Friday, September 6, 2013

Japan to build world's fastest maglev train

The world's longest and fastest stretch of maglev train reached speeds as high as 310 mph in a demonstration last week. But Japan's L-Zero has only 15 miles of test track, the real thing is more than 10 years away from completion.

After five years of trials, Central Japan Railway Co. is starting construction on a maglev line between Nagoya and Tokyo, a 177-mile trip that will be cut from 95 minutes on today's high-speed trains to just 40 minutes with maglev by 2027.

To put that kind of speed in perspective, Amtrak's Acela takes about 3 hours and 40 minutes to go about 210 miles. A trip from Boston to New York on maglev would take under an hour.

For more of the Wired story: wired.com

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