Japanese Maglev Train Hits 500kph

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Japanese Maglev Train Hits 500kph

Posted by timothy on Saturday November 15, 2014 @05:15AM from the for-amtrak-that-takes-negligence dept.

An anonymous reader writes Japan has now put 100 passengers on a Maglev train doing over 500kph. That's well over twice as fast as the fastest U.S. train can manage, and that only manages 240kph on small sections of its route. The Japanese Shinkansen is now running over 7 times times as fast as the average U.S. express passenger train. 500kph is moving towards the average speed of an airliner. Add the convenience of no boarding issues, and city-centre to city-centre travel, and the case for trains as mass-transport begins to look stronger.

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Please wait here. by fahrbot-bot · 2014-11-15 05:20 · Score: 4, Funny

Japan has now put 100 passengers on a Maglev train doing over 500kph.
Were they volunteers?

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1. Re:Please wait here. by green1 · 2014-11-15 05:33 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  You think the Japanese drove individual cars to the station? That's actually rather funny... Everyone driving their own car everywhere they go is not the culture in Japan (nor would it be even remotely practical with their population density in their major centres)
  I'll agree that the train was likely quite safe though.
2. Re:Please wait here. by Blaskowicz · 2014-11-15 06:15 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Indeed they probably take a train to go to the train station :-)
3. Re:Please wait here. by AmiMoJo · 2014-11-15 07:08 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  The station is actually quite remote. I went there and rode this train at 500kph a couple of years ago (they recently opened a new part of the track, doubling it's length, but you have been able to ride it for years) and it's out in the mountains. You can drive there but by far the best way is to get the train to a near-by town and then take the bus or a taxi to the station.
  It's an incredible machine. So smooth and quiet, and faster than you can ever imagine going. Sure, aircraft travel faster, but only when they are 10,000 metres off the ground, so the experience of doing over 500kph with scenery wizzing past at eye level is quite unique.
  They intend to start operation at 550 kph but then raise it up to around 900 kph over time. Much of the track is built in very long tunnels under mountains to make the route more direct and to prevent noise pollution. The current trains are limited to 320 kph because of the noise they make when exiting tunnels, even though they are capable of at least 360 kph.
  
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how much does that cost to build? by Joe_Dragon · 2014-11-15 05:22 · Score: 4, Interesting

how much does that cost to build?
U.S. express passenger train run over old rails / rail lines.
1. Re:how much does that cost to build? by Jack9 · 2014-11-15 06:05 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  > money is not an issue when transportation of people is the matter.
  How do you come to that nonsensical conclusion?
  http://calwatchdog.com/2012/07..., I think we all remember the bridges to nowhere 10 years back, etc.
  
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2. Re:how much does that cost to build? by Opportunist · 2014-11-15 06:33 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  What? People working together to build something they all benefit from instead of everyone trying to rip everyone else off?
  THAT'S COMMUNISM!
  
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510kph is airliner speed? by exabrial · 2014-11-15 05:23 · Score: 5, Informative

Not to be "that guy" but I thought airliners cruised about 600ish mph... which is about 1000kph.
1. Re:510kph is airliner speed? by itsenrique · 2014-11-15 05:35 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Thanks for pointing that out. However, considering the amount of time it takes to board/de-board a plane, the exact speed isn't as important as the total time spent between leaving your door, and arriving at your destination.
2. Re:510kph is airliner speed? by fnj · 2014-11-15 05:56 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  777 cruise speed is 900 km/h, but the actual average speed from embarking to debarking - "block speed" - which includes loading, waiting for takeoff clearance, taxiing, takeoff, climbout, a percentage of adverse winds during cruise, waiting for landing clearance, landing, taxiing, and unloading - is a good deal lower.
  A block speed of 700 km/h, particularly over routes that are not very long, and match train route lengths, would not be too far off the mark. That's a lot closer to a train with a block speed not far short of 500 km/h, than is a naive comparison of 500 km/h to 1000 km/h.
  A train's block speed is also less than its "cruising" speed, but many of the factors that work against airliners are either absent or of reduced magnitude.
3. Re:510kph is airliner speed? by ilguido · 2014-11-15 07:13 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Perhaps because the Hokkaido Shinkansen will open in 2016.
kph? by manu0601 · 2014-11-15 05:24 · Score: 4, Informative

It is nice to pick international system units, however it would be better to do it right. This should be km/h, not kph.
Meanwhile in America.... by Lumpy · 2014-11-15 05:47 · Score: 5, Interesting

A train ride from Chicago to Atlanta takes 3 days and goes from Chicago to washington DC and then to atlanta to and costs as much as flying directly there in 2 hours.

