The Race To Create The Fastest Train | The Ultimates: Supersonic Trains | Spark 

I really liked all the comments complaining about the terrible background sound

I wish they would focus on making a good quality, calm and educational documentary. Instead they give us fast-paced action, rave music with added super loud sound effects and some jerk borderline yelling at you

This documentary is like 15 years old. I remember watching it on History Channel. Loved it back then when History Channel still create contents

The tilting technology in Alstom Pendolino is actually from UK itself. The system was first developed by the erstwhile British Rail Engineering Limited in the form of Advanced Passenger Train. Then BREL sold the patent of APT to FIAT. Then FIAT became a part of Alstom and that’s how Alstom developed Pendolino family of trains, to which the class 390 train belongs.

Jeez this is dated. Those "new" Acela trains are in the process of being replaced after barely 20 years of service.

This documentary is almost as ancient as Tiff Needell narrating it. No fatalities on the TGV? Wasn't there a few during that derailment in 2015? I also didn't know that Dickinson spaffed off to Deltics

ahhhh, The Need for Speed. :) Great Doco, thanx guys!

Who's doing that voiceover? Is that Tiff Needell?

1st clip shows ICE and shinkansen me: *autoclick* ... video shows american tech me: *auto exit*

Glad to see this 18 year old film brought back to life! Does anyone have an update to this clip?

Lol, ipod. Nice to see these old docus online.

Stopped watching after 11 minutes because I could not hear you behind the music and noises... 👎🏼

The trip on the Acela isn't completely at full speed (150mph), most of the way it is way slower than it's limit running at the 2 digits pace. Picture how much faster the Acela can run if it has its own track moving at 150mph instead of sharing w freights.

Basically what they said is going to happen has already happed as this was made back in 2003 & now it is 2021!!! 🙂🚂🚂🚂

What's an ipod

Tiff Needele

DEAR JOE: MOAR TRAINS PLZ

Japan had a unique advantage when they began the high speed train business. Unlike America where the Acela trains run on an existing standard gauge network, Japan's railway network was 3'6" gauge. That narrow gauge would never be adequate for real high speed passenger trains. And since they had to build a new network, they had the opportunity to design it for speed and safety. The French used a hybrid approach of high speed lines in the countryside tied to the conventional network to enter cities and their stations. We could do that, too, but it won't be cheap.

What good is updating the equipment if you can't update the track for higher speeds? There are only a few places where the Acela can hit 150 mph for a short time.

Japan, France, German transporting passengers. America transporting payloads of war.

Impressive👍👍

I really liked reading all the comments explaining how this was an 15 year old tv thing so I didn't have to waste 45 mins of my life. Thankyou RU-vid people.

Wait, was that Bruce Dickinson?!?

I know this is an old video, but I'd never heard of the NASA and Air Force tests. They should have painted that pointy train like a yellow pencil, LOL.

America is more than 50 years behind when it comes to high speed rail service and they will never make it up.

I'd feel better about high speed trains if they built in enclosures to prevent hurting wildlife. Tunnels in some areas, etc I tried the ICE trains in Germany at 250ks a couple of years ago, fantastic!

Is it tiff from fifth gear who's been dubbing ?

Interesting! 👍

I come from the future. The Transrapid maglev crashed, too 😔 due to human error. It meant the end for that design. The Shanghai airport line remains the first and only of its kind.

THE Bruce Dickinson? From the SNL cowbell sketch? :)

Great lovely boss .train is my life .I love .Ice train.

Cool

a lot of music and bombastic announcements of coming bombast gave up. and turned to the "BIg bigger biggest" series which has content and presented with wit and humour. I am surprised, other Spark docus are very well done!

It looks like rail road crossing would become to unsafe!

Try that race from other cities L.A./Houston/Chicago/ St. Louis/Buffalo/Miami/ Seattle/San Francisco----maybe if the put the routs underground or elevate them ! Also the train wrecks mangle cars not bounce off

in a race where every second counts... *Train losses by 10 minutes. Its too close to call lol

the race between plane and train......................did they count in the cost of the taxi? maybe not so much cheaper after all.

As usual, Americans are still using football fields as measuring units

0:32 a Diesel Electric locomotive named Flying scotsmans well that illegal🤣🤣🤣🤣

I thought I recognized him. It's fucking Bruce Dickenson of Iron Maiden

"here we have the fibre optic coming down into something called an optical box" REEEEEEEEEE "we have here 25,000 pulses of light a second-" REEEEEEEEEE "being delivered-" REEEE "onto the track." REEEE

21:50 24:22 how fast can a train go on those rails?

Wait, I thought aluminum didn't react to magnetism?! That's always been a way to test if something was made of steel or aluminum when sorting recyclables or buying cooking pots. If it's steel, the magnet will stick. If not, it's aluminum. So why does that piece of aluminum fly off to the side when he turns on the magnetism & lets go of it?

In France since 40 years between Lyons and Paris the speed trains is from 270 to 300 kms per hour.

i want to ride a jet train. they should extend that test track so it goes somewhere else.

Am I wrong or is this the most energy inefficient vehicle in the world. The narrator stated the Acela draws 9,000kw of power. 1kw=1000 so multiply those numbers, that's a hell of a lot of power. For those without a calculator that's 9 million watt hrs.

