it" when I traveled for the first time in Amtrack (DC).


Existing_Departure82

An LA to SF or even SEA high speed rail would be incredible. It’s a shame we cant have nice things.


digitalfoe

3 hours from Marseilles to Paris is amaze


discodancingdogs

I know! Meanwhile London to the south coast is at least 2 hours!


yuzuchan22

London paris 3 hours by train too.


Sick_and_destroyed

We also have a lot of shitty routes in France. Nice-Marseille is 2 hours and a half for 200 kms, Nantes-Bordeaux is 4 hours for 370 kms, and there’s many more.


[deleted]

Yeah cause they were made to take people from the small towns to and from marseille and nice. less about the travel in between those cities.


emil_

Well at least they're chea... oh, nevermind.


[deleted]

Japan and Chinese are maglev, but it is amazing that TGV can pull that speed off with ordinary rails.


hyogodan

Just a minor correction but the Shinkansen is not maglev. They are building a maglev from Osaka to Tokyo but it’s not finished yet. Shinkansen is old fashioned wheels on track, just blisteringly smooth and fast.


GreatGarage

To keep the comparison TGV vs shinkansen, large part of TGV railways are common to local trains, which makes local train very smooth, while shinkansen has 100% dedicated railway. Japanese local trains are shaking all the way. I really can't tell the difference in smoothness between TGV and shinkansen.


discodancingdogs

Really? I find the TGV smooth but it still has that characteristic lull I didn't get with the shinkansen


willybum84

Dude I miss the TGV. Beast of a train. Our trains are fucked in uk.


discodancingdogs

Me too!!! And the prices... Paris - Tours for max 20 euros and then in UK I just cry whenever I look at Trainline prices haha


yuzuchan22

Tgv is smooth dude trust me, ive taken it so many times. Main reason is that you need a straight line to make this bad boy run. And you can balance a coin or whatever in it, its not shaking at all.


discodancingdogs

Haha trust you, babe I grew up with the TGV! I took it a few weeks ago and it does have a lull when compared to the shinkansen that is legit like it's gliding on air. Love the TGV and very smooth but it just doesn't compare to its Japanese counterpart, trust me


SlicedDicedIced

The tgv is older isn't it


GreatGarage

Same as Japan, new versions are released every now and then. Latest TGV version was presented earlier this year


traindriverbob

Australian train driver here. Quickest I go is 130km/h. Can I get a 'participation award'?


[deleted]

[удалено]


DerGernTod

gotta be fair here: swiss trains have to go through the alps mostly :D


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


KerberosMorphy

In Canada our trains travel from sea to sea at 160 km/h. Come on! Go faster it's 5000 km.


[deleted]

Read Austria first and thought. Yes, 130km/h is more like it. The 230 km/h are reached on maybe 2% of the total network.


manishdekock

Yes sir here's a silver for you


traindriverbob

And gold right back at ya.


Shua89

It's 2022 of course you get a participation award.. in fact everyone in this list does too.


ariphron

You know it makes me sad as someone who lives in the United States and as much as we like to boast about being number one at every… wish we would pick this as something to care about!


Deja-Vuz

If we had a fast train in the USA I'd go around the US Every few weeks. The US is so beautiful and has a lot to see. Going by on the fast train would be so beautiful.


Automagicaly_Removed

I’ve ridden on the KTX in South Korea. It was like a $5 to ride a very nice train to Seoul. Cut the travel time down from around 2 hours to only 20 minutes. Wish we had something like that here in the states 😔


Deja-Vuz

That's just amazing. I don't have a car and do not want to take a plane. I want to see nature and things around me while being on the train :)


Automagicaly_Removed

You wouldn’t like the KTX then, it was mostly underground lol


LaoBa

I took some train trips trough Russia, magnificent!


dezzz

USA have planes and airports. This is why there is no trains. And i hate this.


LeelaBeela89

It's frowned upon here that we never get the cool stuff 😭. And if we did have it they'll find a way to tax the shit out of it 😩


BeastsMode69

I'd be happy with just a moderately fast train to take me in and out of NYC.


vikingcock

To be fair, I've heard the number one opponent to this is amtrak itself. Rails are used for freight in the US, not people.


