sounds like an airplane, travels like an airplane, just on land, what a fantastic piece of tech

139 m/s

Wow!!!!!!!look what superconductivity can do....when I studied the levitation effect of these substances I should say, I was amazed...Science is just freakin' unpredictable...alwayz something new to discover

＿人人人人人人人人＿ ＞　14 years ago　＜ ￣Y^Y^Y^Y^Y^Y^Y^Y￣

บ้านผมยังไม่มีเลยครับ มีแต่รถไฟตั้งแต่สมัย ร.5 ตอนนี้ก็ยังใช้กันอยู่ มีคนจะทำเค้าก็บอกให้ทำถนนลูกรังให้หมดก่อน อีกนานกว่าบ้านผมจะมี

i hope they design a short distance one. imagine travelling to work at 500 kph just to travel a distance of 10 km lol

Fantastic to hear that. So Japan are definitely continuing on with the Maglev developement on their current test tracks? I know they were planning to run them from Tokyo to Osaka. The cost of that special line would be rather heavy!! I visited Japan in April '06. I really loved the place and the people.I just wanted to know what is happening right now May 2007 with the Japanese Maglev.

Oil must end! This is the future.

this would be travelling at what, 133~ish meters per second? That's insane. Also, fun fact, this is about the speed of an F-Zero racer, according to the original SNES game.

@nexus1g The amount of real energy required would differ depending on the vacuum pump used and the purity of the vacuum maintained. The amount of energy would grow exponentially if one vacuum pump station (or two) were used at the ends of the tunnel, but the tunnel could easily be configured with many intermediate vacuum pumps mounted at intervals. Powering the system would require tremendous generators but nothing a fission (possibly fusion) reactor or two couldn't handle.

When it speeds by, it's just beyond belief how fast it appears and is gone. I've never seen anything like that. Thanks for posting!

That was a fantastic record with wheels running on a track yesterday. Absolutely incredible that it was so close to the Japanese record in 2003 by a maglev. Wonderful achievement by the French. Those people on the TGv were jolly brave.

That's so cool. It sounds like a jet going by!

I'm reminded of how Mazda refined the Wankel rotary engine when few others believed in it. I would like to see Japan and Germany continue to have mutual respect for each other.

I am delighted to hear about the JR Maglev actually running!! I know they also have the slower Fastech 360.Nothing surprises me about what Japan can achieve. I was amazed at what I saw on holiday there.

That`s awesome!!! I´ve been on the Maglev in Shanghai and it goes up to 300 km/h which is already quite nice. Can´t imagine riding 500km/h, must be surreal!

Ok. The videos from inside with the speedo-meter,that's cool. These drive by videos weren't even at 100 mph much less the 310 mph/500 kph.

no way, fast and silent is beautiful, like a bird of prey.

@DIMATIF The wheels on this system are like the landing gears on an aircraft and do not propel the vehicle. Once the vehicle reaches a speed of about 140km/h, these wheels are retracted.

WOW! Japan is leading humanity into Kardashev's Type I civilization. Awesome job my Japanese friends, we're so proud of you.

Oh, I can't wait 'till I go to Japan!

westrivertiger. I found the details the chap told me: The Japanese Maglev uses superconductors. They need a lot of energy, but they have a lot of power. He said the German Maglev is cheaper to run,even cheaper than concentional trains. The German Maglev did about 550 kmh top speed due to the old test track. On newer track trains would be similar.

@appleormac California will be the first to have High Speed Rail very SOON...It would be great to have this kinda system to connect Continental United States and CANADA!!!

It is like most technological stuff: German inventions are being developed and finished abroad. Like train drives, high temp reactors for power stations etc. Thanks to our government, we give it all off our own hands. And the Japanese did a great job with the maglev. You can honor that as well. Greetings from a German Engineer.

