It’s official; France’s bullet train, the V150, set a record yesterday for fastest speed ever by a rail train. How fast, you ask? Only 357.2 MPH! For some perspective, at that speed someone could go from Miami to Jacksonville in about an hour. Only the Japanese mag-lev trains have gone faster, but they utilize different technology with much less resistance. The fastest train the U.S. has put on the table…the Amtrak’s Acela Express, which tops out about 1/3 as fast as France’s bullet train.
Check out how fast this thing whips by the folks on the overpass.
The sad thing about the Acela is that the NYC-DC trip is only 30 min shorter than the regular Amtrak service. It’s really a shame that the US has such an underdeveloped and overpriced passenger rail system.
A#2
It would be great to build that High speed rail line to Jacksonville, or Orlando that was voted for a few years back.
Maybe if we staged high-profile events like this in the U.S., there would be more public excitement about rail.
How fast does the Metrorail go?
60 MPH max, although I doubt it ever travels up to that speed…
These are two completely different forms of Transit though…Most Transit systems max out around 60, where as intercity transit such as the TGV featured above is reaching amazing speeds in countries outside of the states…The Acela in the US, our “express” train, travels at 170 MPH or so on a very limited route…