High-speed rail around the world

President Obama set a goal of giving 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail within the next quarter century. Here’s a look at the high-speed rail industry around the world.

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A police officer walks past a high-speed inter-city train that connects Shanghai and Hangzhou in China in October 2010. The Shanghai-Hangzhou high-speed railway shortens the travel time from 1.5 hours to 45 minutes.

Qilai Shen / Bloomberg

This image provided by the California High Speed Rail Authority shows an artist's rendering of a high-speed train speeding along the California coast. Critics began panning California’s futuristic bullet train network as “the train to nowhere” after officials revealed plans to build the first leg of the project not in the major population centers of Los Angeles or San Francisco, but through the state’s Central Valley farming belt.

/ AP

Visitors look at a train on display during the Metro China 2011 at the China international exhibition center in Beijing on Nov. 1, 2011. China has developed its vast transport network at breakneck speed, building the world's largest high-speed rail system from scratch in less than a decade.

/ AFP/Getty Images

A member of the security staff stands on the platform next CRH380A train, foreground, used on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed line in May 2011.

Qilai Shen / Bloomberg

A high-speed train for Italy's Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori railways sits at Alstom SA's train-building unit in Savigliano, Italy, on Feb. 11, 2011. Alstom SA, the world's second-largest train maker, has built two-thirds of the world's high-speed trains.

Victor Sokolowicz / Bloomberg

The Gautrain sits in the station at O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg on June 5, 2010. South Africa's Gautrain, a high-speed railway, links the airport with the business area of Sandton.

/ Bloomberg

Chinese workers unveil the new high-speed train, capable of reaching speeds up to 310 mph, during a ceremony in Qingdao, east China's Shandong province, on Dec. 23, 2011. The unveiling comes as the nation pushes ahead with high-speed rail despite a fatal crash.

/ AFP/Getty Images

A Eurostar train travels along the High Speed 1 line at the Eurotunnel entrance in Folkestone, United Kingdom, in June 2010.

Jason Alden / Bloomberg

Arnold Schwarzenegger, then-governor of California, center, speaks with Chung Mong Koo, left, chairman and CEO of Hyundai Motor and Sim Hyeog Yun, vice president of Korea Railroad, during an inspection of South Korea's high-speed train operations at the Cheonan-Asan Station in Asan, South Korea, on Sept. 15, 2010.

/ Bloomberg

An Alta Velocidad Espanola high-speed train is seen in evening light near the village of Mora, Spain, on Jan. 12, 2011.

Denis Doyle / Bloomberg

Alta Velocidad Espanola high-speed trains wait for departure at Joaquin Sorolla railway station in Valencia, Spain, on Jan. 12, 2011.

/ Denis Doyle/Bloomberg

Employees assemble a high-speed Pendolino train for Virgin Trains, left, and an AGV train for Italy's Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV) railways at Alstom SA's train-building unit in Savigliano, Italy, on Feb. 11, 2011.

/ Victor Sokolowicz/Bloomberg

Employees work on the interior assembly of a high-speed Pendolino train at Alstom SA's train-building unit on Feb. 11, 2011.

/ Victor Sokolowicz/Bloomberg

A cut-away section of the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco is seen in this Pelli Clarke Pelli rendering released on Feb. 14, 2011. The new Transit Center will accommodate various transit systems and be the hub for a future high-speed rail line being developed between San Francisco and Los Angeles/Anaheim.

/ Bloomberg

A Sapsan high-speed passenger train operated by OAO Russian Railways stands at a platform in Leningradsky station in Moscow on Feb. 24, 2011.

Andrey Rudakov / Bloomberg

Employees work in the central operation center for Shinkansen bullet trains, jointly operated by Kyushu Railway, Central Japan Railway and West Japan Railway, in Tokyo on March 10, 2011. Japan's Transport Minister Akihiro Ohata vowed to support sales of high-speed trains abroad as the nation's rail companies compete for contracts to build bullet-train networks in the United States and other countries.

Haruyoshi Yamaguchi / Bloomberg

Commuters arrive at the high-speed rail terminal at Atocha railway station in Madrid on Oct. 14, 2011.

Denis Doyle / Bloomberg

A worker cleans the nose of a CRH (China Railway High-Speed) train after it arrived at the Wuhan Railway Station in Wuhan, China, on Feb. 2, 2010. The CRH Wuhan-Guangzhou train service travels at an average speed of 217 mph.

Adam Dean / Bloomberg

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High-speed rail around the world

President Obama set a goal of giving 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail within the next quarter century. Here’s a look at the high-speed rail industry around the world.

Featured Photo Galleries