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Pre order this global history of high speed rail from the railways wisest most detailed historian The Observer The greatest expert on British trains GUARDIAN The high priest of railway studies LITERARY REVIEW Our most eminent transport journalist SPECTATOR If you love the hum of the wheels and of history then Christian Wolmar is your man OBSERVER Sleek comfortable accessible and sustainable high speed rail is the future Since Japan s Bullet Train first sped down the track in the sixties it has become a global icon as famous for its punctuality as for its speed The French TGV or Train à Grande Vitesse established a template that was soon followed across Europe in Italy Germany and Spain But with a remarkable 30 000 miles of track built in fewer than twenty years China has become the world leader Now with lines built or planned in over twenty countries high speed rail has changed the world and faced with the environmental cost of cars and air travel might help save it Two countries both pioneers of rail travel have been conspicuously left behind though The UK which before the Second World War built record breaking high speed trains has just sixty eight miles of high speed line and the unfolding embarrassment of HS2 while t