The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© Japan Today/AFPMaglev train sets world record speed of 603 kms per hour
YAMANASHI©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.
© Japan Today/AFP
53 Comments
Login to comment
Thunderbird2
No driver? At over 600km/h? Eeeehhhhhhhh? I would hope that there would be failsafes built into it... and it travels in a reinforced clear tube to prevent it flying off at that speed.
smithinjapan
Yowza! That is FAST! I don't think we'll get much faster means of traveling distances on land short of teleportation.
CK of Australia/Fukuchiyama
603 KM per hour !! Japan really lead the way in train travel. As a world traveller Japan has the best most comfortable trains in the world I have ever been on. Anyone who disagrees should try the the trains in India,Italy or Australia. Also the ticket inspectors are the most polite. In Oz they carry a baton in Japan they give service with a smile. Congratulations JR.
ebisen
Thunderbird - what exactly can the driver do at 600 km/h? Also, do you really expect a clear plastic tube to be able to stop a 600 km/h train from flying off the tracks?
tempest_wing
Eh. Once the HyperLoop becomes viable, it will end up being faster than maglevs.
donkusai
I think they found with the French trains that, when they start getting up to these sorts of speed, the reaction time of drivers becomes irrelevant. If they saw anything, they'd be past it before they could really do anything, so driverless seems fair enough. Well done, JR Central.
JWithers
600km + with no driver??? Are they sure they got the recipe for disaster correct? Wouldn't want the passengers screaming for no reason at all.
No, there has to be a human hand in the cockpit. Lets think about this. Lets consider how fast Michael Schumacher's response time is. Yet some no name is gonna be in the cockpit at 600km. Impressive.
Jandworld
How many hours to go around the world? Or is it rather a marathon race?
UK9393
Had the joy of travelling on this 5 years ago, not at that velocity, but still, over 350 km / hr.
Wakarimasen
mag (lev) nificent. I would be fine with the "no driver" aspect of this. Often humans are the weakest link in transport systems (Germanwings being just the latest example).
Thunderbird2
I just don't want to have a machine being in sole control of my life. Maybe just paranoid.
Peeping_Tom
Waiting for the Japan bashers to claim that "China's" Maglev runs faster.
taiko666
Great achievement.
It's a typical story though. Maglev was invented and first deployed in the UK (as in fact, were trains in general), but now the UK doesn't even build toy trains any more.
Nessie
At 603km per hour, it would take 66 hours to circle the globe.
escape_artist
There are many better uses for the money being spent than this. What's the frickin' hurry, anyway?
FightingViking
Is it a bird ? Is it a "plane ? No ! It's SUPERTRAIN !
sensei258
I hope it has redundant safety and security measures. As for me, the only driverless train I care to use is Yokohama's Seaside Line. The train runs on rubber tires, and goes about as fast as a bicycle.
JonathanJo
Thunderbird2
Have you ever ridden an elevator? ;-)
Ghost rider
Amazingly this train technology has been invented and patented back in 1934 by a German.
Salsero
I get tired of all the Japan bragging by people who don't know what is going on in the world, which pretty much sums up the locals around me in Japan. A German-built maglev is the only one in use so far, and it went into use quite some time before a Japanese one ever will. Also, the French have the speed record of 575 km/h with a conventional train, and this record was set some time ago. Thus, 603 km/h with a maglev is not that impressive. Maglev technology and decades of work and that is the only edge that they can get on the French capabilities with a conventional train?
spahnmatthew
600km/hr....awesome.
kwatt
This train is almost airplane flying on ground. If something seriously wrong on rail or in train happened, it would be no doubt disastrous as same as airplane crash.
nath
Same as with the shinkansen.
kwatt
it seems that train should be slow and if u want to go fast, board airplane. No nice views through windows on maglev because of almost all tunnels it goes through.
