Okay, last April I traveled to L.A. on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, an experience that was delightful, but still took from about four in the afternoon to eight thirty the following morning. The distance is 775 miles or so and that gives us an average speed of 47 miles an hour (or so.)

Last April, in France, they broke their own World Record for trains. Let me put it this way: if we had their tracks and their trains I could’ve done it in a little over 2 hours and 10 minutes.

(found at Making Light. They got the pointer from Charlie Stross)

By the way, there have been faster trains (both MagLev and Rocket) but this had loads of passengers aboard.