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Yep, Japan now has a passenger train that can run as fast as their WW2 Zeros!

 

No Steam, no Diesel, no Gasoline...just Alternating Current feeding the stationary trackside electromagnets. 

 

They made that technology work...maybe our engineers should eat Sushi and drink Sake!

 

RipTrack

 

 

 

 

I can't wait until 2027! I just came back from a Business Trip in Japan and I took the Hikari which is the faster of the Shinkensen Bullet Trains (approx. 186mph) from Tokyo to Toyohashi. So the new line to Nagoya is close to Toyohashi. Either way it sure beats sitting in a coach seat for 14 hours in a Boeing 777-200! Darn they made the padding in those seats almost non existent!

http://abcnews.go.com/Technolo...ph/story?id=30471250

 

Why are other nations so far ahead of us in transportation?  We are third world transporters (h***, we have to license other counties technologies and plead to have them build it here just to create blue collar jobs for a few years.)  And we are wowed when AmWreck stays on the NEC rails at 100+MPH. 

 

When we want to try new transportation technologies, the nay-Sayers, NIBYs, greenies, and environmentalist wonks crawl out of the woodwork.  Imagine building the 1864 transcontinental RR today (would be multimillioned dollar studied and legislated to death without a spike ever driven against a rail.)

 

Biggest reason in my mind, dumb*** weenie politician corporate lapdogs. Imagine JFK trying to get this 375MPH technology done today in US (the moon landings for you youngsters born after the 60s), he would be laughed out of the House and Senate as wrong headed, and maybe impeached for insanity.

 

Jaded much, you betcha.  Climbing off my soapbox.

I'm guessing that this would absolutely require a dedicated ROW...hopefully rather elevated with zero chance of a motor vehicle confrontation.  I personally think this would be pretty cool, as the area on either side of the dedicated ROW could be used to develop some serious high speed freight lines.  Of course this would cost zillions...so most us will continue to take the bus!

Originally Posted by jaygee:

I'm guessing that this would absolutely require a dedicated ROW...hopefully rather elevated with zero chance of a motor vehicle confrontation.  I personally think this would be pretty cool, as the area on either side of the dedicated ROW could be used to develop some serious high speed freight lines.  Of course this would cost zillions...so most us will continue to take the bus!

It will definitely be a dedicated right of way just like the Tokaido Shinkansen. The Magllev line will mostly be tunnels. Japan is a totally different environment. Relatively little freight goes by train.  The biggest share is by ship.

 

Here's a JR Central Visitors Guide to the existing Tokaido Shinkansen.  It includes several pages on the Chuo Maglev project.

Now they just need to increase the power, shorten the train, run a maglev line up the side of Mt. Fuji, cut the rail just past the summit, and we'll finally have an economical way to send people into low Earth orbit. Getting them down on the other hand might be kinetically severe and final for any passengers that managed to hold their breath long enough to worry about it.

All joking aside, it really is pretty impressive stuff. And for a nation the size of Japan it makes sense for commuting.

Stateside, however, it makes more sense to me to focus on what is considerably more profitable by finding ways to move freight and merchandise  in the most efficient way possible.
Last edited by WITZ 41

The TGV train that broke the 357.2 mph land record in 2007 was not a standard configuration train nor did they run it on tracks open to other trains. The train was specially modified with openings of the leading power unit pantograph closed to reduce drag, there were more powered axles than conventional TGV duplex trains, fewer carriages than regular Duplex, centenary wire tension was higher, voltages were higher, track segment where the record was broken was slightly downhill & the route was just completed but not yet open to regular train service.

These are just my opinion,

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

 
Originally Posted by PGentieu:

The TGV speed record is 357 mph.  So maglev has gone 20 mph faster but cannot run on conventional tracks to reach non-high-speed parts of the rail network like the TGV does. And there are other trade-offs that make me wonder if maglev can be cost effective versus TGV, ICE, and even Japan's own Shinkansen/bullet trains. 

 

My buddy Rich has an Alco RS1 with a straight six turbo Diesel in 12" to the foot. She coughs, sputters, chortles, and chirps with the best of 'em.  She can haul two coaches at fifty MPH, going downhill, with a tail wind and a good grease job.   However, unlike the mega-chooches catologued above, a thousand years from now, she'll still be operable. Huzzah ! 

Originally Posted by rrman:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technolo...ph/story?id=30471250

 

Why are other nations so far ahead of us in transportation?  We are third world transporters (h***, we have to license other counties technologies and plead to have them build it here just to create blue collar jobs for a few years.)  And we are wowed when AmWreck stays on the NEC rails at 100+MPH. 

 

When we want to try new transportation technologies, the nay-Sayers, NIBYs, greenies, and environmentalist wonks crawl out of the woodwork.  Imagine building the 1864 transcontinental RR today (would be multimillioned dollar studied and legislated to death without a spike ever driven against a rail.)

 

Biggest reason in my mind, dumb*** weenie politician corporate lapdogs. Imagine JFK trying to get this 375MPH technology done today in US (the moon landings for you youngsters born after the 60s), he would be laughed out of the House and Senate as wrong headed, and maybe impeached for insanity.

 

Jaded much, you betcha.  Climbing off my soapbox.

High speed trains are cool, but here in the states about as "cutting edge" as a high speed horse and buggy.

 

 

 In case you didn't notice....... planes go 500+ MPH and  haul thousands more passengers to more destinations than any train ever could.

 

"Third world transporters" Gimme a break

Last edited by RickO

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