- The Japan Railway Group has come up with a train that can cruise at 311 mph.
- The Japan Railway Group began construction on the new line for the trains in 2014, and they’ll start ferrying commuters in 2027.
- The cost of the endeavor will be $50.5 billion.
Commuting can be the worst. Commuting on a maglev bullet train, known in Japan as shinkansen, that can reach speeds of 375 mph? Well that’s definitely better. And a train that can do that is coming to carry passengers between Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan, starting only seven years from now.
The shinkansen train uses superconducting maglev (short for magnetic levitation) to achieve these incredible speeds. As the train leaves the station, it’s rolling on wheels. But as it speeds up, the wheels retract, and the power of magnets allows the vehicle to hover four inches above the ground.
The superfast train headed into production is the Japan Railway Group’s Series L0 maglev train, which hit a record-setting 375 mph in 2015. It will first cover the 178-mile route between Tokyo and Nagoya. A route to Osaka, nearly 100 miles farther, will be completed in 2037.
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Adding the train to the company’s existing network, which is known as the Linear Project, won’t be cheap. In addition to the actual vehicle, the group will have to build a new route between Tokyo and Nagoya, of which 87 percent will be underground due to seismic activity in the area. Just that section will cost $50.5 billion and take seven years to complete. When done, the train will travel between the two cities in just 40 minutes, cruising at a comfortable 311 mph.
That’s a bit short of the blistering 375-mph top speed the train is capable of achieving. But if you’re cruising four inches above the ground at more than 300 miles an hour, you might not want your train to be running at 10/10.
Source: Motor - aranddriver.com
