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Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#61

Post by odonnellryan »

jasonkester wrote: post #27

I wonder if we'll ever get back to "High Speed Air" in my lifetime. Back in the 70s, you could rock up at the airport twenty minutes before your flight left, jump on with minimal hassle, and cruise along at 600mph to your destination. Now, you need to endure two hours of having your fingernail clippers confiscated so that you can fly at 500mph to save on fuel costs. That seems to be the true advantage of rail travel.…

>Back in the 70s, you could rock up at the airport twenty minutes before your flight left, jump on with minimal hassle, and cruise along at 600mph to your destination.

I basically did this from Tampa FL. I think I arrived at security for a domestic flight like 30 minutes prior to takeoff.

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#62

Post by [deleted] »

jasonkester wrote: post #27

I wonder if we'll ever get back to "High Speed Air" in my lifetime. Back in the 70s, you could rock up at the airport twenty minutes before your flight left, jump on with minimal hassle, and cruise along at 600mph to your destination. Now, you need to endure two hours of having your fingernail clippers confiscated so that you can fly at 500mph to save on fuel costs. That seems to be the true advantage of rail travel.…

[deleted]

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#63

Post by Someone1234 »

Just to reframe this a little:

Commercial aircraft travel in ground-speed terms, around 350-500 MpH on average [0] (sometimes faster with wind behind them). This travels on a "normal" day up to 313 MpH which is nothing to sniff at.

You should also take into account how long you'll spend at the airport (e.g. security, checking/unchecking bags, etc) and taxiing/queuing on/off of the runway, and how long it takes it get up to altitude (aircraft travel slower while ascending).

Even still an aircraft likely is faster than this. But this could theoretically be cheaper than an aircraft, in particular as fuel costs continue to rise (and after the high building costs have been repaid).

These might be wider deployed if land wasn't already "owned" and using Eminent domain to seize it wasn't so politically unpopular. Plus every road you cross either requires a bridge (expensive), tunnel (more expensive), or crossing (dangerous).

[0] http://www.flightradar24.com/BER7382/60eb62e

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#64

Post by Someone1234 »

binarymax wrote: post #36
jasonkester wrote: post #27

I wonder if we'll ever get back to "High Speed Air" in my lifetime. Back in the 70s, you could rock up at the airport twenty minutes before your flight left, jump on with minimal hassle, and cruise along at 600mph to your destination. Now, you need to endure two hours of having your fingernail clippers confiscated so that you can fly at 500mph to save on fuel costs. That seems to be the true advantage of rail travel.…

The security won't get blown out of proportion for trains like air, because while trains can do significant damage to themselves and surrounding buildings - you cant take one and crash it anywhere you like. 9/11 never would have happened with a train. A hijacked plane is a missile.

Trains still have an "end of the line." So, yes, you could if you were going fast enough.

Also aircraft security was too much even pre-9/11.

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#65

Post by illumen »

Someone1234 wrote: post #63

Just to reframe this a little: Commercial aircraft travel in ground-speed terms, around 350-500 MpH on average [0] (sometimes faster with wind behind them). This travels on a "normal" day up to 313 MpH which is nothing to sniff at. You should also take into account how long you'll spend at the airport (e.g. security, checking/unchecking bags, etc) and taxiing/queuing on/off of the runway, and how long it takes it get…

There's no way an air craft could compete at this distance. Just getting on to the plane would be slower.

The trip time is going to be around 40 minutes by train.

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#66

Post by littlejohnk »

cstross wrote: post #29
ant6n wrote: post #12

What's interesting, the speed record for conventional bullet trains is 574.8 km/h, about 30km/h less! This was a TGV train, largely unmodified (although they did increase the tension in the caternary). The wiki article about the speed record is interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV_world_speed_record Makes you wonder whether the overhead of maglev is really worth it.

Actually, the TGV record was set by a specially-rebuilt train set that was heavily customized -- and the test crew reportedly couldn't stand/walk around the instrument car at speeds over 500km/h due to vibration. (The track they ran the test on was newly-laid and not yet open to regular traffic: they had to replace most of the overhead cables from the stretch where the train hit maximum speed due to arcing and shock…

"the wheel rims were close to supersonic"

This doesn't make any sense. The record is around 575 km/h. The speed of sound is 1225km/h. How would the wheel rim be travelling faster than the train? The while rim rotates 1m for every 1m the train travels, surely?

Can you explain what you mean?

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#67

Post by practicalpants »

rwmj wrote: post #35
mmaldacker wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Back in the 70s, you could rock up at the airport twenty minutes before your flight left This still exists, for example Tegel airport in Berlin. Also, in the 70s there was waaaaaay less traffic in airports so it is simply not a fair comparison. >Sadly, I bet the way we'll end up equalizing this will be that somebody will eventually bomb a TGV and we'll have to start doing the two hour confiscate-your-kids'-apple-jui…

Internal flights in Japan are basically turn-up-and-go (and cheap too), and have only a little security.

I wasn't even asked to show my ID the last time I flew domestically in Japan.

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#68

Post by littlejohnk »

wahsd wrote: post #10

I used to be all about public transportation and trains, but I cannot reconcile that anymore with advancement in technology. It simply does not make sense to me anymore to try and build high speed rail on the ground, on fixed "rails" in order to not even get close to even slow airplane speeds. With the roll-out of more sophisticated air traffic control systems that will allow denser traffic, higher frequency landing…

"where you just drive up"

So clearly an American. I walk up to train stations, not drive.

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#69

Post by rtpg »

Someone1234 wrote: post #64
binarymax wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The security won't get blown out of proportion for trains like air, because while trains can do significant damage to themselves and surrounding buildings - you cant take one and crash it anywhere you like. 9/11 never would have happened with a train. A hijacked plane is a missile.

Trains still have an "end of the line." So, yes, you could if you were going fast enough. Also aircraft security was too much even pre-9/11.

sure, but wasn't it in 1968 or something where there was basically 200 plane hijackings? I feel like there's good intentions at least

Re: Japan maglev train breaks world speed record again

#70

Post by littlejohnk »

cbr wrote: post #49
kuschku wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, the TGV record was broken by an unmodified Velaro-D train recently. Standard rolling stock, used the week before for normal transport, used a week after for normal transport.

Are you sure? I'm not finding anything about this. The TGV record is about half the speed of sound, which means the wheel rims are bordering on supersonic, so it's not a simple thing to talk about exceeding it.

Why would the wheel rims rotate at twice the speed of the train? If the train advanced along the track 1m, surely the part of the wheel in contact with the track must also have moved 1m?
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