Tuesday, 21 April 2015

Japanese Maglev Train Breaks World Speed Record

A Japanese magnetic levitation (known as maglev for short) train has broken the world speed record by reaching 603 km/h, or 374 mph, beating its own 590 km/h speed record set just last week:


It is now by far and away the fastest train on earth, beating China's 430 km/h maglev, Japan's 320 km/h Shinkansen bullet train and Europe's 300 km/h Eurostar train. For the record, the UK's planned HS2 trains will go at up to 400 km/h (250 mph), so already well behind the curve before it has been built.

Notable historic train speed records include:
  • Richard Trevithick's first railway steam locomotive set a record of 8 km/h (5 mph) in 1804.
  • Stephenson's Rocket set a dizzying record of 48 km/h (30 mph) in 1830.
  • The steam locomotive Mallard set a still unbroken steam speed record of 125.88 mph (202.58 km/h) in 1938, as top speed that UK intercity trains still travel at today. 
  • France's TGV wheeled train hit 574.8 km/h (357.2 mph) in 2007.
So, the Japanese maglev can travel at 121 times the speed that Trevithick's first locomotive did just 211 years ago. That's some progress,

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