The World's Most Expensive Restaurants

A new list from Zagat Survey calls London the most expensive city in the world in which to eat. But it has lots of company

The world has no shortage of big-ticket restaurants, and even if you've never set foot in one, you likely could rattle off those cities with the highest concentration of them: London, Tokyo, Paris, Vancouver—yes, Vancouver. Average per-person tabs in British Columbia's largest city might run $39, paltry compared with those in Osaka, Kobe, or Kyoto, where restaurant meals cost an average of $65, according to Zagat Survey. But the Canadian city rivals New York ($39) for the title of priciest dining capital in North America. And meals in Montreal cost an average of $1.71 more than in Los Angeles. Surprised? Click on for a look at some of the poshest eateries in the cities ranked by Zagat as the most expensive in the world to dine. All prices are per person.

Dining Prices Fit for a Queen

London's restaurants have become the most expensive in the world, outdoing Tokyo and Paris—and blowing past New York and L.A.

London has laid claim to the world's most expensive sandwich—Japanese Wagyu beef on sourdough for $172 at Selfridges—and the costliest single-ticket subway fare ($8), so perhaps it comes as no surprise that the British capital has now overtaken Tokyo as the world's most expensive city for dining out.

According to Zagat Survey, the revered guidebook publisher that ranks restaurants in 79 cities around the world based on diners' input, the average price of an evening meal in London has risen nearly 3% in the past year, topping $78 per person. Just behind the front-runner are Tokyo and Paris, where a meal will set you back $73 and $72, respectively.

"I always thought of Tokyo as being more expensive than anything in Europe," says Tim Zagat, publisher of the guides. Indeed, the Japanese capital ranked No. 1 last year, followed by London. And Tokyo still lays claim to one dubious distinction: The average price per person at its 20 most expensive restaurants handily outpaces London's, clocking in at an eye-popping $215, vs. $177 in the British capital. Paris' 20 most expensive restaurants fall in the middle, with an average tab of $205.

What about other European capitals, such as Rome, Stockholm, and notoriously expensive Moscow, which boasts the world's highest cost of living, according to Mercer Consulting (MMC)? Other than for London and Paris, Zagat does not calculate numerical averages for meal prices. Instead, it classifies restaurants on a four-point scale: inexpensive, moderate, expensive, and very expensive. By these rankings, London and Paris aren't the only places where you can drop serious cash for a good meal.

The Political Elite

By comparison, dining out in the U.S. seems cheap. New York averages more than $39 per person, up nearly $2 from last year, followed by Palm Beach ($38.56), Las Vegas, ($38.38) and the San Francisco Bay Area ($37.07).

Apparently, the political elite fork over $1.40 more per meal on average in the nation's capital than A-listers in Tinseltown: Washington ($34.69) sits proudly at No. 6 in the U.S. between Fort Lauderdale ($34.85) and Miami ($34.41). Chicago ($33.75) and Dallas ($33.36) come next in line, while Los Angeles rounds out the top 10 with an average tab of $33.29, some 10 cents less than the national average.

Americans thinking of crossing the northern border for a bargain might think twice. The average cost of a meal in Vancouver ($39) is just 3 cents less than the going rate in all of Long Island, and diners shell out more in Montreal ($35) than they do in Miami.

Zagat determines the rankings by asking restaurant-goers to estimate how much they pay for a meal with one drink. For the London figures, more than 5,300 Londoners shared their experiences of 705,000 restaurant meals they had in the past year at 1,119 establishments. The survey found that Londoners eat out on average 2.5 times per week, less often than residents of Tokyo (3.6), Paris (2.9), and New York (3.4).


London
Gordon Ramsay



The $224 seven-course dinner is the most expensive meal in town—and that's before factoring in drinks and the 12.5% gratuity. Samplings include roasted foie gras with white asparagus, pan-fried scallops with octopus and parmesan sauce, and roasted duck breast with rutabaga and honey. To cut costs, opt for the $173 three-course dinner, or, better yet, the $82 lunch.


Tokyo
Beige



Alain Ducasse's glamorous outpost on the top floor of the Chanel building in Tokyo's ritzy Ginza neighborhood serves up French cuisine with seasonal Japanese ingredients. Go to town with the $259 cep and matsutake mushroom menu, or be prudent and opt for the three- and four-course dinners—priced at $147 and $190, respectively. At the meal's end, diners receive chocolates in the shape of Chanel buttons.


