Fast Trains WorldwideThe quest for greater speed on the rails is almost as old as the railroad itself. In the 19th and in the first half of the 20th centuries, notable things were being done under the slogan "Speed is the key:" the famous Rainhill Trials of 1829; the 1903 speed test run, when an electric three phase express railcar reached a sensational speed of 130. 61 mph; the German "Rail Zeppelin" of 1931 and their high speed railway network of the mid 1930s. In 1955,