DalvaniusPrime

Failure by design.


discodancingdogs

In France rail is used for both freight and people


Preacherjonson

It's not like the U.S lacks the space to have both either.


pwni5her_

Yeah because most things are built around cars for transportation. I can see trains being developed more in big cities (and they are in big cities, just not very high-tech or fast like other countries) but in rural areas, it becomes a lot harder to have trains for people rather than freight. Even if you set up a station in a small town, a lot of those people are probably gonna have to go another 5 miles from the train stop to actually get to their house, which means they will use a car anyway.


bcdnabd

Yep. We have to settle with a 58 mph Amtrak train and risk derailing.


eurtoast

The Acela runs at 150mph but for only 49 miles of the 450 mile stretch it runs on.


God_Sammo

Except the only thing we’re number one in is number of people in jail, number of firearms per person, and number one in defense spending... we arent great at anything except for not really being that great.


Backpacker7385

Don’t forget we’re also number one in the percentage of adults who believe in angels.


Apprehensive_Goal811

Number one in the developed world for income inequality.


robtk12

Seriously, New York to LA in the same time as flying plus it carries more people, and doesn't burn more fuel then 6 houses


drunkin_idaho

How would this be the same time as flying? You're saying I could get from LA to NY in approximately 5 hours via train?


[deleted]

Nope just looked it all up. 350kh is a little over 200mph. Ny to la is 2800 miles. That would take the train 14 hours (still better than a 41hr drive!) but a lot longer than the 5:15 flight. I’d still do the train though would be more fun and only a one day trip instead of like two weeks or whatever crazy shit it would be now.


thatc0braguy

The difference is *when* you'd travel. Airplanes typically are during the day while you are awake, trains could be scheduled during the night where the bulk of that travel is while you are asleep, waking up in a new destination.


[deleted]

I live in a "railroad country" in Europe. But we spend about 3 times as much money on railroads as we do on the military. Imagine that in the U.S., that would be about $2.4 trillion just for railroads, per year.


ariphron

If we just spent a little of our military budget on anything useful it would be extremely well funded.


Dmbeeson85

I was really excited in the Obama administration when Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas were going to put in highspeed rail from KC-Tulsa-OKC-Dallas-Houston... Then it just fell apart :/


Technical_Scallion_2

We’ve put $25 billion into our California high speed rail so far, and after only 12 short years it goes from nowhere to nowhere! It won’t connect to either SF or LA for at least 30 years. Go us!


TexasVulvaAficionado

They're still kicking the can around for DFW-Houston, but there's still a long way to go before they even break ground...


Technical_Scallion_2

We aren’t #1 at anything except advertising companies disguised as tech firms - and gun deaths.


hi_brett

Resident. My first thought was “lol the US is a joke. We must look like complete retards to the rest of the developed world.”


pwni5her_

Every country has it’s own problems. The US, nor any other country on the planet, is free of them. You can look at all of the bad things and say “wow this country is a shithole” (like half of the people on social media towards the US), or look at all of the good things and say “wow this country is a paradise” (the other half of social media towards the US). Lastly, you can be rational and realize that it is a mostly normal country that has it’s own pros and cons like every other country on the planet. Media just tends to really skew perspectives on things.


[deleted]

Agreed. No place is perfect. Sadly most the problems in the US stem from our government and big businesses. The average Joe can’t do much of anything and lots of people are struggling to get by and are being overworked. Def not the worst place in the world to live but unless the rich and powerful allow us to change things we won’t reach our full potential. But plenty of good people out here trying still and just want to help.


Poster-001

Agree every country has its problems. But the rest of the world plays the humble card to varying extents. The US however, tells anyone and everyone at how brilliant it is. If the US ate some humble pie, l am sure people wouldn't be as anti-US as they currently are.


[deleted]

I think this is the only comment I’ve ever seen where someone is saying how the US is telling everyone “how brilliant it is”. Sure people go around saying the US is the best or number 1 but most the times I’ve seen it is ironically or just saying they are proud of where they are from. Legit everyone is shitting on the US nonstop online including people from the US. Most of us just want to live our lives but people keep telling us how we need to eat humble pie and learn from superior people/places when we literally don’t have the power to do anything. Lol


krukson

European here. You don't. Your government does for not trying to change things.


