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posted by martyb on Saturday April 25 2015, @11:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the mach-0.49 dept.

Just days after setting a world speed record of 581 km/h, a Japan Railways Group maglev train set a new speed record of 603 km/h (375 mph):

In terms of actual travel, it will be some time before the actual speeds achieved this week translate into real train journeys. The first commercial maglev trains will run between Tokyo and Nagoya in 2027, and will likely run at 500KPH [sic], taking 40 minutes to connect the two cities.

Until then Japanese passengers will have to make do with the existing 320KPH bullet trains that take twice as long.

Those Stateside may also have reason to celebrate: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is due to push the train technology in Washington DC later this month, proposing a high-speed link between America's capital and New York City.

Were that to happen it would reduce current travel time from about four hours to under an hour.

Some question the necessity of newer, faster trains:

One argument against Japan's plan to install new high-speed routes is the country's declining population. Bloomberg reported that the nation's population may fall to 117 million by 2027, down 10 million from the current population. By 2060, the population could be as few as 80 million according to current projections by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research. The country simply does not have the demand, said Edwin Merner, president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in Tokyo.

"[High-speed transportation is] good for growing, developing countries, but not for Japan that's decreasing in population," Mr. Merner told Bloomberg. "It's mis-allocation of resources. Demand for bullet trains will be limited."

 
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  • (Score: 2) by K_benzoate on Sunday April 26 2015, @05:59AM

    by K_benzoate (5036) on Sunday April 26 2015, @05:59AM (#175281)

    Hyperloop is a security nightmare. If someone gets a destructive device onboard you can imagine the chaos. You're in a partial vacuum, so an explosion would be especially destabilizing for the entire infrastructure. So you'd have to get security right, which we can't even do for airplanes in the real world. Even if you could, now the whole experience is as invasive and delayed as air travel, negating most of the benefits of trains.

    So many good ideas become unworkable when you have to account for humans actively trying to sabotage them. And the shit-stirrers of humanity enjoy a natural advantage of pushing on an open door; it's easier to ruin things than to create them. Starting fires is easier than putting them out.

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  • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday April 27 2015, @03:54PM

    by urza9814 (3954) on Monday April 27 2015, @03:54PM (#175754) Journal

    Hyperloop is a security nightmare. If someone gets a destructive device onboard you can imagine the chaos. You're in a partial vacuum, so an explosion would be especially destabilizing for the entire infrastructure. So you'd have to get security right, which we can't even do for airplanes in the real world. Even if you could, now the whole experience is as invasive and delayed as air travel, negating most of the benefits of trains.

    On an aircraft you're in a pressurized tube *and* you're a few thousand feet in the air...

    A bomb on a Hyperloop would certainly do some damage to the infrastructure...but it would probably be a lot safer for the passengers.