China's 'Rejuvenation' Bullet Trains Are the World's Fastest
China was once home to the world's fastest trains,
but that position
was temporarily derailed in 2011, after a crash between two bullet
trains killed 40 people and injured nearly 200 more, leading officials
to scale back maximum train speeds from 350 km/h (217 mph) to 300 km/h
(186 mph).
But the country is getting back on track, as the next generation of
bullet trains — said to be the world's fastest — began transporting
passengers Monday (Aug. 21) on the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway,
according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
Dubbed "Fuxing," which means "rejuvenation," the new high-speed trains
are expected to expand service starting Sept. 21 to run between Beijing
and Shanghai, traveling at speeds of up to 350 km/h (217 mph). But the
trains are capable of going even faster. With maximum speeds of 400 km/h
(249 mph), they are the fastest trains in the world, Xinhua News Agency reported. [Hyperloop, Jetpacks & More: 9 Futuristic Transit Ideas]
First unveiled in June, the Fuxing bullet trains were tested on July 27
at their maximum speed. They will operate seven round-trips daily
between Beijing and Shanghai, and are expected to reduce travel time
from 5 hours (at the current peed of 300 km/h) to 4 hours and 30
minutes, according to the Xinhua News Agency.
To put the speed of the Fuxing trains into perspective, the maximum
speed of Amtrak intercity high-speed trains in the U.S. is 150 mph (241
km/h), and only half of the trains run at speeds of 100 mph (161 km/h)
or more, according to the railroad's website.
Other types of transportation systems may promise ultra-high-speed travel, but they still have a long way to go before they're passenger-ready.
In Japan, testing is currently underway for trains capable of traveling
at up to 500 km/h (310 mph) using magnetic levitation — so-called "maglev" technology
— but they won't be operational until 2027. And billionaire
entrepreneur Elon Musk's proposed "Hyperloop," a tube track that could
carry people in air-cushioned pods at speeds of up to 760 mph (1,220
km/h), is still preparing for a preliminary testing stage, which will be conducted at 200 mph (322 km/h).
Credit: Luo Xiaoguang/Xinhua/Zuma
Original article on Live Science.
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