Brilliant except when the backgound sound becomes the main sound.

If she wanted to get to the airport she could have just umm took the train like smart people

I never knew Amtrak had an experimental jet train until now

Hell yeah! Bruce Dickenson!

Horrible sound mix and background.

Antiquated rail infrastructure in USA will not support high speed jet train.

So they also have a diesel electric version, another woopee, how do the British rail Diesels work? The issue is that they are burning fossil fuel ( they could for example use petrol from air to get the fuel but they dont) and have to carry it around. The electric from overhead is more efficient though costs to set it up

0:49 why hello old friend mr 458

how old is this video. trans rapid has been defunkt for 6 years.

Even some Eurostar trains have eather been scraped or found there way into museums.

Meglav! Go German technology!

im from the year 2052, came back to tell you all, teleportation portals will be invented in 2023, all primitive forms of mass transit become obsolete. In my year we have them on mars as well.

I was gonna ask when this was made because clearly it's old if it thinks Acela is fast.

This is old video, and the tilting trains didn't work out well and were scrapped after a short time of service.

The jet train isn’t even in service

Since Bruce was on here they should have used Iron Maiden for background music. Would have been better than that electrorave music.

Why cant you get your sound right. The narrator is constantly screaming over the background noise.

The fact that they have to take a cab to get to their primary modes of transport says a lot about how hostile America is to public transport. Cars everywhere.

How can you show a documentary from 2003. We are far ahead of this now..

What makes HSR better than airplanes is not speed it’s connectivity in between cities and the cross platform transfers between high speed trains and local trains (regional trains) unlike planes small towns can easily be served by trains and in some cases trains link outer suburbs to cities quickly. But not in China tho

Having proven that the plane and train are close in time from NYC to DC, the question is, how close in cost?

That's one problem we don't have to worry about here in the USA

GE developed turbine trains in the 60s. Why didn't they stay around?

It would not be economically viable or practical to go at the speed of sound at ground level.

Originally aired circa 2005

Always the leaves which are the problem . over 100 years an still leaves thought

They have to build faster than a jet

In the beginning about the U.S. trains, they are just commuter trains. Just a long bus. In the whole picture, train travel amounts to nothing.

Got I hate the janky 2000s music loudly screaming out my speakers

The editing on this video is terrible. Why all the constant cutting and jerky cameras?

Just a little faster and they can test time machines...

Hay que ser Merluzos para decir que un motor térmico es mejor que uno eléctrico. Aunque el vídeo es de hace ya 18 años, Los americanos aún siguen sin enterarse, y eso que tienen a Elon Musk, Pionero en vehículo de tracción eléctrica. Even though, this film was made 18 years ago, Americans aren't on the ball. Even though they have one of the greatest genius of EV Ingeniering they still thinking on termic technologie rather than electric one. Keep dreaming. In the meanwhile China is already enjoying the MAGLEV trains.

why does she fly out of JFK? wouldnt LaGuardia or Newark be closer to Manhattan?

This started off interesting but after 10 minutes of trying to constantly mentally convert kilometers to miles per hour I gave up!

But trains are slower than planes and more expensive than cars. You definitely shouldn't invest in it.

Unwatcha with that background sound. Who edited this video?!?!?

Request- Can you report on hydrogen/ fuel cell powered trains & state of development? It's time to get off fossil fuels for transport

The U.S. has a huge part of the middle of the country that is flat & where the roads are straight for mile after mile. Why there isn't a MagLev train running through that area is a mystery to me. It's only that Americans love our cars & don't have the political will to demand SOTA public rail transportation. Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas & many more states have vast stretches of land devoted to corn, soy, cattle, & other Big Ag products. We (including large numbers of Chinese immigrants!) built the transcontinental railroad in the 1800s, then laid the transatlantic cable which still connects us to Europe today! But America seems to not want to do great things anymore.

The last I read there were only two high-speed trains in the world that are profitable and both in Japan.

Horrible. Unwatchabe with all the high and hyped up music. Sad😭

It's great to go fast, as in, "Mach" whatever, however, the thing is, can it STOP just as fast. I wouldn't want any part of a train going 'Mach 3' for example, unless it can STOP just as fast.

Ditch the music. Way too loud. Can’t hear the narrative

I don’t know anything about TRAINS & RAILWAYS

Why America do not have bullet trains ???

Why you keep uploading decade old documentaries instead of making a fresh one.

0:49 F

its a race that would take the fastest Chinese/Japanese trains just an hour; not 2 hours 35 minutes; in China if your pressed for time the high-speed train is the clear winner in this scenerio. it may be the clear winner from D.C. and Boston in China/Japan!!! AND THEY SAY THE NEC IS HIGH-SPEED RAIL - NO IT ISN"T!!!

This should have been done by The Grand Tour. On tonight’s show...James rides a bus...Hammond rides a train...and I drive the fastest car....In The World! Edit: A helium tube? Do not tell Elon Musk.

Non tilting trains need to be banned from the northeast corridor

Terrible sound!!!

What is documentary? The Acela is a joke compared to all other trains around EU and China/Japan.

Shame the noisy 'sounds-track' drowns out Tiff's narration - what a waste of his work.

If she took the subway to the airport she would be there quicker

Clarkson will get there first in his Bugatti Veyron