High Speed Trains

It's been a number of years since I regularly rode the G's - what are they like now? Particularly, what about late night services?

Back when they started a line around here, the trains were kind of exclusive, and I'd ride in the mornings and the afternoons. By around the time I stopped needing to travel to other cities regularly the trains were getting a bit funky. They still bore the iPad crowd to their destinations, but there were other kinds of passengers too, less family oriented, not so rich of dress, and the spitting had begun.

Another question:

Is this still a good schedule checker:

http://www.cnvol.com/


Reason for asking:

I'm considering allowing the last leg of an international journey back to China be a 30-minute high speed train ride at about 10 o'clock at night. A super-duper result would be to discover it's easy to get nighttime tickets at the last minute, and the trains are safe and friendly.

Alternatively, how's this one?:

http://www.chinatrainguide.com/

China travel guide is good. They have an app too with all the train and how many seats available and such.

And honestly I've been using a lot of high-speed trains and they are safe and clean and friendly and whatever. The trains stations (or high speed terminals) are all relatively new so they are shiny and clean. I've never bought tickets late at night though.