The speed race among high-speed rail operators may be about to take another leap, with China’s railroads about to test a new mag-lev train that could reach speeds of just under 400 mph, with the possibility of nearly 500 mph at points.
The train, designed at Southwest Jiaotong University, has no wheels; it floats above the track using magnets which repel it a few inches up. Magnets also propel it, with magnets ahead of it pulling forward, and the same magnets pushing it away from behind. It is an advanced version of mag-lev trains that operate over short distances elsewhere, including a shuttle between Shanghai and its airport.
Once the prototype is finished testing the train’s ‘High Temperature Superconducting (HTS)’ technology is intended to be used on a new high-speed rail link between Chengdu and Chongqing in Sichuan province.
