I recall watching something about this in the past, if I recall correctly that the reason why maglev hasn't taken off yet is the track & maglev train construction costs are astronomical in comparison to other current modes.
Yeah, that's exactly the reason. The infrastructure required is prohibitively expensive. And when switches get involved things become outright absurd. The next issue is maintenance cost. With trains going 500 km/h you really have to make sure everything is in top notch condition all the time. The Japanese managed to pull it off once already putting the Shinkansen on the track when nobody believed in a future for rail. It will be really interesting to see if they can do it a second time.
@@GudieveNing Maybe when you're only talking about 300 miles between a the largest city in the world and the 19th largest city in the world (which is the second largest city in Japan), it makes more sense, but when you start to extrapolate it to a place like America, or even a place like the United Kingdom or France, it's really obvious that this will never see a return on investment. It's just impractical.
Yeah they said that about their cities they were building and telling their citizens to invest since it’s a communist state and not capitalist the person making these structures has no incentive to make it well other than a gun to his head I bet this train bridge crumbles in the next decade
Well, the cost of maintaining all the rails and sleepers, plus recompressing the gravel could fall away and since the track doesn't actually have contact and salt probably not being used there in contrast to roads, I think that makes sense from an infrastructure perspective, don't know about the rolling stock however. PS: hope I translated these words somewhat correctly into English 😅
The anglo world has become an international embarassment - Canada, UK, USA, and Australia - all massive failures. No idea what is wrong with us. Prob that GD parasite Rupert Murdoch dividing us.
@@b_uppy haha at that point they'd need to install some sort of transparent tubes halfway filled with water, all over the train...just to be able to demonstrate to customers that they are smoother although you can't feel any difference
@b_uppy have you ridden in the Madrid one? I really don't think you'd be able to tell the difference, as in, you wouldn't feel like you were moving in either.
@@theneighbourkid actually I'm no longer in college, but when I was it took that long, because the distance from home to college was like 27km/16miles, and I used two buses
In America, the railroad is torn apart among a bunch of private companies. The state does not deal with this. This is probably why railways are not a priority.
The second train in the video is the Transrapid, which was developed in Germany in the 70s and 80s and tested in the 90s. Unfortunately, our unwise government later sold it to the Chinese and thereby gave decades of development work away to the competition. Now the Chinese are using it. It was the same with solar technology 15 years ago. Our government never learns from its mistakes.
The Germans developed the magnetic levitation train in the 70s and 80s, but later sold it to the Chinese. Including the track. This is the train that runs near Shanghai. The Germans invented this technology already in 1934.
I saw the maglev test run in Yamanashi last April in Japan. It's awesome! And I also remember when I was in 4th year highschool in the Philippines, my physics teacher mentioned this maglev project in Japan that time. That's the first time i heard it. Imagine up to now Japan is still working on it. I'm 34 years old now. Japan is really thinking way ahead of time 👌🏽💯😊
@@4.0.4it’s more the result of lobbying from oil and gas companies, as well as Elon’s hyper loop disaster which never got beyond prototype before it went bankrupt, siphoning money and interest away from rail projects
The second train in the video is the Transrapid, which was developed in Germany in the 70s and 80s and tested in the 90s. Unfortunately, our unwise government later sold it to the Chinese and thereby gave decades of development work away to the competition. Now the Chinese are using it. It was the same with solar technology 15 years ago. Our government never learns from its mistakes.
I rode the Shanghai Maglev and it was very smooth. true its really short and should be extended to the Shanghai highspeed rail station but its a good proof of concept. Meanwhile the USA has exactly 0 trains running at or above 200km/hr
That's funny - i rode it in January (it has been limited to 300km/h, not sure since when), and I was surpriced that it was less smooth than the "traditional" highspeed trains, which also do 300km/h
@@garyoak2974 surprisingly this LA/Vegas route has a greater chance of success and finishing on time than the bigger budget LA to Frisco $100 Billion debacle. If it does indeed happen I'll fly out to LA just to try it for a holiday in Vegas.
@@martinfisker7438 maybe they had to do maintenance on it. you should try it again now. MagLev will always be smoother because its not actually touching the track.
@@xaiano794I went there 3 weeks ago, the maglev is cool but honestly it feels like any regular train, it very good accel but it cruises at around the same speed as regular Chinese High Speed Rail. But I do recommend at least checking it out
So, from the inspiration of the German transrapid-train the United States (HSGT-Program) and Japan the „better“ invention »JR-Maglev« was developed in Japan.
@@wompstopm123 Yeah. I was in the US a few months ago. The level of poverty and lack of trust was quite disconcerting when I've been there. I remember struggling with getting fuel when I realised you have to pay first or it won't pump.
