A few years ago my wife and I went on holiday to Stockholm. Spent a week there and then took the "high speed train" down to Copenhagen. The trip was just over 400 miles long and took for-freaking-ever. I think it was over 7 hours, terminal to terminal, stopping in many, many small towns and villages. Whereas I don't know if they actually have "express" trains, but if they don't, it would have been quicker to go by mule or donkey. High speed (freight) trains are only high speed if they go non-stop, over fairly long distances, because otherwise they spend a lot of their time accelerating up to speed or decelerating down to a stop.

JJ