China’s new bullet train prototype sets global speed record at 450 km/h in test run - Hindustan Times

Can it go this fast while in service? Is it practical to do so? Where does this leave Maglev?

While the country’s high-speed rail system has yet to turn a profit on a national scale

Lots of brainworms in this sentence. It is never the purpose of infrastructure projects to turn a profit.

It must be nice to live in a country that is capable of building things other than highways and single-family home suburban developments.

That’s a bit disingenuous of a headline. They compared a prototype to an inservice production speed. As stated, other prototypes have exceeded 500km/h. Now if this goes into service it’ll hold the record there.

Up next: not to be left behind, the west invests in creating an even faster train - codenamed "Snowpiercer."