@@letsburn00 you just get a credit card and use it for everything. the chip on the card makes transactions instant. goofy goobers are always counting their nickels and im over here spending money i dont even have to buy whatever i want.
The Shanghai Maglev during certain times in the day goes at 431 kph and during other times at 300 kph. With the 431 kph it is the world's fastest land vehicle accessible to the public. That's nice but at the moment, Maglev technology isn't widely used yet and it's hard to predict the future. Let's hope that all engineers working on transport quickly make faster land travel possible for more people
The jealous narrator snarkily giggled that the only-commercial 30km maglev "defeats the purpose"....total disrespect for China taking the initiative to help advance the technology.
If America had a high speed rail it would open up so many possibilities, imagine getting up in the morning going to rail station and taking a train some 400 miles in under and hour, go to work, get off and take the train home. A person could technically live in NC and have a job NY or Philly or maybe even Ga.
Not only bad math skills ... but ... Just stupid. If you all would buy me a concord, I could live in Alaska and commute to Argentina to work. Cost be damned. Idiot priviledge at work.
Very few would actually want to do that though. Sounds exotic at first, but it will definitely lose that appeal when you are running late and don't want to miss the ride over. Public transportation cannot take off until proper walking* infrastructure is put in place. They go hand in hand, and without the other they will be greatly impractical.
@@midgetman4206in countries that actually use public transport (probably every country except USA) commutes of 1 hour are normal. You get to live somewhere relatively pleasant while still working in commercial zones.
@@midgetman4206I agree public transport requires infrastructure, most of which is more public transport to your final destination. There is no point a train dumping you in the middle of a city if you then have to walk 10 miles to your place of work or a cab costs twice what the train cost.
that literally sounds like the worst possible thing ever. Why would I ever choose to take a train over driving? When using trains, you’re on everyone else’s schedule. You are surrounded by people who can’t afford cars. You can only go A to B. You can’t stop when and if you need to. They are dumb loud and annoying (I work a good 15 minute drive away from the nearest train station, and every time a train pulls in to the station 3 miles away we can hear and feel it. There is a train track running through the next town over from where I live, a commuter rail, and every time that thing passes by IN THE NEXT TOWN OVER MULTIPLE MILES AWAY, the ground shakes and it sounds like thunder storm that blows train wistles. Train stations to take up space that could be used for personal vehicle infrastructure. Train tracks are pointless, and are all abandoned at some point in the US, in other words, we should just get rid of them all now. If you want a shitty train network, go live in Europe. There is nothing stopping you from pretending to be a 19th century english peasant who’s kids died from measles and polio, in Europe.
When the late Sir Eric Laithwaite invented the linear motor all those years ago, he thought it would revolutionise transport. He was wrong in that, but what that technology did give us was roller coasters with unbelievable uphill acceleration.
The reason why we have few Maglevs is because of the infrastructure not the trains themselves, all the railroad tracks that's been already set needs to be redesigned to accommodate it. It's going to be financially astronomical to replace all of it, specially that the current tracks work just fine
They wouldn’t replace existing tracks. Normal tracks are too bendy and not safe enough (animals can get on the tracks which would have a disastrous effect at 500km/h). The design of maglev means they can only ever be their own dedicated infrastructure rather than an upgrade/direct replacement of conventional rail. The catcher is they cost a fortune to build and maintain.
Current tracks need to be replaced for high-speed rail as well. The lower cost for traditional rail assumed a utilisation of existing tracks. If you compare maglev (at least TransRapid) costs to new build high speed rail they’re roughly equal, and can be cheaper under some circumstances, because the maglev can accommodate up to 10% inclines.
I remember in 5th grade I had to do a project on what I thought a part of my town would look like in 2035 and make a model of it. I got the train station and I made the train magnetic levitation. I love that it's actually happening somewhere in the world.
I would LOVE a Mag-Lift system that can go from Florida to Maine and Back. Like imagine being able to go from Key Largo in Florida to Caribou, Maine within 4 hours?
Even if they had this just in Florida it would make a world of difference. It's a long state, and the distance around the Everglades from Miami to Tampa or Orlando would be significantly reduced so much; the positive benefits would be numerous.
@@volvo09Japan is also very long. When compared to the U.S., Hokkaido to Kyushu is roughly equivalent to the distance from Maine to Georgia; that being said, a connection between Tokyo and Osaka is equivalent to roughly Los Angeles and Sacramento, or Boston to Trenton
@@convenientplayer1447LA to Sacramento is quite substantially longer than Tokyo to Osaka. It's an extra 75 miles, nearly 30% longer. Now we need to understand that the distance from San Diego to Seattle is 1250 miles, and the distance from LA to NYC is 2800 miles, and we can see why it is that maglev trains cannot reasonably be built in the US.
