Link: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/france_transport_rail

An experimental TGV train reached 574.8 kph on a specially prepared stretch of track east of Paris. The train was pimped out with with two supercharged locomotives and extra-large wheels. The record smashed the 515.3 kph set by a TGV in 1990. It also just missed the overall world train speed record of 581 kph reached in 2003 by a Japanese maglev train. Since the train will never actually operate with passengers at anything near this speed, the new record doesn't really amount to much. I would be curious to see how a souped-up Fastech 360Z Shinkansen train would fair in a similar speed test.

Here's a dramatic video by TGV to promote their new speed record