A list of the most friendly high speed rail countries.

I have compiled a list of who I think are the most rail friendly countries in order with the best at the top. This is my opinion, if you disagree then please post a message in the web board! The Internet shouldn't be a passive experience!

France
Japan
Spain
Germany
Italy
Belgium
Finland
Sweden
The United Kingdom
Russia

Facts and Figures

I have compiled at table of vital statistics here below.

Country:	France	Japan	Spain	Germany	Italy	Belgium	Finland	Sweden	UK	Russia
Speed Record	320mph 515kph	277mph 443kph	N/A	255mph 407kph	N/A	N/A	N/A	148mph 237kph	162mph 260kph	N/A
Fastest Train	186mph 300kph	186mph 300kph	186mph 300kph	174mph 280kph	186mph 300kph	186mph 300kph	138mph 220kph	125mph 200kph	140mph 225kph	125mph 200kph
Since F	1989	1997	1996	1992	1996	1998	N/A	N/A	1997	N/A
Previous Fastest	168mph 270kph	132mph 210kph	138mph 220kph	None	155mph 250kph	None	None	None	125mph 200kph	None
Since P	1981	1964	N/A	-	1987	-	-	-	1976	-
Top A. S.	158mph 255km/h	164mph 262kph	130mph 209kph	125mph 200kph	103mph 163kph	N/A	97mph 157kph	105mph 168kpk	112mph 180kph	80mph 130kph
H.S.Ls.	716m 1153km	1220m 1950km	300m 480km	250m 400km	230m 370km	70m 115km	None	None	None	None
HSLs UC	200m 320km	405m 645km	100m 160km	550miles 880km	220m 350km	None	None	None	None	None
GDP/head	17,763	18,630	12,250	19,147	16,543	17,220	15,718	16,805	15,845	N/A
Pop Den	105.0	330.0	77.4	227.5	186.3	329.3	15.0	19.4	237.7	N/A

Definitions:

Fastest Train - this is the top speed at which the fastest train in the country is allowed to travel at in commercial use

Since F - the date when the fastest train entered service

Speed record - the national rail speed record of each country

Previous Fastest - if the country had a high speed train for a long time before its listed here

Since P - the date since the previous fastest train has been in service. High speed rail friendly countries are ones who have been operating trains for a long time.

Top A.S - the fastest average speed between two stations

HSLs - High Speed Lines only, the quantity of railway build and dedicated to high speed trains. Note: High Speed Trains will often travel on normal tracks, however usually limited to 140mph

HSLs UC - High Speed Lines Under construction. Note: This does not include planned high speed lines.

GDP/Head - the GDP/head at 1991 in $US. The higher the figure for GDP the easier it is to support high speed rail.

Pop Den - the population density in persons per square kilometer. The higher the population density the easier it is to support high speed rail

France

France without doubt is the most rail friendly country in the world. France spends 5 times more on railways than the UK does. The TGV is more than just a train to the French, it is a symbol of national pride. And indeed it should be. France is a reasonably wealthy country but certainly not the wealthiest in the world, but they are well ahead of the world with their speed record of 320mph, 515km/h which is really quite an extraordinary speed. Trains have been running in France daily at up to 186mph (300km/h) since 1989, many years before any other contries contemplated such speeds. The TGV Sud-est was running at 168mph (270km/h)
See Also: The TGV

Japan

Many would say Japan was the inventor of the concept of high speed rail, starting in 1964 with 210km/h (132mph) services which were then very fast. Japan today has trains running at 186mph (300km/h), although these have only been running since 1996. Japan is more wealthy than France but France has beaten them in terms of high speed rail. Japan also has a very high population density so it is ideal for nuturing high speed rail. The Bullet train is very much a pioneering train with a very good speed record so Japan is clearly rail friendly, however it definately takes a second place to France.
See Also: The Bullet Train

Spain

Spain has done very well to get 300km/h trains, it is certainly not amongst the wealthy countries in the world and doesn't have such a great population density, with only 30 million compared to France 52 million and Japan's 110 million, and Germany's 63million. It also comes before Germany because spain beats Germany in best speed, best average speed, and quantity of high speed lines. This is a exported TGV rather than a true Spanish train.
See Also: The AVE

Germany

Germany has done very well with its ICE trains with an excellent 255mph speed record. However crucially Germany doesn't have 300km/h trains and will not have them until 1999. It does however have 280km/h (175mph) trains so things are quite fast. Being a rich country with a high population (63 million) however it is not really rail friendly as it would have 300km/h trains, but gets a 4^th place.
See Also: The ICE

Italy

Like spain Italy has done very well with it's pendolini trains, standard pendolinis travel at up to 250km/h (155mph). Also Italy has huge projects for high speed rail spending as much as 35 trillion lira on new high speed rail projects, which will utilise the ETR 500, a very high speed train like the ICE and then
See Also: The Pendolini
Related Link: The Italian High Speed Rail Project

Belgium

Belgium has completed the 300km/h high speed line allowing Eurostars and Thalys trains to travel at their full potential speed. However it has no domestic services at these speeds.
See Also: The Eurostar ; The Thalys

Finland

Finland has a high speed train, version of the Italian Pendolini. This train can reach 220km/h (138mph) . Finland isn't an ideal country for high speed rail, with a very low population density and relatively low GDP it has done quite well to achieve this

Sweden

Sweden has had the X2000 tilting train. Although this achieves a better top average speed than the finnish train, Sweden has two advantages, a higher GDP and population density than finland. Although in the world of high speed rail 125mph (200km/h) isn't considered to be that fast, considering Sweden has such a low population density it has done well.

The United Kingdom

The UK should be an ideal place for high speed rail, with a very high population density and many busy .transport corridors. Although it has an impressive 112mph (180km/h) best average speed (only just behind Germanys 125mph (200km/h) best) the lack of high speed only lines, and very high speed (160mph+) trains pushes the UK to the back

Russia

You might think Russia is an unlikely candidate for high speed rail. In fact it is a very high speed rail friendly country. It has 200km/h (125mph) trains which while not particularly fast is in fact very good for a country and amusingly there is more high speed rail in Russia than there is in the USA. What is more exiting is the project to connect St Petersbourg to Moscow with a 350km/h (220 mph) high speed link.
Related Link: Pictures of the 200km/h trains