Works best though for places like Japan cause they have such a good Railways infrastructure (also the trains run on time), America is built around cars
It's not the (intercity) railway system but the local transit network that make high-speed transport useful. It doesn't make sense if you have to change to a car and get stuck in traffic anyways once you arrived at the station.
i read it somewhere that shanghai maglev started with a top speed over 300km/h. However, due to the deterioration of the tracks and the train, now it can only run at the speed below 200km/h. I am curious about how Japanese is going to deal with this issue considering the enormous cost of the maglev transportation.
What's crazy is that 500kmph is like 60% of the speed commercial airliners fly at. Given how time consuming it is to check in the baggage and go through security, this is going to be so much faster. Also safer and good for the environment. Win-win-win, no matter the initial cost.
It will no doubt be a shorter trip. Right now the regular high speed rail from Tokyo to Osaka is just as fast if not faster if you consider the time you spend at the airport.
"This is merely superconductor electromagnetism. Surely you've heard of it. It levitates bullet trains from Tokyo to Osaka. It levitates my desk, where I ride the saddle of the world. And it levitates... me!"
It’s actually less about aerodynamics but more for noise when entering and exiting tunnels. The train would be just as fast with a less impressive nose but similar to the regular bullet trains, the noise complaints were a huge issue back in the day.
My understanding is the U.S. initially proposed Maglev technology for high speed trains in the 1960s, but was stymied by expenditures for the Conflict in Vietnam and other priorities
I don't think a 30km track defeats the purpose. I was actually in Shanghai in 2019 and being able to go from the city to the airport in just 8 minutes was incredible. It was also a kind of tourist attraction.
Yes, the Germans developed that magnetic levitation train in the 70s and 80s, but then later sold it to the Chinese. You rode that German train. The Germans invented this technology first in 1934
So... build more nuclear power plants? Also, I highly doubt it would take the whole power plant. Maglev seems to take 1-2 kW per ton, and a nuclear power plant puts out on the order of 1,000,000 kW. So, unless the train weighs more than two Burj Khalifas...
@@jpheitman1 Also, should the individual train cars themselves be fashioned from sufficiently light weight materials, and the coils within can be made from graphene instead of copper, the train itself might not require as much energy just to get going.
Debunked many times. Nuclear is one of the safest and greenest ways to generate power. Look up the statistics. Modern nuclear power plants are designed to prevent meltdowns. Even the couple older designs that melted down did so because of human error. Fukushima melted down because it was in a bad location that was vulnerable to tsunamis. The disposal of waste has been solved for decades. Theres just too much fear mongering around it and therefore too much red tape.
It‘s actually german technology, „transrapid“ which got cancelled in germany because of a crash due to maintaining the track without stopping the transrapid!
No, it didnt get cancelled because of the crash with a maintanance vehicle. The crash happened in 2006, development continued until 2011 when it was deemed finished and the license for the test track ran out. The planned projects just failed on a political level
Meanwhile, here in California, supposedly the technology center of the world, we still don’t even have any high-speed rail despite a lot of promises and a lot of $$ spent.
@@maxjing61 No you’re completely wrong. The U.S World and News Report rated Japan as number 1 in technological expertise. DataPandas rated Japan as the most technologically advanced country in the world. GeeksforGeeks rated Japan as the leading country in technology and robotics. I’ve been to Japan, and the Japanese technology was absolutely amazing! So there you go, Japan is the leading country in technology and robotics. 🇯🇵
Cherry picking biased commercial rankings to support your ill defined bias of what most technologically advanced even means. Name one world leader from Japan in true future leading technologies like AI, electric vehicles, big data, renewal energy, and even specifically robotics, that you so admantly stressed, can you name but one?
Japan can afford cutting edge train technology but we (United States) can't. Sounds like politicians and their friends are pocketing all out money folks
Could have been reality in Germany in the 80s. The Transrapid Hit 450 km/h in the Kate 80s but was abolished and sold to china (it’s the train in Shanghai you see in this video) due to political mistakes and lack of knowledge of the decision makers
I’m betting the issue with maglevs is the cost to build them. Rich people don’t give a crap about the environment. They only care about profit. If there’s any doubt about whether they can turn a profit, they’ll be averse to -taking the risk-.
Easily over even longer distances since you don't have to spend time boarding like you do with a plane. For example Houston to new York would take roughly 5h on a maglev service, with stops. Flights are scheduled to do it in 3h35m but then you have to add the time waiting at the airport to check in and to retrieve your luggage at the other end. The other bonus is you could have intermediate stops
@@xaiano794 Wot? You still have to have people board the train, and if you're going cross country, you'll have to load cargo, too. If we're assuming straight shots with no stops (bold, with a cross-country train), then the passenger jet will get there in about half the time. If we have to start accounting for stops, the train is going to take even longer, because your Houston to NYC train line is probably going to Kansas City first, and it's probably stopping at a few stops between Kansas City and Houston as well, and from Kansas City it's probably going to DC, and hitting a few stops between there, too, and then it will probably be stopping at Philadelphia before it hits NYC.