Tahoochi
kwattApr. 21, 2015 - 09:30PM JST
Actually, and someone please correct me if I am wrong, but it takes about an hour to fly from Narita to Nagoya, so 40 minutes is faster than an airplane. This would definitely make life easier for those who travel between Tokyo and Nagoya. 40 minutes is unbelievable!
SamuraiBlue
And comes the fear mongers.
It's more hazardous talking on your mobile phone then riding the maglev. As for driverless system the speed is controlled via the electromagnetics in the guideway through a frequency inverter and has nothing to do with the trainset. The driver would be controlling it via wireless link which would be much more dangerous then a person at the control station with a wired link.
nath
This is a nice technological development and all but I hope it is priced competitively with the Chinese death traps countries inevitably purchase.
USNinJapan2
Salsero
The Shanghai Transrapid maglev at just 19 miles long isn't much more than an amusement park ride. It's consistently operated at a pathetic 20-30% capacity since opening and the fact that it runs at an average speed slower than the Shinkansens and that there are alternate transport methods that are more desirable (hence the low ridership) makes it rather pointless. As for TGV, if all you're comparing is speed between the TGV and Shinkansen services, then it's also a moot point, seeing as how sheer speed isn't what makes a rail service the best. Having traveled on both I would choose the Shinkansen over the TGV every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Apolitical
It's great people make such developments. Still, the cost of building and maintaining such a network is extremely high. Plus it's a kind of trip only the high class can afford. So I doubt average citizen can benefit from it.
Fadamor
So you don't own a smartphone, huh? :-D
603km/hr = 167.5 meters/second. For automobiles, the industry standard for calculating the time between recognizing a hazard and applying the brakes is 2.5 seconds. A highly alert driver can do it in less than a second, but an un-alerted driver takes around 2.5 seconds. Using the un-alerted driver value, the maglev train would travel 418.75 meters before a human would do anything to change the status of the train. Add to this however much distance is required for the train to avoid the hazard, and you basically are hoping the driver has the eyes of a raptor in order to see far enough ahead.
danalawton1@yahoo.com
At that speed you can forget about sightseeing unless you're going by a very large wide open space. Your best bet... video it on your phone and then play it back in slow motion.
Jeff Huffman
And there is a point to all this beyond just achieving remarkable speeds? What a waste of money.
Udondashi
This is not true. The Japan was the first country to have a commercial high-speed train and there are major differences between the German technology (EMS) and the Japanese technology used (EDS). Japan Railway is Developing this technology for decades and no one is discredit the pioneering of German engineering but it is very sad that some people still need paste the label on Japanese people are Cc.
Fadamor
I did that on a shinkansen last Fall. everything near the tracks was slanted because by the time the camera finished scanning one frame of the video, the object had traversed part of the frame. My cell phone apparently scans from the bottom to the top, because all the nearby objects were leaning to the left (the train was traveling in the direction to my right)
kickboard
I know right? Getting to my destination quicker on my business trips is just so inconvenient.
dcog9065
At those speeds, I'd be more concerned if there was a human behind the controls. All it takes is for that driver to be having a bad day before causing some very serious damage
Nessie
That's no way to talk about the LDP.
Brian Wheway
We done japan for being the leaders in the high teck rail, her in the UK were stuggeling to get a reliable service and up to 190 mph let alown 340 mph, come on Britan you must try harder
Michael Werker
I am happy to hear that progress is being made, but honestly I would rather see this technology connecting countries internationally than cities in a place that are not hard to get to as it is now.
Many people can't even afford Shinkansen tickets now, how is that going to end with this?
Jeff Huffman
kickboardAPR. 22, 2015 - 06:51AM JST And there is a point to all this beyond just achieving remarkable speeds? What a waste of money. I know right? Getting to my destination quicker on my business trips is just so inconvenient.
If you are talking Nagoya-Tokyo one hour, is going to make your business world that much better? This is a regular business trip for you? Doubtful.
How much more will it cost compared to the Shinkansen per trip?