Paris
Le Pre Catalan



Dishes start at $85, and desserts at $43, at this lavish restaurant in the heart of the Bois de Boulogne, a park on the western edge of Paris. For $255 including tax and service, diners can enjoy a seven-course meal including prawn ravioli in olive oil broth, veal paired with cinnamon-scented celery purée, and coffee with zabaglione and whipped ganache. Le Pré Catalan offers a five-course bargain during summer for $199 a pop.


Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto
Misoguigawa



"French food: It can be eaten with chopsticks," declares the Web site of this understated restaurant in a former teahouse in central Kyoto that has been serving French fare kaiseki style since 1981. The eight-course seasonal menu costs $162 with tax. Recent dishes have included mushroom consommé served inside a flaky pastry, vegetable and prawn mille-feuille, and filet of Wagyu beef. A more luxurious version costs $270 with tax and must be ordered at least five days in advance.


New York
Masa



Sushi-philes don't just flock here for a meal, they come for an experience. The restaurant advises diners to dress comfortably and to allot three hours for chef Masa Takayama's multicourse extravaganzas. The mood is so mellow and the food so divine that by the time the bill comes, you may be feeling too Zen to notice the $350 tab. For a real treat, splurge on a $400 carafe of rare Kikuhime sake or a $1,500 bottle of 1995 Château Margaux Bordeaux.


Vancouver
C



The $130 10-course tasting menu at this fish lover's paradise includes tuna tartare, smoked salmon, lavender-cured halibut, crab risotto, crispy trout, and, for die-hard carnivores, beef tenderloin. Tack on $70 for wine pairings, or choose the six-course version for $98. The decor includes two-story, floor-to-ceiling windows and a boulder from a local quarry that serves as the reception desk.


Palm Beach, Fla.
L'Escalier



This opulent restaurant at The Breakers hotel is the most chichi dining establishment in Palm Beach. The $95, "Sea and Mountain" five-course tasting menu includes fire-roasted baby octopus, rare blue fin tuna, and crispy striped bass. Tack on another $65 if you spring for the sommelier's wine pairing.


Las Vegas
Joel Robuchon



French chef extraordinaire Joël Robuchon opened his only two outposts in the U.S. in 2005 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. If you win big, why not shell out $360 at his eponymous restaurant for a 16-course tasting menu including sea urchin, coffee-flavored potato purée, and grilled Kobe beef? The $225 six-course menu includes veal chops, sea bass, and celeriac custard topped with truffle cream.


San Francisco Bay Area
The French Laundry



This Napa Valley culinary institution accepts reservations two months in advance, but it's well worth the wait according to the venerated Michelin Guide, which awarded the place three stars. Diners choose between the chef's nine-course tasting menu and a vegetarian version—both at $240 including gratuity—that change on a daily basis. Recent dishes include New Zealand venison with pomegranate kernels and French toast with hazelnut butter.


Montreal
Toque!



This lighthearted eatery in Old Montreal presents the best of Québecois ingredients: duck foie gras, meats, vegetables, and seafood. Try the roasted guinea fowl ($44), leg of suckling pig ($41), and the warm foie gras "à la Toqué!" ($26), or shell out $92 (or $147 with wine) for the seven-course seasonal menu. The presentations often outshine the bejeweled diners


Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Darrel & Oliver's Cafe Maxx



This restaurant was the first in Broward County to boast an open kitchen when it opened in 1984. But fish fans and meat lovers don't flock here for the decor. Try the balsamic glazed 12-ounce veal chop ($46) with horseradish roasted potatoes, spinach, and roma tomatoes, braised veal osso buco ($46) with saffron aroncinis and rosemary pecorino, and the Chilean sea bass ($40) with golden beet saffron puree, baby carrots, toasted orzo, and crispy leeks. Chef Oliver Saucy also teaches cooking classes here every month.


Washington, D.C.
Le Paradou



Chef Yannick Cam loves to cook fish and seafood at this French eatery, and diners can't seem to get enough of the roasted Maine lobster with ginger and grapefruit zest ($39). The tasting menus—$120 for six courses, $150 for nine, and $230 for the white truffle menu—change almost nightly depending on the season and Cam's whim. The $32 prix fixe lunch is practically a steal.