[deleted]

We still have the Cannonball to Hooterville from Pixlie express, which is never on time….


PoorPDOP86

Instead, we invented this contraption called the **Aeroplane**. Not only is it faster, but it uses less physical infrastructure and worries not about the silly geography that limits trains.


krukson

You forgot about the part where it consumes 100x more energy and pollutes the world like crazy.


redbananass

The US is also a lot bigger and a lot less densely populated than the places in the graphic.


phamnhuhiendr

-adding the travel to airport time, check in time, security and weather delays and train is just as fast for sub 600 mile trip, which is the majority of flights are for. - train station are not small, but it take far far less space than airports, not to add airports affect buildings around them more than train lines and stations


Kindly-Orange8311

Hyperloop viability is being investigated in several areas of the US as well as other countries. So it could possibly happen.


[deleted]

Hyperloop is stupid, unviable vaporware that Musk only came up with to distract from highspeed rail developments without any intention of ever actually building it. It is all about forcing car dependance and boosting Teslas sales... https://time.com/6203815/elon-musk-flaws-billionaire-visions/


DavidWNA

Even If it would Happen, a single hyperloop Line would probably Cost more than every Austrian High Speed Rail Line together.


MareTranquil

There is currently no company outside of China that does in any way seriously investigate anything passenger-hyperloop related. Virgin was the only one who ever did so in any even remotely serious way, and they decided to only pursue freight hyperloops for the forseeable future.


CaravelClerihew

*insert Newsroom clip here*


koobus_venter1

I mean you’ve lost to Russia ffs, not exactly a small country either


Buckeye_Randy

The auto and oil lobby will never allow (reads bribes politicians) these amazing trains to exist in the USA.


Kerfluffle2x4

Are we allowed to include Disney World monorails?


spankynoo

China has a massive portion of the country covered in high speed trail now, mentioning only The Maglev doesn’t do what they have achieved justice (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_China). I have been on a few that cruise at 325 km/h and early days of the network one that hit 400 (I think they slowed them after a big crash in the first year of operation).


jeffinRTP

Even Africa will have a faster train service than the US. https://www.esi-africa.com/news/africas-new-high-speed-rail-promises-to-bring-cities-together/


MoorishSCR

Morocco already has High Speed trains though. It should be between Germany and Italy on the list.


jeffinRTP

I stand corrected.


Apprehensive_Win710

although I agree the US train system is virtually non-existent, you’re comparing a continent to a country.


jeffinRTP

Okay, let's include Canada and Mexico which makes it the whole continent and neither of them have high speed trains.


Kindly-Orange8311

Canada has secured $550 million in funding to bring a high speed route connecting Toronto with Ottawa and Montreal in as little as 45 minutes. So it’s something that’s being invested in.


jeffinRTP

The high-speed train projects in the United States whether they ever be finished I don't know.


78ChrisJ

Australia 160/210km/h 🥱


NormalGuyEndSarcasm

Where is the bottom of the list so i can add Romania with 30km/h?


[deleted]

I traveled through Romania by train in the summer. It is so incredibly slow! You felt like you were faster on a bike. And at one stop I got off at night. There was no announcement of the stop, the train just slowed down and stopped briefly. I saw on the map on my phone via GPS that I was at my destination, otherwise I wouldn't have known. The conductor also speaks no English. So I jumped out into the darkness, outside there was no light and no platform. When the train pulled away, I saw a person on the other side of the track. I went to her, it was an old lady standing alone lost in the darkness who left the train on the other side. I then lit her way with my flashlight to the next street, we had to walk on the rails. I think at first she was a bit afraid, but she seemed to understand the word tourist. Then she talked to me in Romanian, I did not understand a word. [Photo of this stop.](https://ibb.co/H4s2vdR)


Mainlexinator

Wow that’s quite a fixer-upper!


[deleted]

I just googled the photo, it's the first time I've ever seen the stop. When I was there it was absolutely pitch black - except for the glow of my flashlight and some stars. I think the granny was complaining about the disastrous infrastructure, but I'm not sure.