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Re:240km/hr? by Anonymous Coward · 2014-11-15 05:48 · Score: 5, Informative

Comparing average densities is absolutely and utterly pointless. Noone suggests to build a Lincoln-Cheyenne maglev train. What about looking at dense regions rather? The US North-East megalopolis has a density of 359.6 people/km with over 50 million inhabitants total. More than dense enough for a maglev. Or even just conventional high speed trains.
Better than cars by Etherwalk · 2014-11-15 06:23 · Score: 4, Insightful

> But, I ask, what is the point of a slow passenger train for commuting?
Two points--
(1) it reduces traffic congestion
(2) it still may be faster than driving.
If everyone who tooks trains into NY drove, we wouldn't have needed a large hadron collider. The Cross Bronx would have collapsed into a black hole.
The problem at this point is building trains, not that trains don't make sense. It's politically sensitive to expropriate property.
Re:stupid germans by PolygamousRanchKid+ · 2014-11-15 06:25 · Score: 4, Interesting

will the stupid germans pick up their transrapid stuff where they left it now ?
Actually, the cruel joke here is that the German rail drivers have been striking now. Which is an important lesson . . . if a train *can* go that fast . . . it doesn't mean anything if something else prevents it from doing that.
Also, serious info for serious Slashdotters here . . . the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, has a PhD in Physics. Can any other country boast a top political leader who has a STEM leader . . . ?
She has a tough job . . . a scientist turned politician! But that is the message here . . . it is not about technology, but politics.

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Re:stupid germans by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · 2014-11-15 07:34 · Score: 5, Interesting

Also, serious info for serious Slashdotters here . . . the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, has a PhD in Physics. Can any other country boast a top political leader who has a STEM leader . . . ?
Not the leader of our government, but my local MP in the England is one of the very few current ones who has a science-related PhD.
Other MPs have openly mocked him in Parliament at various times for doing things like talking intelligently, raising valid concerns about something, or making arguments based on dumb stuff like facts and evidence.
Whether or not anyone agrees with this MP's political views, it's a pretty poor reflection on the calibre of colleagues he has to "debate" with.

She has a tough job . . . a scientist turned politician! But that is the message here . . . it is not about technology, but politics.
Sad, but apparently true.

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Re:$62,000 per person, $156,000 per family by drinkypoo · 2014-11-15 07:55 · Score: 5, Insightful

Just at the federal level alone (think just the interstate highways), along with any taxes you're paying, we're incurring $10,000 per person of debt each year.
Well, you may think about the interstate highways, and yeah I do that occasionally too, but I more commonly think about bank bailouts or dropping bombs on brown people as places where the money goes.

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Re:stupid germans by risom · 2014-11-15 07:58 · Score: 4, Insightful

Can any other country boast a top political leader who has a STEM leader . . . ?
Sure: China. Practically everyone on the top for the last 5 decades was a STEM person.
Re: Is it wrong to wish for it to crash? by radarskiy · 2014-11-15 09:03 · Score: 4, Informative

"If one of these things crashes at full speed, it is unlikely that anyone survives"
Why do you think this?
Crashes at up to 300kph in Japan and France have resulted in 0 fatalities. The worst "high-speed" crash was Eschede with a 50% fatality rate at "only" 200 kph because it went sideways into a bridge piling after derailing onto both sides of the switch and the bridge collapsed on top of it. As sxpert notes, for that to happen with this track design would require also lifting the train several feet to get it out of its trench before you could get it turned far enough to take out a bridge. The proximate failure at Eschede, where snagging the points resulted in the leading and trailing trucks of a car to leave a switch on separate tracks, is physically impossible with this maglev's track design..