"Central Japan Railway (JR Central), which owns the trains, wants to introduce the service between Tokyo and the central city of Nagoya by 2027."

this should be fast enough to escape Godzilla





http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32391020

Wouldn't want to be a bird that hits the windscreen of that one

It would be interesting to know the economics behind such a transit system. Obviously that train represents the pinnacle of technology so I would think the tickets would be pretty pricey unless the government is subsidizing a large part of the cost.

Sure, what could possibly go wrong?

I heard on the radio recently comments from a British behavioral economist who works in the ad business. He has been somewhat vocal against the 80 billion pound proposed high speed line between London and Birmingham. His point was that so much money to shave an hour or two of travel time is a huge waste that will never be recouped either directly or as a social good. Less money spent making the trains more comfortable and enjoyable and with high speed internet is a better solution for both the taxpayer and the traveler. But since I am not a British (or Japanese) taxpayer I say keep making 'em faster. I've ridden the Shinkansen several times and the TGV once. As a professional air traveler I say, TRAINS RULE!

The passing of trains removed the location of some excellent opportunities for Bond film fight scenes.



The Jedi Master

WRT Britain, making the trains not derail, and being on time, would add infinitely more value than increasing speed. Likewise, making the trains more comfortable is probably also a big plus. But that requires a culture change in the rail companies whereas a faster train is primarily and engineering problem, and more prestigious.

Maglev trains... they're kinda neat, but may actually react dramatically less benign to power loss than a normal train, particularly if only half of the power goes (e.g. the magnetic field on the left side of the train track). This would create a huge friction imbalance with a ... uh ... resulting torque that might more or less instantaneously disintegrate the whole train, at top speed. Far more dramatic than derailing. As long as everything works maglev trains and airplanes are wonderful methods of transportation (come to think of it, submarines and spacecraft also fall into that category). But they tend to be more problematic than other technologies if something goes wrong.

The Japanese Maglev version does have additional wheels for slow speeds. So Ssnake's scenario would not really affect that version.

For some reason I'd rather go 312 than 313. Too bad it can't go 314. I'd feel better.

I am afraid that we will read about a failure. And at that speed it will be bad.

All maglev trains do, but still the friction of wheels is much higher than that of the magnetic field, so a one-sided levitation failure at high speed is still a very critical event. To the best of my knowledge no maglev manufacturer has actually tested the safety against this type of disaster, and for a reason. Levitation failure at top speed will be disastrous.

In a country which just might have the highest frequency of
earthquakes on earth - if you've been there two weeks and haven't
felt a tremor, you aren't paying attention.

List of this week's quakes:
http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/quake_local_index.html

603 km without being in the air seems like not the best idea....

However, a lot of pluses in dense population areas for really fast trains. But how fast is to fast?

They do? I sometimes take the SH maglev and you can actually feel the units being lifted a centimeter or two before it departs.
For the rest it's a very fast, very uneventful trip - seven and a half minutes and we're there, 30 kilometers from where we started. But I've never felt it use wheels.

thats different though, the main arguments against it are that it'll only be used by a (very) select few, and they want to dig through an area of outstanding national beauty (where common joe cant get their roof re-tiled without a lengthy planning fight), with compulsory purchases of houses, and that the billions they want to spend on it would be far better spent getting the current stuff up to even a half decent standard or spent improving truly god awful roads.

The thing that impresses me about japanese train services is that it always seems to be immaculate, on time and efficient, how the heck they do it i have no idea, but if anyone can do high speed rail .. its them!

I'm with Legend on this one.
The Shanghai maglev is totally unenventful, but very fast. Love the turns with a gentle roll to keep you comfy in your seat.
Not a single bump, and so never expected it to have wheels.

Cheers,
Slug

Considering how many die when a train going a fraction of that speed derails, I don't really think it can be worse.



The Jedi Master

and look on the bright side, at least the end would be quick!

(o come on it had to be said!

If anyone whats to build their own maglev, http://students.iitk.ac.in/projects/eclub_maglev

Also includes Working of MAGLEV: General Description in which it states the Japanese system, EDS, is safer than the German system, EMS.