Railways were the first form of rapid land transportation and had an effective monopoly on passenger traffic until the development of the motor car and airliners in the early-mid 20th century.
Speed had always been an important factor for railroads and they constantly tried to achieve higher speeds and decrease journey times. Rail transportation in the late 19th Century was not much slower than non-high-speed trains today and many railroads regularly operated relatively fast express trains which averaged speeds of around 100 km/h (62 mph). High-speed rail is a type of rail transport that operates significantly faster than traditional rail traffic, using an integrated system of specialized rolling stock and dedicated tracks. The first such system began operations in Japan in 1964 and was widely known as the bullet train.

In the present book, fifteen typical literatures about High-speed Railway published on international authoritative journals were selected to introduce the worldwide newest progress, which contains reviews or original researches on transportation system, technology, ect. We hope this book can demonstrate advances in High-speed Railway as well as give references to the researchers, students and other related people.