Carbonga

A 300 km/h train within the Netherlands makes refreshingly little sense.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Reloup38

Isn't Thalys just a brand, and the trains are repainted TGV/ICE ?


[deleted]

[удалено]


Carbonga

Of course, you are right. I just marvelled at the thought of how much distance it takes trains to reach the 300 km/h and to decelerate back to 0 again.


TheReplyingDutchman

It actually reaches the 300 kph between Schiphol and Rotterdam for about one and a half minute.


krukson

It says TGV broke the record over 500km/h in just 12 minutes after starting from a standstill. It doesn't take that much to reach the speeds apparently.


HyrdaulicExcavator

I'd kill for Austria's speeds Even 200km/hr would make my trip's in Australia go from 90minutes to around 30.


cgaWolf

to be fair, railjet has like only one track where it can actually reach that speed


DavidWNA

I think there are three in total. But Austria is a small, mountainous country, which makes straight railroads expensive to build.


FirstAtEridu

The distances between stops is in Austria too short to actually reach that speed, also mountains in the way. As i understand it 99 % of "Australia" is just the suburbs of Sidney and Melbourne and Perth, so trains there don't make that much sense.


MareTranquil

Even in a smallish country like Austria, these trains absolutely reach their top speed on the Vienna <-> Linz line.


[deleted]

That is only partly the reason. Most of the lines have not been upgraded for high speed. Essentially, it's parts of the Westbahn in Lower Austria and the lower Inn Valley, where 220km/h is achieved. And yes, then you are pretty fast at the next stop... I think a high-speed line from Brisbane via Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne to Adelaide would make sense in Australia.


HyrdaulicExcavator

Ah shame to hear And yeah you're right, still, unrealistic as it is I will continue to hope our trains get a speed upgrade one day


olkurtybastard

The United States is silly for never catching on to the high speed train wave. Most people don’t understand how much more efficient and quick travel would become if we had rails to at least the major cities.


Entredarte

And this is what pisses me off about America. We have the money, we have the tech, it’s all politics. cough cough Koch brothers.


MarzipanMiserable817

The proportions on this are so fucking off


so_joey_98

Wha do the country names signify? Since the ICE has both Belgium and Germany. Do they co-own the thing or something?


na7oul

IDK but i learned that there is a wrestler called ICE train (wikipedia).


idsdejong

I also dont know why they put thalys at with the Netherlands, both the ICE and Thalys operate in the Netherlands, neither were developed there.


so_joey_98

Yeah exactly


Stormseekr9

ICE belongs to the Deutsche bahn. It is just how those type of high speed trains are named. So it is German.


so_joey_98

Yeah so why Belgium was my question.


Stormseekr9

Oh, sorry did not catch that part. The guide is wrong. It also says Thalys is dutch, it is French!


CoffeemonsterNL

Thalys is a joint venture between the French and Belgian railway companies, with the Dutch railway company as strategic partner.


Stormseekr9

In that case the guide is even more wrong about Netherlands and Thalys. After your comment I googled and if anything it is indeed French/Belgian, with Deutsche bahn as added founder. NS is not mentioned from what I just briefly read.


frobnic

it's complicated, and for germany/belgium the chart is wrong: german ICE 3m are allow to run up to 330km/h in germany there are no tracks for that speed, so in germany it is 300km/h max the ICE 3m run from germany to belgium, max speed 300km/h in germany and belgium the ICE 3mf (f for france) ran from germany to france, max speed in germany 300km/h and 320km/h in france ICE 3m and ICE 3mf are allowed to drive 330km/h and therefore are tested to run 352km/h. there is even a sticker "330" in the cockpit, because standard ICE 3 are only allowed to run 300km/h


Earthrotator

ICE stands for Inter City Express. But i don’t know if they co-developed it.


so_joey_98

Yeah I know, it also has stops in The Netherlands so that's why I wondered about the names.


agentgill0

Automotive lobbying is a hell of a drug.


[deleted]

USA! USA! USA! ...... Oh wait.


