Here in the land of the Metroliner and the Coach Coast Starlight, it's easy to be jealous of all the national rail systems that leave Amtrak in the dust. Now Japan, already home to one of the world's most sophisticated networks, has given us something new to envy – a greener train that does 217 mph.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries is developing the "Environmentally Friendly Super Express Train" and says it will be Japan's fastest passenger train ever. It features an extremely light and aerodynamic profile and uses regenerative braking to capture kinetic energy that would otherwise be lost as heat. As a result, Kawasaki says, the efSET will be smoother, quieter and more energy efficient than many current trains.

Best of all, it'll be faster, too.

The train will strengthen a rail system that's already the envy of the world. Japan's Shinkansen bullet train can hit 186 mph crossing the 1,528 mile rail network that spans a country where fast trains are the norm. The country has tested conventional rail trains capable of 275 mph and maglevs that exceed

361 mph.

Kawasaki says the design of the efSET should be finished by 2010, at which point it will start building and selling the trains. It has big plans for the speed demon, too – it hopes to roll out 10,000 kilometers (about 6,200 miles) of high-speed railway around the world.

An efSET network in the United States would revolutionize train travel. A trip between Boston and New York would be cut to less than an hour. Los Angeles to San Francisco would take less than two hours and a run from Miami to Atlanta would be done in three hours and change.

Rendering by Kawaski Heavy Industries.