@brofist1959 I already accounted for stops and boarding a train takes roughly 2 minutes although most time tables account for 5. I'm pretty certain you haven't arrived at an airport 5 minutes before your flight and left on time. I strongly recommend you try traveling on Japanese trains before you make your judgements as you'd understand how much faster high speed trains are
@@xaiano794 In my experience, it's prudent to add 2 airport hours to flight time when comparing to rail. That being said, 500km/h makes sense for very long distance travel, above 300 miles, and by that point air travel has time to make up the lost airport time. A slower, cheaper alternative would make much more sense to me. With an average speed of 300 km/h, and maybe peaks of 400, you could travel 4500 km in 15 hours. With seating comfortable enough to sleep well, I can see myself opting for that instead of a 5.5 hour flight plus 2 hours airport time. In other words, I think that a lot of fast trains will do more good than a few record breaking ones.
@SalveMonesvol you're 100% right that international and very long distances will always be better by air but medium distances (up to 3000km) would be better by maglev, and even high speed rail as things like weight of baggage wouldn't be an issue, plus with rail you can have terminus stations either in or beneath cities rather than far out in the suburbs. Initial construction costs of such projects are always going to be massive, but they are one off costs and can carry huge numbers of passengers
"...in any weather conditions" I didn't think ice would be nice to build up under the train. High wind from the side could also be terribly complicated. Hail would suck. A hurricane or tornado might be a bit of a problem, though you might be able to outrun one. 🌀 🌪️ 🚆
One question... once it reaches top speed how long does it take to slow down? I only ask because it wouldn't be feasible having too many stops along the way.
There are only a few stops on the whole Tokyo-Osaka route. The route is much more direct than the existing Shinkansen route, so there aren't much cities on the route. The main city on the way will be Kyoto.
@imrevadasz1086 actually it will only 9 stations and be built in a different route through the mountains. With stops the planned travel time to osaka, the terminus, will be 67 minutes at a speed of 505kph
Yes, but not developed in China. The Germans developed the magnetic levitation train in the 70s and 80s, but then later sold it to the Chinese. Including the track. This is the train that runs near Shanghai. The Germans invented this technology in 1934.
As much as I maglev technology to advance I also wonder the practicality of a nation so prone to earthquakes being the one to shoulder the development costs
This tech had been around a long time. Since they have an aging populace, having public transport becomes more important for accessibility for young people as well as to support young people starting out. They also prioritize productivity and the smooth ride allows work on the train, as well as enhanced speed. For them the value is irreplaceable.
I just traveled from Memphis to Dallas in under an hour last Thursday. It was aboard this futuristic aluminum tube way up in the sky. Can’t remember what it’s called though. Maybe it was a train.
@@BM-13_KATYUSHATry it on a normal train going a tenth of the speed, heck try whole damn loaded trucks, and get back to us when they stop ripping apart like tissue paper on contact
I would think the super conductor would be on the train itself because of the cryo cooling and the logistics for the track to be it would be quite expensive
@@lonestarr1490 I don't specifically remember which cities. But China has talked about it multiple times, Japan a few times, even the U.S. keeps throwing it around.
Germany had one 20 years ago. They developed the magnetic levitation train in the 70s and 80s, but then later sold it to the Chinese. Including the track. This is the train that runs near Shanghai. The Germans invented this technology already in 1934, but don't use it.
@@lonestarr1490 China had the mag lev train in operation for several yrs already , despite of a shorter run from Shanghai city to the airport. There is another mag lev train system being constructed to operate between Beijing and Shanghai city.
Why? At that speed and size, it would obliterate the rock. And no one would feel it. Unless it’s a boulder. But that’s straight sabotage at that point.
Just like Monorails, Maglev trains do not have the ability to switch tracks if they need to. This really limits their construction to just two end connecting points or an enclosed loop.
Most of that money is not actual money, but just the estimated cost of the equipment being sent. Most of which is old and costs money to store. A lot of it would eventually cost a lot of money to safely decommission
lmao. california high speed rail project started 16 years ago, i'm sure the ukraine war happened 16 years ago as well. america just can't build mega infrastructure like asian countries
@@herobrine1847 I think the same, since i was a teenager. In ‚urban areas‘ and from city to city it is the best way to travel by train … even for commuting 👍🏼✨
If HS2 had been Maglev a lot of people would still have their homes and travel from London to Birmingham would take about 20 minutes with Manchester another ten or more, today. The cost would have been less than HS2 because of the small amount of land needed, 20m in the air doesn't require acres of land for balancing lakes every kilometre.
