Length of high-speed railway lines in use worldwide in 2022, by country

As of 2022, China had by far the longest high-speed railway network in the world with almost 40,500 kilometers of high-speed rail lines; the country was followed by Spain and Japan, both with more than 3,000 kilometers of high-speed rail each.

China leading high-speed expansion

In addition to its existing network, China had over 13,000 kilometers of rail under construction. The completion of these projects will grow the Chinese network by around 32 percent.

Next to China, Turkey and Iraq have the largest high-speed rail projects currently under construction. High-speed rail construction projects in both countries include international routes. Iraq is building a connection from Al Faw Port on the Persian Gulf to the Turkish border, while Turkey is building a high-speed connection to link to neighboring Bulgaria.

Fast, faster, Maglev

While China does operate some of the fastest trains worldwide, including the CRRC Qingdao Sifang 2021 Maglev, the title of fastest train worldwide is taken by Japan. Japan's L0 Series Maglev can reach speeds up to 603 kilometers per hour, marginally faster than China's fastest Maglev, which can go up to 600 kilometers per hour. 

In Europe, the fastest train is the TGV POS, which can go up to 575 kilometers per hour and takes fourth place in the global ranking.