It's not like this is a transition from diesel locomotion to high-speed trains. This is the same difference, really, between a conventional oven and a convection oven, with the same resulting increase in power consumption and infrastructure costing many times more by comparison.
JeffLee
I wonder how many people are routinely going on "business trips" in Japan? I never do anymore. We're using Skype conferences, teleconferences, etc. a lot more than before. Even in cases where it saves people the time of traveling across Tokyo!.
Given that, plus Japan's declining population, and the widespread concern about constraining costs in both the public and private sectors, you must wonder about the viability of a really expensive future Maglev network.
nath
A one hour journey to Nagoya would be beneficial to me. I could make visits to my client's offices in the morning, and be back to my own office in the afternoon. Currently a trip to Nagoya takes up my entire day.
And Skype (or whatever video conferencing), while great, is not the same as an in person meeting. Such video calls can be useful, but face-to-face meetings are essential at times.
Jeff Huffman
StrangerlandAPR. 23, 2015 - 08:08AM JST A one hour journey to Nagoya would be beneficial to me. I could make visits to my client's offices in the morning, and be back to my own office in the afternoon. Currently a trip to Nagoya takes up my entire day.
A business trip from Nagoya to Tokyo takes up your entire day? Are you travelling by car? Kanko bus? The megalev at 40 minutes is only projected to be a 1 hour faster between the two cities compared to Nozomi and 1 hour and 20 minutes by Hikari Shinkansen.
Time Table of SHINKANSEN(from TOKYO to NAGOYA)
Train No. Dep. Tim Arr. Time
Nozomi 1 6:00 7:38 Hikari 111 6:03 8:07
http://www.hepl.phys.nagoya-u.ac.jp/public/bcp4/shinkansen.html
nath
Two hours each way by Hikari. Add a couple hours at the clients office, then lunch, and that ends up being our entire day.
We could cut an hour or so off by using the Nozomi, but I'm not going going to spend the additional money to have my staff come in for that (or first) hour.
If it was an hour round trip on the other hand, it would be worth it. Two hours on the maglev, two hours at the clients offices, and lunch, still leaves 2-3 hours at the office. Not much more than traveling to Yokohama or elsewhere in Kanagawa.
JeffLee
@Strangerland
The Maglev's platforms are going to be 40 meters underground, so tack on an extra 20 minutes beyond the Shink time to your journey time.
And if your office happens to be in Shinagawa and your client's right outside Nagoya Station...great! Otherwise, like the vast majority of people, you'll need to factor in quite a bit more time. When I go to Shinagawa, my quickest approach is nearly always the Yamanote, an every stop line, and it takes quite a while.
For instance, the Skyliner to Narita is 36 minutes. But my actual journey from fairly central Tokyo is about an hour and a half. When the new trains and improvements shaved the Skyliner's time, it made only a tiny difference to my total journey.
nath
Yeah I don't see it being that long. They will have plenty of escalators and elevators. And even with the shink, you have to go to the shink tracks which takes a few minutes. And regarding the transfer time between the maglev station and offices, I purposefully left that out because the same issues are faced when traveling by shink.
My point is that the maglev will allow for same day visits to Nagoya with time at the office as well. Currently that only happens if the meeting in Nagoya is particularly short, or staff work overtime. And I don't agree with the principle of overtime for the most part unless absolutely necessary.
bluemeansgo
20 minutes? Come on. The deepest subway system in the world is 102m and it's a 4 minute escalator ride: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWqNqm1GJbA Deep stations aren't a big deal for long-distance rail. They only really make a huge difference for subways and short trips.
Yes, it's too bad that they didn't run it into Shinjuku, which has the most connections in all of Tokyo, but in reality, it's all about land-use. JR Central has a much bigger stake at Shinagawa and none at Shinjuku which is pretty much built out and it will be able to build a proper South Tokyo hub around there. Watch that space 10 years from now. Chances are you'll see a lot of new development. It's also perfectly positioned for transfers from Haneda. If there's demand for it, I'm sure you'll see an extension to Tokyo Station. Who knows, maybe they'll repurpose the Shinkansen lines for Maglev and have Shink stop at Shinagawa. gasp
Yeah, the N'EX is still a better option for MOST people, especially if they're going to West Tokyo. If they ever push the SkyLiner more centrally it could be a viable alternative.
