Given that five of the eight lines are like that and two of the rest are super-long, that's not at all surprising. (BTW, I take you compare distances to typical TGV travels from Paris, but typical distances are less than 300 km in Italy or Germany.) The noteworthy thing is that Beijing–Shanghai is among the four: a €28 billion line on which the busiest relation competes one of the busiest air routes in the world with a travel time of 5 hours is uncharted territory. It is also noteworthy that two of the shorter lines that also made break-even (Beijing–Tianjin and Shanghai–Nanjing) are parallel to it: that's some demand.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}