A new train capable of hitting speeds of 600 km/h (373 mph) was unveiled today in the Chinese city of Qingdao. It’s being touted as the fastest form of ground transportation on Earth.
Developed by the state-owned China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, the train uses magnetic levitation to float above the “rails,” reducing friction and enabling greater speeds. It also helps the train emit lower levels of noise pollution and requires less maintenance than other high-speed trains, a CRRC engineer told Chinese media, per CNN.
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The world's first 600km/h high-speed maglev train made public debut in Qingdao ystd! Its system is self-developed by #China and is a cutting-edge scientific & technological achievement in rail transit worldwide! pic.twitter.com/sSQOZm4lbO
— Ambassador Hou Yanqi (@China2ASEAN) July 20, 2021
Although China has run maglev trains for almost two decades, according to Reuters, maglev tracks remain rare and the only line currently operating commercially runs between Shanghai‘s Pudong Airport and the Longyand Road station 30 km (19 miles) away. In that distance, the train is able to hit speeds of 430 km/h (267 mph), though the journey only lasts seven and a half minutes.
Still, if tracks were built between Beijing and Shanghai, estimates suggest that the more than 1,000 km (620 mile) journey could be covered in just two and a half hours by this new train. That would make it considerably faster than current high-speed trains, which take about five and a half hours, and even faster than commercial flights, which take around three hours even though a plane’s top speed is higher than the train’s.
Reports suggest that new maglev networks are under investigation, including one linking Shanghai and Hangzhou and another connecting Chengdu and Chongqing. With these, China’s government is aiming to connect more of its large cities to one another to reduce the time and expense it takes to travel across the large country.