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)