Miami
The Forge Restaurant



The Forge is known for its steaks, and the 33-ounce "Kobe Style Wagyu Tomahawk Cowboy Steak" may be worth every penny of the $98 diners fork over for it. The five dining rooms boast artwork and antiques dating as far back as the 17th century, and the 20-foot ceilings of the main salon support a crystal chandelier the size of a sports car. The wine cellar contains 300,000 vintages, including a 1792 Madeira and an 1822 Château Lafite Rothschild; the latter is valued at $150,000.

The World's Most Expensive Motorcycle

The Ecosse Titanium Series boasts a 200-horsepower, 2150cc polished billet aluminum v-twin engine and a $275,000 price tag

If you're the kinda person that drives a Reventon, won't tap on a laptop unless it's a Luvaglio, and only sails Mangusta, then boy have we got the motorcycle for you! It's called the Ecosse Titanium Series -- so called because it sports the world's first all-titanium frame. And from the 200-horsepower, 2150cc polished billet aluminum v-twin engine, to the MotoGP-spec Ohlins suspension, to the radially-mounted 6-piston billet ISR front brake calipers -- with an individual brake pad for each of the 12 pistons -- every detail screams "you can't afford me!" At USD$275,000 it's not cheap -- but it does come with a free watch.

While the eye-watering power and lush handling of the Ecosse Titanium Series will stir the soul, the multi-adjustable riding position and gel seat ensure it's still an absolute luxury experience for the extremities. The brainchild of Colorado native Donald Atchison, this bike has been sculpted from billet, titanium and carbon fiber to be simply the most lavish experience on two wheels, with everything in excess and no compromises to be seen.

While the overall picture of this muscular American roadster might be a little crowded for some, the individual details are just mouth-watering.

Take a closer look at the Ecosse Titanium Series over at

World's Biggest Airport

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Beijing’s new international terminal is the world’s largest and most advanced airport building - not only technologically, but also in terms of passenger experience, operational efficiency and sustainability. Completed as the gateway to the city for athletes participating in the twenty-ninth Olympiad, it is designed to be welcoming and uplifting. A symbol of place, its soaring aerodynamic roof and dragon-like form celebrate the thrill and poetry of flight and evoke traditional Chinese colours and symbols.

Located between the existing eastern runway and the future third runway, the terminal building and Ground Transportation Centre (GTC) enclose a floor area of 1.3 million square metres and will accommodate an estimated 50 million passengers per annum by 2020.

Although conceived on an unprecedented scale, the building’s design expands on the new airport paradigm created by Stansted and Chek Lap Kok. Designed for maximum flexibility to cope with the unpredictable nature of the aviation industry, like its predecessors, it aims to resolve the complexities of modern air travel, combining spatial clarity with high service standards.

Public transport connections are fully integrated, walking distances for passengers are short, with few level changes, and transfer times between flights are minimised. Like Chek Lap Kok, the terminal is open to views to the outside and planned under a single unifying roof canopy, whose linear skylights are both an aid to orientation and sources of daylight - the colour cast changing from red to yellow as passengers progress through the building.

The terminal building is one of the world’s most sustainable, incorporating a range of passive environmental design concepts, such as the south-east orientated skylights, which maximise heat gain from the early morning sun, and an integrated environment-control system that minimises energy consumption. In construction terms, its design optimised the performance of materials selected on the basis of local availability, functionality, application of local skills, and low cost procurement. Remarkably, it was designed and built in just four years.

The new terminal, almost 20-per-cent bigger than all five terminals of London's Heathrow Airport combined, features an ultra-modern baggage system and a Canadian-designed shuttle train to help people navigate its vast interior.

The $3.75-billion terminal, one of the most prestigious projects of the Olympic construction boom in Beijing, was built by 50,000 workers who toiled on shifts around the clock. It took only four years to finish the terminal, compared with 20 years for the fifth terminal at Heathrow.

As an interpretation of traditional chinese culture the roof of the airport has a dragon-like form. According to Norman Foster [...] this is a building borne of its context. It communicates a uniquely Chinese sense of place and will be a true gateway to the nation. This is expressed in its dragon-like form and the drama of the soaring roof that is a blaze of ‘traditional’ Chinese colours – imperial reds merge into golden yellows. As you proceed along the central axis, view of the red columns stretching ahead into the far distance evokes images of a Chinese temple.

Beijing, of course, benefited from the police-state powers of the Chinese government, which demolished 10 villages to make room for the new terminal.

