Japan's levitating maglev train reaches 500km/h

Re:Japan's levitating maglev train reaches 500km/h by ChuckMcM on Sunday November 16, 2014 @12:14AM (#8613494)

On their 27 mile test track. Which is too bad since at 300mph that would be a 4 minute ride :-) I expect it spends all of its time accelerating and decelerating. I suspect such trains will only be practical in the 'real' world by having them in some sort of fully enclosed track. It doesn't have to be a solid tunnel but something that keeps out birds and other debris from the area. Nothing like hitting a pigeon or catching a flying bit of branch at 300MPH, hurricanes put 2 x 4s through houses 2/3rds that speed so that would be a challenge.

That said the only other remarkable thing was how shaky the video was at 500km/h if the train was really moving around that much it wouldn't be too sustainable. One of the amazing things for me on the TGV was how smoothly it rode even going 200km/h.

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Re:Japan's levitating maglev train reaches 500km/h by Anechoic on Sunday November 16, 2014 @01:00AM (#8613570)

Nothing like hitting a pigeon or catching a flying bit of branch at 300MPH, hurricanes put 2 x 4s through houses 2/3rds that speed so that would be a challenge.

At 250 mph, the TransRapid TR-08 simply vaporized any biological object it hame across little-to-no-damage to the vehicle (but there was a mess to clean up). A large object can be an issue, but small objects will likely be pushed aside by the pressure wave ahead of the vehicle.

That said the only other remarkable thing was how shaky the video was at 500km/h

The vehicle is still undergoing testing, the facility may not have figured out or implemented the ride-quality algorithms yet.

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Re:Japan's levitating maglev train reaches 500km/h by ekianjo on Sunday November 16, 2014 @01:30AM (#8613599)

> The vehicle is still undergoing testing, the facility may not have figured out or implemented the ride-quality algorithms yet.

The Maglev train between Shanghai airport and the city is perfectly stable at 500 km/h if I remember correctly. Japan is very, very late for Maglev technology.

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Re:Japan's levitating maglev train reaches 500km/h by momo-reina on Sunday November 16, 2014 @02:29AM (#8613665)

In Japan, there are two independently developed maglev trains. One is HSST by Japan Airlines and the other, which is more well-known, is SCMaglev by the Central Japan Railway Company.

The development of the latter started in 1969, and Miyazaki test track had regularly hit 517 km/h (321 mph) by 1979 but, after an accident that destroyed the train, a new design was decided upon. -- Wikipedia

I'd say Japan got into the technology quite early...

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Re:Japan's levitating maglev train reaches 500km/h by rahimnathwani on Sunday November 16, 2014 @06:41AM (#8614010)

I rode the Shanghai airport maglev a couple of hours ago. I glanced up at the speed display a few times during the middle of the journey, and it was always within 290-301 km/h.

The journey time was something like 8 minutes, from the airport to Longyang Road.

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Re:Japan's levitating maglev train reaches 500km/h by itazula on Sunday November 16, 2014 @02:48AM (#8613688)

You have to remember that the specs of the two trains are quite different, with the elevation above the track being much greater in the case of Japan (as a buffer against earthquakes).

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Re:Japan's levitating maglev train reaches 500km/h by mungoman2 on Sunday November 16, 2014 @06:10AM (#8613965)

The maglev to Shanghai airport is not a pleasant ride. Try the Shanghai-Hangzhou high speed rail. Not maglev but does 300 km/h and the ride is smooth as butter.

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Re:Japan's levitating maglev train reaches 500km/h by ewang1 on Sunday November 16, 2014 @02:02AM (#8613640)

If I recall correctly, the Shanghai one topped out at around 478km/h... They actually run at that speed only a couple times per day.

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Re:Japan's levitating maglev train reaches 500km/h by jpatokal on Sunday November 16, 2014 @05:53AM (#8613923)

431 km/h. I've ridden it, and it vibrates, for lack of a better word, disturbingly; you can really feel that it's pushing the envelope of what's possible. Not a big deal for a 7-minute ride, but would be a bit annoying to put up with for an hour.

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Re:Japan's levitating maglev train reaches 500km/h by WildUtah on Sunday November 16, 2014 @12:36AM (#8613527)

I think the proposal is to tunnel under the Japan Alps from the outskirts of the Kanto (where Tokyo is) to the outskirts of the Kansai and Osaka. The tunnel is mostly required because Japan's mountainous geography is not friendly to straight corridors, but it means fewer birds and sticks will be a benefit.

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Re:Japan's levitating maglev train reaches 500km/h by melling on Sunday November 16, 2014 @12:31AM (#8613522)

You mean 200mph(320km/h)? 200km/h probably isn't offically a high-speed train.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV

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Re:Japan's levitating maglev train reaches 500km/h by ChuckMcM on Sunday November 16, 2014 @01:51AM (#8613622)

Yes, total metric fail. Sigh.

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Re:Japan's levitating maglev train reaches 500km/h by Sorgam on Sunday November 16, 2014 @06:05AM (#8613956)

Yes, the Shanghai maglev is about the same speed and distance, and it does spend almost the entire trip accelerating and decelerating. You get to 430km/h for maybe less than a minute. Average speed would be a more meaningful number to compare high speed trains with.

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Re:Japan's levitating maglev train reaches 500km/h by waffl on Sunday November 16, 2014 @07:31AM (#8614089)

>That said the only other remarkable thing was how shaky the video was at 500km/h if the train was really moving around that much it wouldn't be too sustainable.

I wondered the same, but have a feeling some of the shakiness was due to having zoomed in quite a bit on a camera without any kind of image stabilisation. In the video, the image of the speed indicator is very shaky but then you realise it is zoomed in on the screen at the other end of the train car. So maybe it's not quite -that- shaky as it may seem.

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Re:Japan's levitating maglev train reaches 500km/h by singlow on Sunday November 16, 2014 @12:57PM (#8614861)

Since the front of the train is the only part exposed to a 300mph impact, couldn't that be mitigated by the material and shape of the nose? Since it is already designed to deflect air efficiently, I imagine any bird in its path would also be deflected. May not be great for the bird, but I don't think the train would be hurt.

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Re:Japan's levitating maglev train reaches 500km/h by jdiez17 on Sunday November 16, 2014 @07:03AM (#8614041)

>I suspect such trains will only be practical in the 'real' world by having them in some sort of fully enclosed track.

Reminds me of something[1]... :-)

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperloop

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