Train fans have experienced the speed of super-fast maglev trains, during test runs for members of the public in central Japan. One hundred passengers whizzed along a 42.8km (27 mile) route between the cities of Uenohara and Fuefuki, reaching speeds of up to 500km/h (311mph). The Central Japan Railway Company is running eight days of testing for the experimental maglev Shinkansen train on its test track in Yamanashi Prefecture.

French train conductors donned Google Glass on Thursday to check passengers tickets as part of an experiment in using the fancy bit of technology and it may be popping up again somewhere else soon.

A luxury train connecting the capitals of Hungary and Iran left Budapest for the first time on Wednesday, with 70 passengers set to cross the Balkans, the Bosphorus and Kurdistan on the way to Persia

The California Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal brought by opponents of the state’s controversial high-speed rail project, clearing a major hurdle to its construction.

The first train-based authors' residency program is preparing to leave the station. Amtrak has announced two dozen recipients of its residency awards, which will send writers on a long-distance trip where the romance of an aging transportation system with an illustrious history will hopefully inspire them to create beautiful, possibly train-related work. The list tends towards journalists and other nonfiction writers, but also includes novelists, playwrights, comic authors, and poets.

The U.S. Department of Transportation rolled out long-promised standards on Wednesday.

Next time, can be unlucky

At Asia's biggest rail cargo base in Chengdu in south-west China, the cranes are hard at work, swinging containers from trucks onto a freight train. The containers are filled with computers, clothes, even cars.

Japan is set to get a new luxury sleeper train with spacious modern cabins designed by Ken Okuyama, who’s best known for his work with Ferrari. The $50 million Cruise Train will run on both electric and non-electric rails and feature large glass-paneled windows, high ceilings and leather seating. Envisioned as the future of train travel in Japan, this designer creation won’t be for everyone: it’s got a max capacity of just 34 passengers.

As much as 1.6 trillion roubles - $46.7 billion - can be channeled into the railway upgrade by 2020, said Sergey Shatirov, deputy chairman of the Russian upper house committee on economic policy.

Author Jeremy Clay tells the story of the man who rode the trains, hoping for a disaster.

We're not sure anyone has ever published a book list that includes both Anna Karenina and The Little Engine That Could -- so this might be a first! Find recommended tales of travel by train.

Early on the morning of July 6, 2013, a runaway freight train derailed in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, setting off a series of massive explosions and inundating the town in flaming oil. The inferno destroyed the downtown area; 47 people died.

The locomotive was retired in December 1961, and is being taken to Cheyenne, Wyoming, for restoration, that is anticipated to take three to five years.

A passenger train derailed in western India on Sunday, killing at least 19 people and injuring more than 100, police said. The engine and four of the 20 coaches jumped the tracks near Roha station, 110 kilometers (70 miles) south of Mumbai, said police officer Ankush Shinde.

Railroads have seen a recent uptick in highway-rail crossing and trespassing fatalities. But the memories of the gruesome events don’t just haunt families and friends of victims, they stick with train engineers and conductors as well—sometimes for a lifetime.

About 30 yards from where I'm writing this is the Northern Transcon, one of two transcontinental routes operated by the BNSF Railway. Trains pass through at a rate of about two every three hours—up to several an hour occasionally—heading west into Portland, Ore. and east to Chicago and points between.

You might have heard of the Railway Food Market in Thailand but here’s another urban oddity to feast your eyes on. This is the main line railway that passes through the residential old quarter and commercial neighbourhoods of Hanoi, Vietnam. The trains pass through the heart of the city twice a day, just inches away from the doorsteps of residential buildings.

Siemens and US engine maker Cummins had been awarded a $226-million (162-million-euro) contract to build 32 diesel locomotives for the US market, the German industrial conglomerate announced Tuesday. The passenger locomotives would be delivered to five US states, including California, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri and Washington, which were developing high-speed rail routes with US rail operator Amtrak, Siemens said.

The Department of Transportation has outlined several steps aimed at improving the safety of crude oil in trains after a series of derailments.