We rode the high-speed railway from Shanghai to Nanjing on Monday. It was great. We arrived at the train station at 1230, bought tickets for the first train to arrive at our destination (the Nanjing South Railway Station) by 1245, ate some lunch, went thru security at 1345, the train opened for boarding at 1400, left at 1405 with 1200 people on board with their luggage. 

The train travelled the 250km (155 mi) in abour 1:20 hr. The ride was so smooth that you could have set afull glass of water on the table in front of you, not a single drop would have sloshed out. They achieve this smoothness by constructing the roadbed upon an elevated, concrete platform, complete with ballast and ties. Kind of like building atop an elevared expressway.

Elevating the road means having no grade crossings. They have also devoted the tracks to high–speed rail, with a track for each direction. The road elevation of the road affords the passengers of a wonderful view of the landscape as they pass through.  The seats are wide, the aisle wider, and there is enough leg room for one passenger to leave their row without requiring the other passengers to also stand.

After returning to Shanghai to join our cruise group on Wednsday, we rode by bus to Nanjing on Friday. The contrast with the train could not be more clear.  Despite making 2 rest stops, and stopping to tour Suzhou the total driving time was 6 hours, and we werre quite fatigued.