NTERNATIONAL: China continues to set the pace in the global rail speed stakes, with its fastest trains achieving average point-to-point speeds more than 40 km/h faster than any other country, according to Railway Gazette's latest World Speed Survey.

...First place goes to Chinese Railways, which operates 22 trains daily over the 248 km between Shaoguan and Leiyang Xi in 47 min at an average of 316 km/h. Europe's fastest trains remain SNCF's TGV services on LGV Est linking Paris with Strasbourg and other towns in eastern France; TGV 5425 sprints the 167·6 km between Lorraine TGV and Champagne Ardenne TGV in 37 min at 271·8 km/h. Meanwhile, Spain overtakes Japan to take third place.

Well that's not quite correct. Average speed must obviously be below the top speed of 300 km/h. The mistake here must be the distances. The kilometerage of new lines is adjusted to that of parallel old lines at connecting points (meaning there are jumps in the numbering), and even fares are set according to these virtual 'old' distances. Still, having looked at timings and distances myself, I found several non-stop runs which are faster than the fastest TGV link, even if barely (by virtue of being longer runs). The three fastest:

• Beijing South–Nanjing South: 280.3 km/h (1,023 km in 3 h 39 min)
  
• Jinan West–Nanjing South: 280.5 km/h (617 km in 2 h 12 min)
  
• Shijiazhuang–Zhengzhou East: 283.7 km/h (383 km in 1 h 21 min)