0:32～ 地上の乗り物とは思えない速さ・・・。 戦闘機のようだ。

@nexus1g People are not moving machine parts and would only cause wear on the floor panels or carpets (easily replaceable). The thick vacuum tube would rarely need to be maintained, it could be sealed section by section and maintained manually (and jets also require machines to maintain them, not to mention the airport tarmac surface) when it was, and the undersea cables (which suspend the buoyant tube) are actually fairly easy to maintain (the same tech is used to anchor oil rigs).

Seven years later and it's still breaking records.

@dorydaparrot Many tests have been carried out at this test center since 1997 with no incidents of the vehicle flying over the guideway (in fact, to my knowledge no incidents have occured on this test line). The guideway's design minimises the risk of crosswinds and about half of the vehicle is inside the guideway. The Maglev on this system is controlled so that it levitates no more than about a couple of cms of the guideway's floor due to a gap control system.

No.. Emile Bachelet born in France and later emigrated to the United States in the 1880s was awarded in 1912 a patent for his "Levitating Transmitting Apparatus." which was meant to transfer mail and small packages on a cart which was levitated above a track of magnets. 22 YEARS LATER some german came along and pointed out that magnets have no wheels?

Just to set the history straight, there are two completely different kinds of maglev; all they have in common is using magnetism to suspend vehicles over a guideway. They're no more a single technology than automobiles and trains. German maglev uses low-power electromagnets to pull the underside of the vehicles toward the guideway. This Japanese technology is a US invention (Powell and Danby) from 1966: it uses powerful superconducting magnets to push the underside above the guideway.

What a GREAT noise!

@newreivax214 HI, Test ride event is recessed now because JR cetral is setting up the extension of test track. This test track will be a part of Chuo-Shinkansen line with JR Maglev. Chuo-Maglev-Shinkansen is scheduled to open in 2027 from Tokyo to Nagoya.

@locomotive67 Yeah, Japanese aren't known for their inventions but their major improvements to inventions

Stay strong Japan!

you can' have LCD, digital camera, HDD, CD&DVD... and portable electric devices without japan. neither you can use gunpowder, compass, and so on without china. that is how the world has worked. now let me tell you...this japanese maglev, Superconducting Magnetic Levitation, for high-speed transportation is originated from japan...not from german. today we have several types of maglev. german one, commercialized even in japan for low-speed transportation, is one of them .

@2pac0110 The JR Maglev is being developed by one of the same companies that operates the Shinkansen (or Bullet Train as it is more commonly called). This is why the JR Maglev has been given the nickname Chuo Shinkansen. So it can be called a bullet train but it is definitely a Maglev train.

@atownairsoftleague Hardly. The brakes on a maglev are the same thing that propels it, the magnets in the track. It just depends on the frequency of them relative to the train for whether it speeds up or slows down. Now, if the magnets all died in the track, shit would hit the fan. The train would have no "rails" and would suddenly be skidding on concrete at 500 km/h...

@jgt2598 Maintenance on jets are done by people. Maintenance on a giant hermetically sealed tube would be done by machines. And there are moving parts in your model. There has to be for passengers to board and disembark. Maintenance of a giant airtight tube with mile-deep supports in the ocean would be inherently more difficult to maintain than the patchwork needed at an airport.

@nexus1g O.K. So the chance of an accidental release of a contaminant outweighs the continual release of pollution from coal plants (don't forget, coal plants require silicon wafers in their computer control systems). I guess the poster of that opinion neglected to remember that commercial solar power plants use heat collectors (so the materials include mirrors, water, and an iron boiler (same kind used in a coal fired plant), not silicon solar cells).

I've driven Fords for years and I've never had a serious problem. In fact, on the rare occasion that something has broken, they fixed it for free. I now have a Focus and am amazed how well-built it is for an economy car. Also, the enduring popularity of the Mustang and the F150 prove that Ford builds quality products. I have nothing against foreign cars, but your critique is unfair.