The statistics of the new terminal are stunning. The building has 64 restaurants, 84 retail shops, 175 escalators, 173 elevators, 437 moving sidewalks, nearly 300 check-in counters, and a state-of-the-art baggage-handling system that can move 20,000 pieces of luggage at speeds of up to 10 metres a second on 50 kilometres of conveyor belts. The construction required 1.8 million cubic metres of concrete and 500,000 tonnes of steel.

China is planning to have 239 airports by 2020, with 13 of them expected to handle 30 million passengers a year.

Thirty years after economic reforms began, this country has built a series of superstructures that almost seem intended more for the Guinness Book of World Records than cityscapes.

China is home, for instance, to the world's largest shopping mall (the 650,000-square-meter, or seven-million-square-foot, South China Mall); the longest sea-crossing bridge (stretching 36 kilometers, or 22 miles, over part of the East China Sea); the largest hydroelectric dam (the massive Three Gorges project); and the highest railroad (an engineering marvel that crosses the Tibetan permafrost almost 5,000 meters above sea level).

Late last year, Beijing opened what may be the world's largest concert hall, the National Center for the Performing Arts, a $400 million opera house and theater facility twice as big as the Kennedy Center in Washington. Nicknamed The Egg, its titanium dome rises above a wide pool of water.


Beijing International Airport Project description

Located between the existing eastern runway and the future third runway, Terminal 3 and the Ground Transportation Centre (GTC) together enclose a floor area of approximately 1.3 million m2, mostly under one roof. The first building to break the one million square meter barrier, it will accommodate an estimated 50 million passengers per annum by 2020.

Although conceived on an unprecedented scale, the building’s design aims to resolve the complexities of modern air travel, combining spatial clarity with high service standards. It will be friendly and uplifting for the passenger as well as easy to navigate. Comprising three connected, light-filled volumes – T3A, B and C – the simple, symmetrical diagram fans out at either end to accommodate the arrivals and departure halls for T3A (processing terminal and domestic gates) and T3B (international gates). The satellite T3C (domestic gates) occupies the centre of the diagram. This arrangement is an efficient means of maximising the perimeter, so increasing the capacity for aircraft stands, while maintaining a highly compact and sustainable footprint.

Although the length from north to south is three and a quarter kilometres, the visual links between the three elements are maintained by strong sight lines as well as visual connections between the lower level and an open mezzanine level above. All spaces are naturally lit and the generous glazing and skylights maintain a link with the outside and its changing sky. Views along the central axis are marked by the distinctive red columns, which continue along the external edges of the building into the distance, evocative of traditional Chinese temples.

The embracing curved cantilever of the terminal greets passengers arriving by road or from the GTC in a single welcoming gesture. Departures and arrivals are on separate levels. The traditional airport diagram has been inverted at T3B, with arrivals on the upper level, to allow visitors to Beijing to experience the thrill of this dramatic space from the best vantage point.

The single unifying roof canopy is perforated with skylights to aid orientation and bring daylight deep into the building. The colour palette moves through 16 tones from red at the entrance at T3A through to orange and finally yellow at the far end of T3B. This establishes a subtle zoning system that breaks down the scale of the building and enables easy wayfinding. This palette is also applied north to south in the ceiling above the arrivals and departures halls, heightening the sense of curvature in the roof plane.

Connections between T3A and T3B take place on a high speed automated people mover (APM) which travels at up to 80kph, with a journey time of just two minutes. The APM is easily accessed from the main departure level and set within a landscaped ‘green’ cutting, exposed to daylight and views up and through the building, all of which helps to maintain a sense of orientation.

The roof is a steel space frame with triangular roof lights and coloured metal decking. It curves, rising at the midpoint to create a dramatic central cathedral-like space, and tapering towards the edges of the building to provide more intimate areas as passengers travel towards the gates and the aircraft piers. The trusses that support the glazing echo the changing colour system in the roof – shifting from red to orange to yellow. The high transparency of the curtain walling is made possible by extra large mullions, which are generously spaced to allow larger spans of suspended glazing.

The terminal building is one of the world’s most sustainable, incorporating a range of passive environmental design concepts, such as the south-east orientated skylights, which maximise heat gain from the early morning sun, and an integrated environment-control system that minimises energy consumption. Rather than the sprawl of many separate buildings, it uses less land by bringing everything closer together for ease of communication in one efficient structure, yet it is still 17% bigger than the combined floorspace of all of Heathrow’s terminals 1, 2, 3, 4 and the new Terminal 5. In construction terms, its design optimised the performance of materials selected on the basis of local availability, functionality, application of local skills, and low cost procurement.