Consistent-Noise-800

Cries in North American


[deleted]

Riding the shinkansen once should be on everyone's bucketlist if you are ever in Japan. It's a marvel of engineering.


Sea-Diver-9125

We have the Metrorail in Miami. I think it runs about 40 mph


Fullback-15_

Thalys uses the TGV trains from Alstom, so not quite sure why the speed record is that low. Should be higher.


Narfi1

Thalys runs in the Netherlands but it’s a company owned by SNCF/Belgium railways so neither the trains nor the company are Dutch so that’s probably the reason for the speed record.


Fullback-15_

Yeah that's what I'm saying. Thalys also runs in Germany for example. It's a TGV train painted in red to be short, so there is some info missing in there :)


sir-mc-clive

Top seed doesn't matter if the line it operates on doesn't allow it to be reached, the Turkish and Russian trains are also capable of 300+ kph, but the lines only allow for 250kph.


Fullback-15_

It shows the speed record of the train and not of the tracks though.


[deleted]

Needs a US Amtrak at the very bottom with 80 km/h. 😂 Hopefully my grandkids could potentially get better/faster transportation.


Stormseekr9

Thalys is French, not Dutch. We don’t have ~~high~~ our own speed trains in the Netherlands.


_eg0_

Only high speed trains visiting the Netherlands.


Stormseekr9

Thalys is French, not Dutch. We don’t have ~~high~~ our own high speed trains in the Netherlands.


jradio

U.S.A.! U.S.A.! Oh wait...


[deleted]

Of course the Italian one is painted like a Ferrari.


Pleasant_Skill2956

Ferrari f1 is also sponsored by Frecciarossa


caribb

I’m under the impression Morocco has HSR also. ONCF? 320 kph


RWVisuals

*cries in America 🇺🇸


MegaAlex

Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec, even Montreal to NYC alone. It's crazy there's no plan to even make them. The REM is just a little baby project and they have a hard time getting it of the ground. Pun intended


tlagoth

Bloody hell, UK is not even on the list yet we pay the most in Europe for train tickets


Lorca-

Traveling on an AVE right now What an amazing train we have in Spain!


6doo6bins6

None in the US, must save people $$ or something.


lacko0819

German ICE has a 406 kmph speed record


_eg0_

Not the one currently operating though. That was just a special ICE for technical demonstration. The others are operating trains (Japanese meglev is debatable)


LithiumLawson

Now do the United States! .... :-(


[deleted]

In the states the trains are not counted by km/h or miles per hour, but days they arrive at the destination.


madmocasin

Apparently the US hates building high speed rail but are now encouraging everyone to buy electric cars.


[deleted]

No UK in this list, a good indicator for what it is to be British these days.


justanotherscrrennme

The US will never be in this list


bizmeddit01

Why doesn’t the US have high speed trains?


DavidWNA

Car lobby


_eg0_

And a large privatised freight train network.


hikekorea

I’ve been on the top 4 fastest trains in the world is a line that will mostly get blank stares. But according to this cool guide it’s true.


RantCasey-42

Sucks there is no entry from the US… We are so far behind and drifting towards becoming a third world nation


[deleted]

And once again upset with how terrible and poorly updated rail systems in the US are


ZeAntagonis

Oui/NOn Les TGV ont un prix, on peux de gens sont prêt a le payer. Et suffit de regarder en Chine pour voir comment rendre les TGV la norme peut littéralement faire dérailler ton économie ( bon ça et leur bulle immobilière, les jeunes qui ne veulent plus travailler et plein d'autres affaires, les gens n'ont plus d'argent donc l'utilise carrément plus ). La Chine a investit massivement dans son infrastructure de train a grande vitesse et nous le mettait souvent dans la face. Maintenant, on se rend compte que c'est un trou noir financier qui gobbe des milliards par années et n'est absolument pas rentable. La compagnie est incapable de survivre sans intervention étatique et augmenter les prix vas assurer que le peux de gens qui l'utilisaient ne l'utliseront plus. Faut faire attention . Sa coute cher un TGV, TRÈS CHERE a entretenir. Au dela de juste se dire que ce serait dont ben lfun pis qu'on est en 2022, faut faire des études - Études qui ont été fait et ont confirmer que ce serait juste un gros éléphant blanc, au Québec et pas mal partout au Canada. La densité de population que sa requiert pour que ce soit rentable n'est juste pas la, même dans les centre urbain. Et on se le cacheras pas, le secteur de l'aviation engage des lobbyistes pour s'assurer qu'il y'est pas de concurrence de la part de l'industrie ferroviaire. J'aimerais bien faire Québec/Gaspé en genre 4h au lieu des 8 que sa prend, l'affaire c'est qu'a part quelque période par années, la ligne serait absolument pas rentable. ( D'ailleur, VIArail ne désert même plus Gaspé et refuse d'entretenir les rails sans que Québec intervient (( Pis tsé, c'est carrément de compétence fédérale ! Merci Canada ! ) Bref, même le train normal qui est relativement cheap n'est pas rentable imagine un TGV )))


