The French TGV, the world’s fastest conventional train, has reached a top speed of 574km/h. By 2025 commuters on a “maglev” line between Tokyo and Nagoya will be hurtling along at incredible speeds of up to 581km/h. A “magnetically levitating” train floats about 10mm above its guideway on a magnetic field and has low maintenance costs. They will travel the 290km in just 40 minutes. The next step is a Tokyo-Osaka trip of 480km in one hour. Rail officials say as many as 200,000 passengers a day could make the journey. The Japanese technology has been in the pipeline since the 1960s, with a major publically viewable 20km test track to the west of Tokyo since 1997.

The Japanese say they won’t be ready to put a maglev train into service at those speeds until 2025 at the earliest and that’s at a cost of around $47.5 billion.
Source: Newlaunches.com]