Japan to Launch Maglev Trains by 2025

SpeedyTrain writes with a link to a story on the Mainichi Daily News site about the future of mass transit in Japan. Despite problems with Maglev technology in test-bed scenarios around the world, Japan has committed to building a line between Tokyo and Nagoya by 2025. The experimental system will allow trains to run at up to 310 miles an hour. "The new magnetically levitated, or "maglev," trains would slash the 100-minute travel time down the country's busiest transportation corridor and are envisioned as a successor for Japan's iconic bullet trains, or shinkansen, first introduced to the world in 1964 ... [a] spokeswoman declined to give an estimate for the cost of linking the capital with the Nagoya area about 269 kilometers (168 miles) to the west. But Kyodo News agency said the whole project would cost about 9 trillion yen (US$76.3 billion) and be divided between the company and the central and local governments."

Comments

Re:They plan to launch trains now from Japan?

[Tofystedeth]

How many passengers per car? Having seen the way the crowd Japanese trains the answer to that is quite a lot. At least the don't have to worry about securing all that mass for freefall. They can't move anyway.

Re:launchED, as in past tense.

[njh]

Impressive that you can get from Shanghai, China, to Japan in just 19 miles. Just shows the world is getting smaller all the time!

Share costs with physics researchers?

[pioneerX]

The track should be routed via Shizuoka and Nagano so it can double as a high-energy collider. Though probably not at the same time.