China operates the world's only commercial maglev train. It connects Shanghai Airport and the city center, and reaches top speeds of 430 km/h. China is also testing a near-vacuum-tube train which claims it may achieve speeds of up to 1,000 km/h in the future.
Interestingly this project aims to demonstrate 800 km/h later in 2025. That speed is almost as fast as the cruising speed of commercial airliners.
Will it need special rail tracks? This is the Japanese test maglev train passing people at 500 km/hr.
400 mph in 7 seconds: China’s maglev breaks speed barriers with new record
China’s maglev research program says it has achieved the highest speed ever for a maglev train – 650 km/h (about 404 mph) – beating the previous Japanese record by 47 km/h.
byu/lughnasadh inFuturology
4 Comments
“It connects Shanghai Airport and the city center”
It actually doesn’t even do that, it connects the airport and a station on the outskirts of the centre. It’s a vanity project that has never been profitable and is nearly a quarter of a century old.
Faster Maglevs don’t solve the economics – the cost to build a mile of the track and then operate a mile of the track are too much – way more than other high speed rail alternatives. The Brits had the tech in the 1970s and it’s gone nowhere since because the numbers don’t stack up.
Fun follow-up fact – Hyperloop was supposed to be a Maglev in a vacuum tube. So even more cost and complexity – no wonder it went nowhere….
Highly doubt China will deploy Maglev nation wide, so to me this is no more than “we cannot let the Japanese hold the record”.
Shanghai Maglev is cool only because it’s the only operational high speed Maglev (also the fastest rail) a regular person can ride on. I do recommend it if you got a chance. But they had it before they started building their national high speed rail network, and it is very likely they evaluated Maglev vs conventional based on experience from this line. So it’s clear they decided Maglev is not the optimal choice for a nation wide network.
I just want to say that if you consier a single proton to be a train then we have had trains going near light speed for decades by now. They can only carry their own ass and nothing else but they are trains if you subscribe to less orthodox definition.
Japanese record was achieve using a train which could actually carry people or cargo on-board while this is basically a magnetic brick in a tunnel.
Edit: Also Shanghai maglev has been permanently limited to 300 km/h for some time already.
That’s cool. But the previous record is from like the 80s, no? I don’t think Japan has been very active in trying to maintain their maglev supremacy. You know, the thing that they invented.
Still cool! Would love to see more trains like this. Trains are the bees knees!