Abstract
If I had told my aunt ten years ago about a train that floats in air because of giant magnets under it, she would have thought one of two things: one, I had lost my marbles or, two, I never had any marbles to start with. Now that same aunt is talking about how wonderful the Maglev was on her trip to China last year. The Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) train has the highest recorded speed of 581 km/h, which was achieved in Japan during a test run, about 6 km/h faster than its nearest rival, the conventional French TGV.1 With the top speed of these trains just 25% less than the average speed of the commercial airplane (about 800 kmph), high-speed rail is capable of nearly matching total travel times over short and medium distances. And Maglev trains, like planes, fly (to the airline enthusiasts: fine! They float; but they are darn good at it).
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© 2012 Sarwant Singh
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Singh, S. (2012). From Planes to Trains — The Era of High-Speed Rail. In: New Mega Trends. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137008091_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137008091_10
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