The world record for a conventional wheeled passenger train is held by a specially modified french TGV high-speed train code named V150, set in 2007 when it reached on a section of track. Japan's experimental maglev train L0 Series achieved on a 42.8 km magnetic levitation track in 2015. Under commercial traffic and practical conditions where trains carry passengers across from one station to another, the world records for top operating speeds of maglev and single phase trains are held respectively by China's Shanghai Maglev Train that has a top speed of 431 km/h (268 mph) and CR400 Fuxing Hao with 350 km/h (217 mph), which also hails from China. They are followed by France's TGV Duplex and Japan's E5 series shinkansen which both have maximum operating speeds of 320 km/h (199 mph) for commercial services.
World speed records
Legend: Arr (Arrangement) Disposition and number of elements forming the train. Loc One locomotive pulling one or more cars. Multi Multiple motorized elements on a single train. Single Single rail vehicle (i.e. railbus) Power DC, DC 3rd rail, AC, Single phase, Triphase, Diesel-elec., Gas, Steam, Diesel-hydraulic, Propeller, Rocket, Jet State "Proto." (Prototype), "Unmod." (Unmodified from vehicles in service), "Unknown", "Tuned"
All passenger trains
The following is a partial list of absolute world speed records for all trains designed to carry passengers, regardless of gauge, propulsion or type of rail,
Conventional wheeled
The following is a list of verified absolute world speed records for conventional wheeled rail vehicles.
Electric
The following is a list of speed records for rail vehicles with electric traction motors and powered by electricity transferred to the train.
Fuel-electric
The following is a list of speed records for rail vehicles with on-board fuel to generate electricity for traction motors such as diesel-electric locomotive, diesel electric multiple unit and gas turbine-electric locomotive trains.
Fuel-mechanic
The following is a list of speed records for rail vehicles with on-board fuel to mechanical energy to drive vehicle's wheels such as diesel-hydraulic trains and gas turbine locomotive trains that use mechanical transmission to power the drive wheels.
Steam
The following is a list of speed records for steam locomotives.
Note: All records with a faster speed than (the record set by Mallard) are claimed and have not been officially verified.
Note:
Air propulsion
The following is a list of speed records for rail vehicles that use air propulsion to move rail vehicles while the wheels are rolling along the track.
Using an air cushion and a monorail, the Aérotrain set on 5 March 1974 a mean speed of and a peak speed of .
Conventional wheeled – Narrow gauge
Maglev trains
Rocket sleds
World fastest point-to-point average speeds in commercial operations
The following are the lists of world record average operating speeds between two stations. The average speeds are measured by the total time and the distance between the two stations.
All commercially operated trains
See also
Land speed record
List of vehicle speed records
List of high-speed trains
High-speed rail
, experimental car, driven by propeller, speed record for rail vehicles on 21 June 1931, on the Berlin–Hamburg Railway
References
External links
TGV 2007 record
TGV 2007 record - SNCF Press release , SNCF Press release 2
Alstom V 150, Alstom Press release
Reuters TGV record, Reuters TGV record video
Fastest steam locomotive
RDECOM magazine 'Super Roadrunner' breaks land speed record
846 TS HYPERSONIC UPGRADE PROGRAM (contains World Speed Record video) World Speed Survey 1997 Retrouvez sur cette page les chiffres clés des records sur rail dans le monde Railway developments worldwide World Speed Survey 2007 Railway Gazette International September 2007 Photos of the fastest trains