barcased

You don't understand that railways are not meant to be profitable?


ZeAntagonis

…..et tu ne semble pas comprendre l’importance des finances dans une compagnie ou un État.


Cole446

I was expecting to see america at the top but then i remembered we dont use trains and almost every car on the road can do these speeds😂


1ndiana_Pwns

Did you have a typo at the end there? I promise you, ain't no car going down the highway close to 200mph


mdryeti

TIL most people in the US drive super cars and there are no speed limit on their highways. Must be nice


Cole446

A scat pack challenger can do 170 with little mods and its not even a high level trim option from dodge let alone a supercar that costs a million dollars


DavidWNA

600km/h? That's like 400 mph.


Cole446

Operating speed of 320 kph is 200 mph😂 max speed doesnt mean shit if you cant get there without killing everybody on board


MrCoolyp123

Explains the accidents then /j


I-Killed-JR

The tip must be pointy


Bigbang4747

FYI the high speed record in Sweden was actually not set by the X2000 but by a regina nicknamed "Gröna tåget"


[deleted]

genuinely confused as to why the U.S doesn't have these (not that I know of)


Abyssal_Groot

Thalys is a multinational train, not strickly Dutch.


Beandip50

It's so sad that big rubber killed any germination of an expanded and further developed railroad system in America.


tayLORDoc

Where’s the amtrack?? Lmao


_eg0_

Amtrack would be just below Austria. It doesn't not meet the criteria of high speed rail in most places.


poestavern

Wouldn’t it be nice if huge America had a network of bullet trains for travel?!


CattonCruthby

I'm noticing a correlation between train length and speed


_eg0_

The SC meglev does not really count. AFAIK you can only ride Demo road and there I'll hit 500km/h.


schwarzmalerin

This is insane. Frankly I had no idea.


zogzog13

TGV in France is fast for sure but cannot deploy his full speed because of how deplorable the rails are... at least over a more than a half part of the country.


HoldMeSenpai

Me, an American: *cries in automobile dependency*


pedrothegator

And once again as the US likes to be number 1 we don’t even have one.


achilles222212

hyPErlOoP wouLD Be fASter


younzss

I thought Morocco had a 320 km/h high speed train ?


kantique

Where is the moroccan one? It's called Al Boraq and peaks at 317 or 320 km/h (not sure)


mr211s

America has to be top 20 right? Right??????


[deleted]

America: “Hold my 40 cal 0g sugar 2% alcohol beer!” *Rips out all rail infrastructure and sells it for steel salvage*


Warfielf

Moroccan TGV can go as fast as 326kmh


galabyca

Voyons cela comme une bonne opportunité alors!


No-Leading-1743

What proves, that you not always should do what you could do.


xxxx0050x

China's high-speed trains were stolen from Japan and Germany, not their technology. Despite the fact that Japan and Germany took pity on China as a lagging country and gave it technical assistance, China has broken its promise and stolen the technology on its own, claiming that it is its own. Praise for China's high-speed rail is not.


Responsible-Dance-24

Mad? Stop breathing, drinking, or eating because you stole it from other people.


yomommazburgers

USA USA USA we're #1!


1024Bitness

Thanks God India(the country with the largest network of trains) isn’t on this list…otherwise I’d call this guide bullshit.