@nexus1g Almost none with great seals (following the initial evacuation of the tube). Even with normal air seals, the amount of energy required to maintain the vacuum would still be far less than the amount required to accelerate the train to the tremendous speeds that it would than be capable of. That being said, vac trains are generally only viable for super-long distance (see: transatlantic tunnel, New York to Paris in 45 min).

yes, but they lower the speed on like 300km and the turns are with specific angle to the ground, not like normal rails that make long circles on the ground, the maglev "rails" are in 30 degree angle up in the sky, so the train can take the turn. Becouse of the centrifugal force you can`t feel this angle inside the train.

All that technology and the upholstery still looks like my granny's curtains. Aah, I remember being a kid and watching the APT being tested on the local lines. Sometimes it looked like that, most times it was usually being towed, having broken down.

The Germans have the Transrapid which is similar to the Chinese one. The Chinese one comes from the Germans. It is the only one I think in regular daily public running.The Japanese Maglev runs with super conductors etc. Itr holds the world record;but it is still only under testing and developement.They found it too expensive in Japan and also there is always an earthquake risk in Japan.

@JoeMaiorana Yes but you still have back emf. Also, a vacuum tunnel would add a level of danger and impracticality to the train. It would be more worthwhile for very long routs though.

@nexus1g The entire point of this debate is that the train would likely maintain its own powerplants remember? Not only that, but at what ever future date a vac-train is built our power grid's supply would likely have changed (fossil fuels are limited, as they become ever more scarce they become more expensive, it becomes unfeasible to generate electricity with fossil fuels).

This maglev constructs it from 2014. It links Nagoya to Tokyo in 40 minutes. Expense is 5,000,000,000,000 yen.

@nexus1g Ahh yes, I overlooked that. But that portion of the system would require minimal maintenance and again, the boarding platforms could be closed and that section of the tube pressurized for manual maintenance.

i luv those sound !

That would be one epic school journey!

@jgt2598 I'm not talking about the people. I'm talking about the requirement of a tube having to connect to the train in order to maintain the hermetic seal of the tube. It has to extend, meet with and seal to the train.

woooah that is epic!

En France, le 3 avril 2007, le TGV POS en configuration Duplex circulait à 574,8 km/h, dépassant les 500 km/h atteints le 25 août 2006 par le Maglev au Japon.

We know about the Chinese train; but this was actually the Japan Maglev.They aren't running it normally;but they did tests on a special track for years. The Japanese actually hold the world record of 581 kph in their Maglev in 2003.

Well that sounds like a problem, But i'm talking cross country when they AREN'T going through tunnels :D and they are on like a 100-200 mile stretch of land or so, And they are permitted to pass the speed of sound, that would be awesome, and i'm sure there would be problems with compressed air, but they could add ventilation areas in the tunnel or make more room between the train and the wall to allow air to freely pass around the train, but it would still be a big development :P

@Ralroost what would you do when there is 20 inches of snow on the track? shut it down? put a plow on the maglev?

If that's true, it hasn't happened to me. The Fords I've driven have performed well even when they had a lot of miles on them. Sure, occasionaly something had to be replaced, but nothing beyond the norm. I love Fords.

@nexus1g Again, this seems to ignore that commercial plants don't use silicon solar cells, they use mirrors and water. Your article's ending also refutes everything you said by concluding that even silicon solar cells could be manufactured cleanly with the appropriate production techniques.

Faster than a greased bullet. That's nothing short of fucking astounding.

@jgt2598 And we're not even talking about maintenance. A 747 sounds like a much more practical and greener trans-atlantic/pacific choice. :)

@mquiroz90 they do its VIA, or AMTRAK 110 MPH. they use F40PH, P42DC, P32AQCDM, And GP38A

@xxxwarlordxxx Because, as you can find out by watching a particular maglev youtube video, the cost is 50 billion Euros per mile of track. No, that is not a typo.

@sideslide23 When I said 'conventionally powered', I meant the 'steel-wheel-steel-rail' kind of train - as opposed to things like maglevs and monorails!

Japanese maglev uses Super Conductor magnet whereas German uses electromagnet. Chinese bought German maglev for Shanghi short-distance route because of the cost.

wow! listen to it roar!!!

