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Maglev Train Exceeds 600km/h For World Record
nojayuk writes: An experimental Japanese magnetic levitation train has reached a speed of 603 km/h, breaking the world speed record the same train set last week of 590 km/h. "Central Japan Railway (JR Central), which owns the trains, wants to introduce the service between Tokyo and the central city of Nagoya by 2027.
The 280km journey would take only about 40 minutes, less than half the current time. However, passengers will not get to experience the maglev's record-breaking speeds because the company said its trains will operate at a maximum of 505km/h. In comparison, the fastest operating speed of a Japanese shinkansen, or "bullet train" is is 320km/h. ... Construction costs are estimated at nearly $100bn (£67bn) just for the stretch to Nagoya, with more than 80% of the route expected to go through costly tunnels, AFP news agency reports."
For 5% of the fuel cost? And no security theater? And no $100 taxi ride either way? I'll take it.
Liberty - Security - Laziness - Pick any two.
Not if you count the time getting through security. For me, this is one of the biggest comforts of riding a train. I use it for short city to city trips. Show up 20 minutes before scheduled departure to make sure you aren't late, walk on, walk off. Most train stations are in the middle of the city while airports tend to be on the edge of the city, which, depending on where you are going, can often add even more travel time to travelling by air. Also, sometimes minimal travel time isn't the biggest concern.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Obviously their real goal was to exceed 1 megafurlong per fornight (598.7 km/h).
So, less than one Iraq War then?
Sounds pretty good.
If you're putting 80% through tunnels, I'd wonder if it would almost make sense to make it 100% tunnels and have it in a vacuum. You could reach absurd speeds with such a design, though only if your stops are sufficiently distant (you would want a hub/spoke model).
Japan tends to be more sane about this sort of thing. Heck, they had someone nerve-gas their subway, but it's still the same as before. Here in the USA we'd have politicians demanding mandatory strip-searches on anyone trying to use mass transit faster than you can say TSA.
on a trip to Italy, from Rome to Naples (same distance as DC to Philadelphia). It took 1:10 from city center to city center, at a top speed of 295km/h. Amtrak's best trip over the same distance takes 1:40 and costs literally 4-8 times as much. There was no security theater - you could arrive two minutes before departure and run onto the platform and make the train. The seats were comfortable and roomy, and there was free wifi and charging stations at every seat.
I really don't see how anyone could choose driving/flight over this for short-to-medium range intercity trips. Unfortunately it looks like the US will never get a real high speed rail system, because the Republicans think all trains are an evil communist plot, while the Democrats insist on sending every infrastructure project to 10 years of environmental review dependency hell. Meanwhile every other developed country continues to overtake us in quality of life.
Also, Japan is the world leader in high speed rail. They can sell the technology all around the world. The UK's current high-ish speed rail is going to use Japanese trains, for example.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Live in NYC, and just got back from Tokyo.
The train system in the Northeast is a joke compared to anywhere in Europe and a hilarious joke compared to Japan.
The number of people traveling on all US flights in total is about 1.75 million daily. By contrast, the Tokyo subway system alone carries over 8 million passengers daily, while the greater Tokyo railway system carries 40 million passengers every day, using nearly 900 stations to embark and disembark. The simple fact is that there's no practical way to do any sort of security screening for mass transit on that scale anyhow, even had they wished to.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Not just city to city, but city center to city center. I can't tell you how frustrated I get when I take a 1.5 hour flight that requires 1.5 hours to get to the departure airport and 1.5 hours to get from the arrival airport to downtown.
Plus, on a train I don't feel like I'm being jammed into a can with a bunch of smelly sardines. Headroom is such a pleasure on a 4 hour trip. And any trip up to 4-5 hours is just as fast or faster done on a train.
Full disclosure: I grew up in a railroad family. My grandfather was an engineer and fireman (that's what they called the guys who originally shoveled coal into the boilers on the steam trains and then kept the diesel engines running, later) for the Rock Island and my dad was a machinist for the R.R. I have a full set of china from the dining car of the Golden Rocket and I'm drinking out of a heavy china mug from the original Golden Chief. I dig the railroad. My wife and I took our honeymoon on the trans-Canadian railroad in a luxurious railway cabin, and when you've had sex in a gently rocking sleeping car, the "mile-high club" doesn't really seem all that impressive.
You are welcome on my lawn.