The weekend saw the unleashing of what has been called the fastest ever high-speed train in China. The new passenger carrier can achieve an average speed of some 217mph with a top speed of close to 250mph.

The new train will operate from the central Chinese city of Wuhan to Guangzhou in the south and will reduce the travel time for the 664 mile journey from 9 hours to just 3. The link will provide vital transport services to and from the south coast, Hong Kong in particular.

The new high speed line is expected to serve as a catalyst for Chinese transport and technology development and utilises technology from overseas leaders including Alstom, Bombardier and Siemens.

The train is based on similar bullet trains that operate in France, Germany and Japan which all average speeds of between 232km per hour and 277km per hour. In trials of the Chinese version, dubbed the Harmony Express, earlier this month speeds of 394km per hour were reached.

The Wuhan-Guangzhou link will be the longest and fastest ever in China. It has taken around four years to build at a cost of $15 billion according to Xinhua, China’s official news agency.

China has been attempting to implement a high-speed rail network for over two decades now but has been left in the wake of Japan, who have had their bullet trains, or Shinkansen, since the 1960’s. Europe’s first such train was the Paris-Lyon line that opened in 1981 while the Middle East has similar operations in Israel and Saudi Arabia.