In the 19th century, trains were the best way to travel long distances over land. Trains were fast and convenient. In the 20th century, airplanes replaced trains for long-distance travel. Today, however, high-speed trains are attracting passengers again. France has a train called the TGV. TGV is "Train a Grande Vitesse" in French, which means "high-speed train". A TGV train operates at speed up to 300 km／h. The passengers can travel from Paris to Marseilles in only four hours.
The first country to have a high-speed train is Japan. The Bullet train offers a fast, smooth ride between Tokyo and other major cities in Japan. This train operatesat speedup to 210 km／h and can travel between Tokyo and Osaka in just three hours.
China has the world's longest high-speed rail network with over 19,369.8 km of track (轨道) in service from December 2014. China's high-speed rail system also includes the world's longest line, the 2,298 km Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed railway. China's high-speed trains are marked with "CRH" (China's railway high-speed). They are also called Hexie Hao. The fastest trainsets, CRH380BL, reached the highest test speed of 487. 3 km／h.
