No 8: ETR 500 Frecciarossa (Red Arrow) and ETR 575 AGV, Italy

Operating Speed: 186 mph

Record Speed: 211 mph (Red Arrow), 224 mph (AGV)

Launch Date: 2008 (Red Arrow), 2012 (AGV)

Italy offers two competing high-speed rail services - the public Red Arrow and the private Automotrice à Grande Vitesse (AGV) - on the same tracks.

NTV Italo high speed train leaves Rome's Tiburtina railway station, on the occasion of its inaugural trip to Naples, Friday, April 20, 2012. The service, which will run on Italy's existing rail network, will use 25 11-car AGV trains by French engineering company Alstom SA. [Photo/dfic.cn]