ON BOARD TRAIN V150 (France): A French TGV train broke a world speed record on Tuesday as it hurtled down a newly built track at 574.8 kilometres per hour (357 mph) in the country's Champagne region.The special train called V150, an enhanced version of trains that will run on the Paris-Strasbourg line from June 10, has been preparing for the record run for weeks and it carried journalists and other guests for the official attempt.

From about 380 kph, vibrations in the train became more and more noticeable. At 490 kph passengers started to get slightly dizzy. At 540 kph it became difficult to remain standing up despite the stability of the train.

At 570 kph, the driver -- filmed on camera -- wore a very big smile. “We had no worries -- no birds, good weather, none of the troubles we had during the tests,” said driver Eric Pieczak.

The absolute speed record for trains was set by a 'maglev' train in Japan, at 581 kph in 2003. However, those trains do not run on rails but glide on a magnetic field.

The previous speed record for a train running on rails was 515.3 kph, set in France in 1990.—Reuters