Maglev train hits over 370 mph

366 mph train? Nah. I'll take the bus.  

Sooooooo................no grade crossings then?

       
       


Not with Mag Lev. It doesn't work like that. Turn the magnet on and the offending cars and trucks fly off.

Since it "floats" above the "track" it's not actually a land vehicle!  More like a low-altitude airplane.

They broke their own record again - now it's OVER 373 MPH

 

http://news.yahoo.com/japans-m...ecord-060402921.html

 

Yikes! that's just a bit too fast. From what i read in the rest of the story, the train will be limited to only 313 mph once it goes into service in a couple of years.

 

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 read it was 377 MPH

Good gosh! When that thing arrives in the station, the passengers probably have to decompress, or get the bends!

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!

Wow - Future model railroaders will need a high speed camera just to see their trains.  It may go right through a wall if it derails on a curve.

 

Joe

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.

Would you be brave enough to ride it?

 

--Greg

Well, we ride in airplanes that go however fast, and we don't seem to worry (as long as the pilot doesn't lock the door and fly the plane into a mountain.)

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.

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. 

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.

Would you be brave enough to ride it?

--Greg

I would! I already rode the chunnel train from London to Paris and back. it's a NICE ride at 186 MPH!