Well, I know one more thing I want to do one day! ^^

Futuristic!!!

Berring sea is one option to create a bridge between alaska and asia. but like you said, its deep, and the construction technology just isn't there yet.

In Belgium (where I live), it would take people from the right corner to the left corner of our country in less then 10 minutes.

@nexus1g As compared to infinite passenger miles per gallon for an electric train not powered by fossil fuels (0 gal. fuel consumption).

I have got faith that the Japanese will indeed have this in proper service in time. They are determined and with their tremendous experience and precision and patience they will achieve this. I was so impressed on my recent visit to Japan.

westrivertiger. I actually have it in writing from someone who used to be on youtube. His site was removed for other reasons. The Japanese Maglev is different to the German Transrapid ie The Chinese (German version). I must find the details the chap gave to me.

altought this isn't really possible for australia to build id say the best place for this would be to link Main land Australia with the State/island of Tasmania. so a undersea tunnel is needed to link Melbourne to Tasmania

awesome,I will go by this train in the future.

Very cool!!!

1 km in 7 seconds wooow that speed!!!!

@halomoe Maybe he was fixating his camera at a neutral position to emphasize how fast the train really is going.

@sideslide23 That's actually the case with any train in Japan. (Shinkansen etc.)

The immediate question I have is what do they do to keep debris off the tracks, or communicate that there is an obstacle ahead. 500km/h is over 8.33km (about 5miles) per MINUTE. I'd like to know the breaking distance as well. I assume that roads are directed under it at junctions.

Well, after 180 years of railway development in the Czech republic we have finally reached 160 km/h operated by trains that in fact can go almost 250 km/h. We are funny :-))))

@jgt2598 Most of our electricity comes from burning natural gas or coal. So the electric train would be using fossil fuels to run.

Plans are that it will go over 60% of its route trough tunnels - and 100km in Tokyo area... When going that fast in a tunnel there are problems with pressised air in front of a vehicle - it is problematic in Eurotunnel where Eurostar goes around 300km/h, imagine this when going over 1000km/h...

@nexus1g Airlocks, sealed tubes, pressurized stations...

I wonder if this will appear on a regular route in Germany soon. I was so upset when one crashed in Germany into the back of a goods wagon. It's just plain bad luck.I know the Japanese government is finding it too expensive. It is brilliant;but at an incredible expense.I know it was designed first etc in Germany.The Chinese one is only for a short distance but still brilliant. One did catch fire. it will be interesting what happens to it in the future.

@nexus1g Would it be more than the amount burned to contruct and maintain airports, build the jets, and fuel the jets? The jets also need maintenance (far more, since friction between moving parts causes wear, a vac-train has no moving parts in physical contact with each other).

That must of been hard timing a photo when that flew past lol

pretty amazing.

he is right on some way ... Camera inside the maglev wouldn't work if the megnetic field was so powerfull. It's more the low frequency like clock and cell phone who are concerned

that train wasn't a service train but a hot rod locomotive trainset.i.e one overpowered tgv locomotive with one car in place of 16. the japanese maglev is looking at 500kmph inservice speed.

@PigHogger sure the TGV set a one time record, but the MagLev sustains that speed for the whole journey.

@niijeaonolla This is 5 years old. 1080p HD cameras weren't as easy to obtain back then.

@paalu84 I agree - Animes, manga, High speed trains - what can i want more.

0:33 AWESOME ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

hahaha, maybe a floating bridge with nano fiber cables hooking it to the ground, now that would be cool, if we could figure out nano fiber cables that are longer then 1 foot.

Image being "clipped" by that train

i've taked already that train and the steward said to me that the speed is so high that they have to presurize the cabin

Esto si es velocidad!!

@wolfsledgend Better late than never. :) IMO it's a fine, though a little bit simplified explanation of the reality.

Japan and her people RULE!!!

Germany has developed a normal conducting linear method. Japan has developed a superconducting linear method. I want to know the difference between the two.