Japan plans to build next generation maglev rail links

Note: The picture shows the Japan Railway high-speed train "Shinkansen N700" running at high speed in front of Mount Fuji in Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan in May. A Japanese railway operator said on the 26th that it is planning to introduce the world's fastest train in fiscal year 2025 and invest $45 billion to build the next generation of maglev train lines.

According to physorg on December 26, 2007, a Japanese railway operator said it was planning to introduce the world's fastest train in the next two decades, spending $45 billion to build the next generation of maglev lines. "Maglev" or magnetic levitation trains fly above the ground by electromagnetic traction. At present, the maglev train is only put into commercial operation in Shanghai.

Chubu Japan Railway plans to build a maglev linear motor train line between Tokyo and central Japan in fiscal year 2025 at a cost of 5.1 trillion yen ( $44.7 billion), a company spokesman said. "It will be the fastest train ever built and will surpass Shanghai's maglev train, which has a speed of about 500 kilometers (310 miles) per hour and a total length of 290 kilometers," the spokesman said.

According to the website of the Shanghai Maglev Transportation Development Company, the Shanghai Maglev train started operation in 2002, with a speed of 430 km/H. The maglev railway connects Pudong Airport and the financial district, with a length of 30.5 km.

The maglev train developed by Chubu Japan Railway reached a speed of 581 km/H when tested in Yamanashi Prefecture, central Japan, in 2003, a spokesman said. When it comes time to replace its famous "Shinkansen" high-speed trains, the maglev will enter service on the railway system. "Shinkansen" high-speed trains first began to operate in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, which shocked the world at that time.

The Sanyo Shinkansen high-speed train operated by the West Japan Railway Company in the western region of Japan has a speed of 300 kilometers per hour. At present, the fastest train speed in the world using conventional railway technology is the Paris-Lyon high-speed train in France, with a speed of 320 kilometers per hour.

While Chubu doesn't specify where the maglev line will be located, the company wrote in its most recent annual earnings statement that the "first phase" was to build a line from Tokyo to Nagoya, the central industrial hub of Chubu. The China-Japan Railway Corporation said that the ultimate idea is to build a maglev train line connecting Osaka, Japan's second largest city, in the second phase.

The Central Japan Railway Board approved the plan this week. It is estimated that when the maglev train is put into operation in the fiscal year ending March 2026, it will leave the company with a debt of 5 trillion yen. A statement said that under Chubu's plan, the maglev train would generate an additional 5% revenue after the first year of operation, which would reduce Chubu's debt to its current level within eight years.

Central Japan Railway initially hoped the scheme would be subsidised by the government. "The reason why the plan has not progressed is that the government cannot provide funds," the president of the Central Japan Railway Company was quoted as saying by the Japan Business Daily. Market participants also lack confidence.

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Although the benchmark Nikkei 225 index rose 0.65%, the stock price of the Central Japan Railway Company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange fell by 100,000 yen, or 8.85%, to 1.03 million yen. A series of maglev projects are under construction all over the world.

Bavaria, Germany's richest state, said in September that it would build Germany's first commercial maglev train line connecting Munich to its airport in 2014, with a length of 37 kilometers (23 miles).

Engineering teams at SIEMENS and ThyssenKrupp AG have won production approval for the maglev train despite 23 people being killed when it was loaded onto a parked maintenance vehicle during a test last year.

China has finally drawn up plans to extend a 170km (105-mile) maglev line from Shanghai to Hangzhou in 2010, despite state media reports this year that the project might be delayed or cancelled.

The United States is also studying the location of its first maglev train line, with a proposal to build a maglev train line between Washington and Baltimore.

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