World's Fastest Train to Begin Service July 1

Jaunted: Amazing news from Shanghaiist today: The world's fastest train will begin traveling between Shanghai and Beijing as soon as July 1! For lovers of train travel, technology and more transportation options, this is huge news. Plus, it means far less airport congestion and delays on this popular and heavily-trafficked route.

The zippity-quick train at the focus of the new service is the CRH380, a beast of a bullet train that most closely resembled an actual bullet, more so than any other bullet train we've seen. It's a China-designed and China-made train, coming in both 8-car and 16-car lengths.

It made the world record for fastest train last year, after the 16-car version hit an incredible 486 km/h (302 mph).

· Time it takes to fly between Beijing and Shanghai: 2 hours for just the flight, not counting airport transportation, security and wait times.

· Time it takes the CRH830 to travel from Beijing to Shanghai: 4 hours, 48 minutes

· Time it takes a regular train to travel from Beijing to Shanghai: 9 hours, 49 minutes

· Launch date for the Beijing-Shanghai CRH380 route: July 1

· How many pairs of CRH380 trains China has on the route: 90

· Top speed for the CRH380: 420 km/h (261 mph) (or really 486/302, as evidenced by its world record).

· Average speed the train will travel between Beijing and Shanghai: 300 km/h (186 mph)

· Length of the route between Beijing and Shanghai: 1,318 km (819 miles)

As of right now, there's not set price for train tickets, although expect to find out soon enough as tickets should go on sale later on this month. The terminus stations will be Shanghai Hongqiao station and Beijing South Railway station, along the Jinghu railway.