China has begun research and development on a new ‘super-speed’ railway technology, an official with the Ministry of Railways was quoted as saying by Xinhua. The new technology will increase the average speed of trains to more than 500kph, said the ministry’s chief engineer He Huawu at conference in Wuhan, Hubei province.

In the meantime, 400-500kph high-speed railway technology is in its final phase of development, according to Mr He, and 380kph trains are already coming off production lines.

In September, the China-made CRH380A train reached a speed of 416.6kph on a test run to set a new world train speed record.

As of September, China had put into service 7,055km of high-speed railway tracks and that total is expected to rise to 13,000km by 2012.

Mr He said China aimed to lead the world in high-speed railway construction.