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Comment by melling | Hacker News Reader

No, you didn't go that fast. It's 50mph slower. Japan is going into production with this train in 10 years. I wouldn't simply right off this as not being progress. Most passenger trains in America probably don't even average 50mph. It would turn Boston to NYC, or NYC to DC into a 45 minute commute.

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> ..production with this train in 10 years

Another 10 years? That means it goes into operation in 2024? That's 20 years after the Chinese built one.

Yes, I'm not sure where you're going with that. Japan already has a bullet train. Here's what Wikipedia has:

"JR Central aims to begin commercial maglev service between Tokyo and Nagoya in the year 2025 with the full track between Tokyo and Osaka finalized in 2045." http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maglev#Japan

Ugh! With all these down voting, it makes it hard for low karma people to voice opinion. I'll just shut up >:(

I think it is just a language problem. I presume you are talking about this train: http://www.smtdc.com/en/gycf3.html which is, according to the web site, still just running on a test track with a max speed of 430 km/H, which is a little bit more than 43mph slower than the Japanese demonstration. It looks like the maiden voyage of that test train was 2002 and it is still not a "production" train, no doubt owing to the challenges of putting a maglev train into production.

But the article wasn't about "maglev trains" in general, it was about a specific one. And so the comparison is moot except to compare how each system has approached the challenges of building and/or productizing such fast trains.

When I read your comments I felt like it was a Chinese boast/Japanese putdown not an actual comment. As I understand it there is some animosity between Japan and China, and with that understanding it felt to me that your comments were simply being mean rather than adding to the conversation.

So given that you have first hand experience with the Shanghai train, do you have any insight into what has kept it from being deployed into a production capacity? Articles like this one in Time (http://content.time.com/time/travel/cityguide/article/0,3148...) portray it as a sort of entertainment ride, like a roller coaster might be in an amusement park.

The Shanghai maglev is 19 miles long. However, it leaves you at an inconvenient spot, and another 20 minute subway ride outside of the center of the city. This is discussed on the Wikipedia page:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Maglev_Train

My understanding is that it was suppose to terminate closer to the center but people were afraid of the magnetic fields and protested.

Shanghai authorities are not really known to let popular opinion sway their urban development programs, so I suspect there is a tad bit more to it.

The Shanghai maglev is german technology (Transrapid). The development began around 1969. Siemens and ThyssenKrupp were mainly looking for a demonstration of the technological capabilities as there was no real world application, mainly due to costs, besides it being ready for application since 1991.

Caltrain passenger trains reach top speeds of 79mph:

http://www.caltrain.com/riderinfo/safety_security/Safety_Tip.... html

Now, I know you said "average speed", and that's probably a lot less depending on which train is running (limited stop, express, "bullet", local).

The BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) "trains" also top out at about 80mph but average only 33mph:

http://www.bart.gov/about/history/facts

If you look closely, even express trains don't have a high average speed. The companies like to boast that they're fast but it's usually only for a couple miles of track.

I can't even imagine how great it would be traveling from San Jose to San Francisco in ~10-15 minutes (no stops).

Wow, that is really a pity.

We have trains here in most of western europe that do about 200mph, but most long-distance travel is at 150mph. So yours are really WTF-worthy, especially considering how dense the population on the east coast of the US or around the SF bay area is.

(Trains I’m referring to: ICE 3, TGV, Alvia, Railjet, etc.)

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