That does illustrate something very interesting, though. The trip from Narita to Tokyo is LONGER than Nagoya – Shinagawa. Nagoyans who live near the station could take a 40 min. Maglev to Shinagawa + 25 min. ride to Haneda rather than fly out of Nagoya's Central Japan Int'l ( 47 minute train ride ).
There will be almost NO reason to ever fly between those two airports, unless you're connecting to another flight. There will definitely be some real implications to the domestic air routes.
JeffLee
That figure is from Kenichi Omae, a prominent management consultant. You'll have to factor in all the concourses as well. Ever ridden the Oedo Line? The stairs, concourses and escalators seem to go on forever. Some escalators routinely have lineups to get on.
The last time i took it, it was an hour and 20 minutes to Shinjuku to station. When it hits Tokyo station, it then inches along the Yamanote line at commuter train speed.
nath
And I'm saying he's wrong. I figure my word holds about as much weight as his.
And it's nowhere near 20 minutes to get up.
wtfjapan
Maglev was invented and first deployed in the UK actually the first patent and inventor of Maglev was German Alfred Zehden
Barbara Trout
Maglev is very expensive. The Chinese system was built with generous German financial aid.
Japan is NOT a rich country. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), its 2014 per capita GDP of US$ 37,390 is behind Asian regions like Macau ($142,599 WBank), Singapore ($82,762), Hong Kong ($54,722), Taiwan ($45,854). No other country is going to build the Maglev railway at its present costs.
The money can be BETTER used to improve the lives of many poor and lower middle class Japanese. There are plenty of them in Japan. Prime Minister Abe needs to get Japan's priorities right.
Kobe White Bar Owner
High-speed transportation patents were granted to various inventors throughout the world.[6] Early United States patents for a linear motor propelled train were awarded to German inventor Alfred Zehden. The inventor was awarded U.S. Patent 782,312 (14 February 1905) and U.S. Patent RE12,700 (21 August 1907).[note 2] In 1907, another early electromagnetic transportation system was developed by F. S. Smith.[7] A series of German patents for magnetic levitation trains propelled by linear motors were awarded to Hermann Kemper between 1937 and 1941.[note 3] An early maglev train was described in U.S. Patent 3,158,765, "Magnetic system of transportation", by G. R. Polgreen (25 August 1959). The first use of "maglev" in a United States patent was in "Magnetic levitation guidance system"[8] by Canadian Patents and Development Limited.
Development[edit] In the late 1940s, the British electrical engineer Eric Laithwaite, a professor at Imperial College London, developed the first full-size working model of the linear induction motor. He became professor of heavy electrical engineering at Imperial College in 1964, where he continued his successful development of the linear motor.[9] Since linear motors do not require physical contact between the vehicle and guideway, they became a common fixture on advanced transportation systems in the 1960s and 70s. Laithwaite joined one such project, the tracked hovercraft, although the project was cancelled in 1973.[10]
The linear motor was naturally suited to use with maglev systems as well. In the early 1970s, Laithwaite discovered a new arrangement of magnets, the magnetic river, that allowed a single linear motor to produce both lift and forward thrust, allowing a maglev system to be built with a single set of magnets. Working at the British Rail Research Division in Derby, along with teams at several civil engineering firms, the "transverse-flux" system was developed into a working system.
The first commercial maglev people mover was simply called "MAGLEV" and officially opened in 1984 near Birmingham, England. It operated on an elevated 600-metre (2,000 ft) section of monorail track between Birmingham International Airport and Birmingham International railway station, running at speeds up to 42 km/h (26 mph). The system was closed in 1995 due to reliability problems.[11]