(PhysOrg.com) — China tested a 500 kilometers per hour (311 mph) train over the weekend. Government officials call the record-breaking speedster a “useful reference” for China’s current high speed railway operations. The test train’s speed, according to a Monday report in China Daily, exceeds the world speed record of 300 kilometers per hour held by the Beijing Shanghai High Speed Railway. China’s latest high-speed train has a maximum tractive power of 22,800 kilowatts, compared with the 9,600 kilowatts for China Railways High-Speed (CRH) trains in service on the Beijing-Shanghai High Speed line.

The Chinese are racing past us.

The comments are great too:

@James_Kent Trains hold a great fascination for centralized governments. Mussolini “made the trains run on time”. Plus you keep the people captive to govt franchised transport

You’re retarded. Here the Moscow Metro has 185 stations which takes you anywhere in Moscow in 40 minutes for 28 roubles (one of your bucks). Conversely the city “free enterprise” roadway is jammed and can take three hours for the same trip. We move 10million people every day without incident, apart from Chechen suicide bombers. In Los Angeles your public transport and freeways can’t move 3million without coming to a standstill. Public transport in LA is six times more expensive and six times slower, and is solely used by the lowest classes.