China plans to build a high-speed rail line linking Beijing and Shanghai that state media claims will assume the title of the world's fastest when it opens in 2012, Next Energy News reports. The China Daily quoted Zhang Shuguang, the Ministry of Railways' deputy chief engineer, as saying that Chinese-made trains will achieve speeds of 380 kilometers per hour (236 mph) and make the 1,300 kilometer trip in about four hours.

Currently, the fastest trains that can make that trip in China take 10 hours to do so. Interestingly, the report said that China already has a train capable of reaching speeds of more than 430 kilometers an hour: the MAGLEV line, which connects central Shanghai and its main international airport. But China doesn't count it as the world's fastest regular train, as "the futuristic technology sees it float above the rail line using magnetic levitation" [sic] which I'm assuming means that either the technology used in that train isn't something that can be mass produced on a large scale yet, or that the trip is too short to prove the technology's durability or range.

(Image credit: Reuters)