Light-Bathed Roof

Terminal 3's curved roof contains thousands of skylights. Their orientation to the southeast is intended to maximize the heat gain from the early morning sun, helping to reduce the amount of energy expended by the structure for heating. The golden tint, meanwhile, is meant to evoke the colors of Beijing's Forbidden City, the Ming Dynasty-era imperial palace at the city's center.

Vast Capacity

T3 will in effect double the Beijing Capital International Airport's capacity. By 2015, officials expect the newly enlarged facility to accommodate some 580,000 flights a year, outpacing even Europe's busiest airport, London Heathrow, which churns through some 475,000 flights annually.

Check-In

Terminal 3's nearly 300 check-in desks should be able to process up to 7,000 international passengers per hour.

Cathedral Ceilings

The roof rises at its midpoint to create a dramatic cathedral-like space that has become common in other high-profile airport designs, from San Francisco to London. What separates Beijing's Terminal 3 from other mega-projects, however, is its sheer scale: the roof alone has an area of nearly 4 million square feet.

Baggage System

Despite the airport's scale-which includes 30 miles of high-speed conveyor belts-the estimated time for bags to reach carousels is just 10 minutes.

The World’s Ugliest Elections

Personal attacks and inaccurate accusations are flying as John McCain and Barack Obama “take the gloves off” in the home stretch of the U.S. presidential election, and Americans might have a hard time imagining that it could get any worse. But as voters in the following five countries can attest, it definitely can.

Nigeria

General Election, April 2007

The offenders: then President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and current President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua

How it got ugly: This comically flawed election dashed any hopes that Africa’s most populous country might lead the way for democratic reform throughout the region. President Obasanjo, thwarted in his desire for a third term by Nigeria’s Senate, spent his time feuding with his own vice president, Atiku Abubakar, who had presidential aspirations of his own. No longer on speaking terms, the two leaders relied on visiting journalists to hurl insults back and forth. “Tell the vice president he is a crook,” Obasanjo instructed a group of Western journalists. In response, Abubakar implored the reporters to tell the president, “I cannot guarantee you there will be peaceful elections.”

In the end, Obasanjo rigged the election to ensure the victory of his ally, Katsina state Governor Yar’Adua. Police officers were observed holding the ballot sheets of Nigerians as they made their selection, a practice officials referred to as “helping” the voters. “It’s not by any means a perfect election,” Obasanjo noted philosophically, “but there is no human arrangement you can describe as perfect until when we get to God and eternity.”

Worst of the worst: Why Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua (ie: A Pathological Liar, Hypocrite and Usurper) and the Satanic and Corrupt People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Must Go Now
—the title of a book published by the “Save Nigeria Campaign Organization,” an independent funding organization that supports a political party, the Action Congress



Russia

Presidential Election, March 2008

The offender: Liberal Democratic Party of Russia head Vladimir Zhirinovsky and a cast of minor-party provocateurs

How it got ugly: Dmitry Medvedev, outgoing President Vladimir Putin’s handpicked successor, coasted to victory in this race. Still, that didn’t stop the far right from launching bizarre anti-Semitic attacks against him for his alleged Jewish background. (Medvedev is Russian Orthodox.) “Medvedev never hid his sympathy towards Judaism,” complained Nikolai Bondarik of the fringe Russian Party.

Although Medvedev remained above the fray, an assortment of second-tier candidates spent their time squabbling among each other, threatening legal action and occasionally coming to blows. These included the eccentric ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the nearly unknown liberal Masonic Grand Master Andrei Bogdanov, and Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov. Zhirinovsky shot a cardboard cutout of Medvedev with a large-caliber rifle at a campaign rally, while Bogdanov stormed out of a televised debate after being unable to get a word in edgewise.

Worst of the worst: “He’s a scoundrel! Look at his face! The guy’s sick! A typical schizoid! Any psychiatrist will tell you the guy’s a wacko.”
—Zhirinovsky to Bogdanov’s campaign manager, Nikolai Gotsa, during a televised presidential debate on February 20. Zhirinovsky then pushed Gotsa offstage and ordered his bodyguard to take the man outside and shoot him.



