La China technology never ceases to amaze. This is particularly true in the transport sector railIn less than 20 years, the country has become the leader in high-speed trains. Since the first launches in the early 2000s, the TGV has become the largest in the world, with 38,000 km of track.
A new model made its maiden voyage on 20 July. The first Maglev-type super-high-speed train has "rolled" 600 km through the city of Qingdao. "In fact, the train levitates slightly above a magnetic rail. Hence its nickname of "floating train.
Beijing-Shanghai in two and a half hours
A...
La China technology never ceases to amaze. This is particularly true in the transport sector railIn less than 20 years, the country has become the leader in high-speed trains. Since the first launches in the early 2000s, the TGV has become the largest in the world, with 38,000 km of track.
A new model made its maiden voyage on 20 July. The first Maglev-type super-high-speed train has "rolled" 600 km through the city of Qingdao. "In fact, the train levitates slightly above a magnetic rail. Hence its nickname of "floating train.
Beijing-Shanghai in two and a half hours
At this speed, the new train could run from Beijing to Shanghai in just two and a half hours. This journey currently takes four and a half hours with a Chinese TGV travelling at 350 km/h. If we were to apply such technology in Europe, a the journey between Paris and London would take just 34 minutes. Instead of the usual two and a half hours on the Eurostar!
Maglev technology has already been in use in the country for more than a decade. Pudong International Airport is seven and a half minutes from Shanghai city centre with a Maglev levitating at 460 km/h. The biggest difficulty for the future development of Maglev train links is the very high cost of building the lines. These require special infrastructure outside existing railway lines.
However, China is currently building two railway lines of this type. They will eventually connect Chengdu to Chongqing Sichuan and Shanghai to Hangzhou. However, according to the Chinese media, a Shanghai-Beijing line could be launched at the beginning of the next decade.
