Japan today

Japan opened the world's first high-speed rail line, between Tokyo and Osaka, in time for the 1964 Olympics. Shinkansen, or bullet trains, now travel at speeds up to 185 miles per hour over some 1,500 miles of rail lines across the country. Italy is credited with Europe's first high-speed line, opening between between Rome and Florence in 1978; today trains also race through Spain, Germany, Belgium, Britain and France at speeds up to 150 miles per hour or more — making most Amtrak lines resemble a Disneyland monorail in comparison. Taiwan has also climbed on board, and fast-growing China has plunged into high-speed rail in a big way. Trains hit 217 miles per hour along a new, 75-mile route between Beijing and Tianjin built for the 2008 Olympics, and maglev (magnetic levitation) trains blast by at 268 between Shanghai and its airport. Concerns over cost have slowed the addition of more maglev lines, but conventional high-speed lines are being built in China at a frenetic pace.