Austria

Legislative Election, September 2008

The offenders: Heinz-Christian Strache’s Freedom Party of Austria

How it got ugly: Following the collapse of the “grand coalition” between the center-left Social Democratic Party and the center-right People’s Party, Austrians headed to the polls for a snap election. The result was a huge setback for both parties. The far right, comprised of Heinz-Christian Strache’s Freedom Party and the recently deceased Jörg Haider’s Alliance for the Future of Austria won a surprisingly high 30 percent of the vote.

Strache set a new low for a political scene where xenophobic and racist attacks are sadly not uncommon. He attacked the mainstream parties as “traitors” who “sold out” Austrians to foreigners. He accused the Social Democrats of making public housing easier to obtain for immigrants than native Austrians, saying, “If you want an apartment, all you need is to be wearing a headscarf.” Strache called for outlawing Islamic clothing in Austria, as well as a ban on the construction of minarets, and promised to prevent Austrian girls from being “fondled by hordes of immigrants.”

Worst of the worst: “Many decent people have come here and they integrated: Poles, Hungarians, Croats and also Serbs. We are all European brothers because we do not want to become Islamized.”
—Strache, at his final campaign rally in Vienna on September 26. He went on to complain of women in Islamic dress running around “like female ninjas.”



New Zealand

General Election, November 2008

The offenders: Third-party New Zealand First leader Winston Peters and some clever hackers

How it will get ugly: After governing New Zealand since 1999, the Labour Party faces high odds in its attempt to win its fourth consecutive election victory. The center-right National Party has consistently posted double-digit leads in the polls. The prospect of a transfer of power has contributed to an uncharacteristically bitter campaign. Third-party politicians, whose support is usually required to form a governing coalition, have been responsible for much of the campaign’s vitriol.

Winston Peters has attacked both sides, claiming that the Labour government’s free trade agreement with China had gone “as sour as the milk in their baby-food products” and referring to former investment banker and National Party leader John Key as a “greedy merchant banker.” New Zealand’s true innovation in mudslinging, however, has been electronic.

Worst of the worst: Thanks to a “Google bombing” campaign by Labour Party supporters, a Web search on google.co.nz for the word “clueless” returns John Key’s Web site as the top result. National Party supporters retaliated, causing a search for “Labour-funded lackeys” to turn up a link to a pro-Labour newspaper.



Taiwan

Presidential Election, March 2008

The offenders: The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the opposition Kuomintang (KMT)

How it got ugly: Taiwanese campaigning has historically had the feel of a barroom brawl. When then President Chen Shui-bian of the DPP was shot at a campaign rally prior to the previous election, opposition partisans accused him of orchestrating the shooting to drum up sympathy. A week before the 2008 election, the KMT was on guard for a similar stunt, with party chairman Wu Po-hsiung warning that “the number of dirty tricks that the DPP may resort to exceeds four or five hundred.”

Indeed, DPP aides tried to smear KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou as a “mainlander,” due to his birth in Hong Kong, and alleged that the Chinese government had arranged for discounted airfare for China-based Taiwanese business executives wanting to return to vote for Ma. A DPP activist also accused Ma’s wife of stealing newspapers from Harvard University’s library while she was a student there. The smear campaign did not pay off this time, as the KMT went on to regain the presidency in a landslide.

Worst of the worst: At a DPP rally on March 15, former chief secretary of the Ministry of Education, Chuang Kuo-rong, began ranting that Ma’s father had several affairs and had “screwed” his adopted daughter.

The World's Fastest Trains in Sort Period Test Record

Want to get from Paris to London in just over two hours? How about Barcelona to Madrid in two and a half?

Take the train.

As roads and airports get slower, trains are going ever faster. How fast? Think 125 mph (201.12 km/h) and up, according to the International Union of Railways. And more are on the way.

But the cost--say, $20 million a mile--makes adoption a pricey project.

Still, once they're in place, these trains exceed the speed of automobiles by two or three times. And while that can't compare with jet aircraft, the time spent traveling can be equal or less when you factor in the time going from city to city, especially when both are in the same region.

There are already significant high-speed corridors in France and Japan ready to serve customers. The dominant systems are the French Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV), the Japanese Shinkansen systems, the German Neubaustreke systems, and the Spanish National Railways (RENFE).

In Japan, the Shinkansen high-speed train corridor reaches from Fukuoka through the mainland, to Tokyo, and on as far north as Hachinohe. The Japanese have excelled in both standard multi-engine trains and shorter maglev (magnetic levitation and magnetic roll forward) trains. Their high-speed Shinkansen trains have become a world model. They travel at just below 200 mph (321 km/h). Each train of their 500 series cost $40 million. The Japanese tunnel through mountains rather than climbing grade, and it is a major cost factor. The Shinkansen system will be fully operational by 2009.

