I commute to the North County area of San Diego from Orange County out here in California... A good part of that drive is across Camp Pendelton (USMC) - very large mostly open area the Marines use for training (actually it is quite nice - miles of open land with wild flowers certain times of year!). The I-5 freeway follows the coastline south, along with a commuter/freight rail line. Metrolink and Amtrak are the main commuter lines that utilize this corridor - and they connect with the Coaster line when in San Diego.
Well, I see these trains often - fairly streamlined locomotive (MP36PH-3c / MPI MPXpress) with 4 or 5 bi-level coaches (double-decker passenger cars) made by Bombardier... I have mentally noted that they run about 80 mph most of the time. ...wellllll... the other night I was pacing one Metrolink train heading south along the I-5 on the above mentioned route and noted it was really book'n!!! So, sacrificing a bit of fuel economy in my Prius I sped up to try and pace the train. We evened up at 94 mph!!! It maintained that speed for many miles until we reached the first city on the south end of the base, Oceanside. When I broke away from it it was down to about 81 mph or so...
It's not exactly a bullet train or a mag-lev, but it was simply faster than I thought it would be :-)
I wish I could use it to go to my work, in case you were wondering, but it doesn't work out - I've looked into it. :-(
