China Railway announced on Saturday that it had completed performance tests of new high-tech components critical to CR450 high-speed trains at speeds exceeding 400 kilometers per hour (km/h), which are said to be the fastest in the world, marking another milestone in China's world-leading high-speed rail technology.

According to China Railway, testing was carried out along a section of the railway from Fuqing to Quanzhou in East China's Fujian Province in an effort to hasten the development of a new generation of high-speed trains that are quicker, safer, more environmentally friendly, energy-efficient, and intelligent, according to Global Times.

China Railway test run 

The test train ran on the Meizhou Bay cross-sea bridge successfully on Wednesday at a single-train speed of 453 km/h and a relative velocity of 891 km/h. On Thursday, the test train ran in the Haiwei Tunnel at 420 km/h for a single train and 840 km/h for a relative speed.

The CR450 designates a train with a top speed of 400 km/h. Currently, the fastest high-speed train running speed in China is 350 km/h, which is also the fastest high-speed rail operating speed in the world. According to media reports, the fastest operational speeds for high-speed trains in Japan and France are set at 320 km/h.

The train, which travels at 400 km/h, would cut the trip from Beijing to Shanghai to 2.5 hours. At this pace, the trip from New York to Washington DC in the United States could be cut to just under 55 minutes, compared to three to four hours by vehicle or train.

China improves train speed

Unlike the six major speed increases that occurred between 1997 and 2007, when China was still attempting to catch up with global frontrunners, more recent speed increases, such as the current CR450 project, have helped maintain China's advantage in operating the world's fastest trains, according to Sun Zhang, a railway expert at Shanghai Tongji University, who spoke to the Global Times on Saturday.

Sun clearly remembered the sixth-speed increase, which occurred on April 18, 2007, when China increased its national train speeds from 160 km/h to 200 km/h. China rapidly took the lead after putting its high-speed railways into service in 2008, with trains currently traveling at 350 km/h.

After reaching a certain speed, increasing the speed will be difficult, according to Sun, who said that by adding 50 km/h, the CR450 will mark another leap in quality and a milestone in the development of China's high-speed rail.