French travelers have many options with the country's TGV line out of Paris. The cost of construction is averaging $21.5 million a mile. It is minimized by using steeper grades rather than tunneling. France just grabbed the world record for standard-gauge rail trains with its TGV V150.

"This speed record represents a major technological and human achievement," said Anne-Marie Idrac, the CEO of SNCF, France's rail system. "The results of tests conducted aboard the V150 train set enable us to envisage a highly promising future in the domain of very high-speed rail transport."

Germany is also working to increase speeds with a series that they call Neubaustrecke (NBS) routes with new train cars. Technology company Siemens (nyse: SI - news - people ) is helping with both the cars and the signaling and control systems.

And in Spain, RENFE is planning a Barcelona-to-Madrid run that will, when it opens, accomplish the trip of 375 miles (603 km) in two-and-a-half hours at a speed of up to 230 mph (370km/h), a quarter of the time it takes by car. A high-speed line already exists between Madrid and Seville using French-style trains. The Spanish government is serious about the project: It has allocated about $31 billion through this year for work on it. The majority of the work on these projects is divided between the Spanish Talgo/Bombardier consortium and Siemens.

Other European high-speed efforts include the Netherlands high-speed line between Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp. It is expected to begin operating this fall as well, after a long wait. The trip from Brussels to Amsterdam will only take one-and-a-half hours. Other systems exist in the U.K., with its Intercity lines, as well as Italy, Finland and Portugal.

The Japanese and European enthusiasm for high-speed trains has spread to China and Malaysia. A proposed train by YTL will link Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital. "What takes about four-and-a-half hours by road and 50 minutes by plane, you could do in less than 90 minutes by train," says Francis Yeoh, the chief executive officer of YTL. South Korea and Taiwan have already bought into their own high-speed system.

The car-dominated United States is a clear laggard. The only operational near-high-speed train is Amtrak's Acela Express. And it is hardly high-speed. On paper, it can go 150 mph (241 km/h), but it normally averages less than 60 mph (96.5 km/h) due to track limitations. A trip from Washington to Boston takes about six-and-a-half hours. That's about the speed of the now-historical New York-to-Chicago 20th Century Limited.

Still, maglev trains are being developed in Pittsburgh and Las Vegas. Atlanta is also proposing a maglev from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. San Diego is contemplating a $10 billion, 80-mile (128 km) run of maglev trains for airport transportation.

Also in California, a $40 billion high-speed corridor has been proposed from San Francisco to Los Angeles and San Diego. So far, $40 million has been spent on planning, and a $9.95 billion bond is up for approval this year. Political insiders say, however, that passage is unlikely.


This list combines standard-gauge and maglev trains. The trains listed don't include unmanned experiments such as a rocket sled that hit 6,453 mph (1,038 km/h) at Holloman Air Force Base in 2003. These trains are test runs moving toward scheduled service, and it is not to be expected that regular passenger runs will reach such speeds as 300 mph in the near future.

1. Japanese MLX01



A Japanese maglev Shinkansen train called MLX01 went 361 mph (581 km/h) in 2003. It broke its own 1990, 1997 and 1999 records in a slightly modified form.


2. French TGV



A TGV V150 train on a high-speed but standard track reached the amazing speed of 357.2 mph (574.8 km/h) in 2007. The train sported a 25,000-horsepower electric engine with overhead pantograph for cable power and three double-decker cars in its trip from Paris to Strasbourg.


3. Japanese MLX01



An earlier version of the maglev Shinkansen MLX01 achieved a speed of 320 mph (515 km/h) in 1990 that put the 300 mph (582.7 km/h) record in the shade.


4. German TR-07



A German maglev train out of Hamburg by the name of TR-07 reached a speed of 270.3 mph (434.9 km/h) in 1989. Its configuration was designed to help reduce its noise level.


5. Japanese MLU001



A Japanese maglev train, the MLU001, in 1987 went 248.9 mph (400.4 km/h). This was part of the beginning of the speed dominance soon to come of maglev trains.


6. French TGV



A French TGV train in 1981 broke records and reached a speed of 236 mph (380 km/h).

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World's Fastest Rail Train TGV 574,8 KPH -