China is planning to build the world's fastest bullet train, to link Beijing with the financial capital Shanghai. In a sign the country's ambitions to go faster, higher and bigger have not been dimmed by the end of the Olympics, the Ministry of Railways says it is raising the speed it intends the new line connecting the cities to reach when it opens in 2012. New technology will enable trains to travel at 380 km or 236 miles an hour, 30 km per hour (18mph) more than the current generation of bullet trains, according to the ministry's deputy chief engineer, Zhang Shuguang. "It is possible that we can start to manufacture 380 km/h trains in two years' time, and put them into service on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway," he said, according to state media. The high-speed line from Beijing to Shanghai has been an on-off project for several years, but work finally began in April.
In a sign the country's ambitions to go faster, higher and bigger have not been dimmed by the end of the Olympics, the Ministry of Railways says it is raising the speed it intends the new line connecting the cities to reach when it opens in 2012.
New technology will enable trains to travel at 380 km or 236 miles an hour, 30 km per hour (18mph) more than the current generation of bullet trains, according to the ministry's deputy chief engineer, Zhang Shuguang.
"It is possible that we can start to manufacture 380 km/h trains in two years' time, and put them into service on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway," he said, according to state media.
The high-speed line from Beijing to Shanghai has been an on-off project for several years, but work finally began in April.
Purely on power and speed, they could still go for it with present technology, but accepting as drawbacks:
Even advanced "maglev" trains are pretty crude from the airflow viewpoint.
And the train looks identical to the ones in the promo posters. And with that style of big stone retaining wall in the background, I think it could only be in Japan.
High-speed train shape and external surface count most in noise. Both the French AGV and the JR East Fastech prototypes tried their utmost. There was also the idea to reduce drag by applying the pattern of shark skin, but that's difficult, and what about all the dirt and bugs collected up from the air ahead of the train. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
*Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
