The Delayed Arrival of High-Speed Rail

By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, September 24, 2008.

A recent news story out of Japan caught our eye. Kawasaki has unveiled plans to develop a new high-speed train that’s expected to achieve a speed of 217 miles per hour. They’re calling it the Environmentally Friendly Super Express Train (efSET).

Japan already has some impressive high-speed bullet trains. The Shinkansen train goes up to 188 miles per hour. And in 2003, Japan set a world record with a test run of a maglev – or magnetic levitation – train, which reached 361 miles per hour.

Advocates for high-speed rail networks in the U.S. believe their time has come. Gas prices are high, mass-transit ridership is up to record levels, people are more aware of their carbon footprints, and anyone who’s travelled by air knows how frustrating that can be.

For more, we called Karrie Jacobs. She’s a contributing editor at Metropolis magazine, where she wrote about the future of high-speed trains in the United States.

(Photo by C.K. Koay)

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Here are 2 reasons to build MAGLEV and connect all big US cities together:

1) Let's say 100 years from today, all oil is used up or oil prices will hit 1000$ per barrell, then who can afford to travel by plane? or driving?

2) You probably spend billions of dollars at the beginning for building MAGLEV but the reward is huge over time (e.g. low maintenance cost per mile VS conventional train, high reliability ~99.97% in MAGLEV Shangai, decrease chance of having an accident with a freight train while passenger (MAGLEV) and freight train use different tracks, people can take MAGLEV instead of airplane travelling from one big city to another, reduce oil consumption, etc.)

Submitted by Mark12345 on Thu, 09/25/2008 - 00:17.

Idea Smackdown: Round III

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Word of Mouth is all about what's new. Online and on-air, the show looks at our fascinating and ever-changing world, and puts the latest ideas under a microscope. Word of Mouth investigates everything from science and technology, to health and the environment, to new trends in popular culture. The show airs Monday through Thursday at noon and is hosted by Virginia Prescott.