China Gives Green Light to World's First Long Distance High Speed Maglev
The review board in Qingdao approved the plans for the world’s first long-distance, ultra high-speed maglev line. The decision was made on 25 January and it's a giant leap forward for maglevs. The prototype train is planned to reach at least 600 km/h (373 mph) top speed by 2020. The high-speed maglev transportation system is supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology's 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) to promote advanced rail transit system. The projects aims to make China an independent designer and manufacturer of maglev technology.
Photo: Changsha Maglev in China
China will be competing with Japan's L0 Series maglev train that has a top speed of 603 km/h (375 mph) and is set to serve on the Tokyo - Nagoya line from 2027 and with the German Transrapid International that produced the Transrapid SMT for the Shanghai Maglev line. The Chinese operated
German made maglev has a top speed of 501 km/h (311 mph), but it's operational speed is 431 km/h (268 mph).
Currently, there are five maglev lines in operation and open for public use: with three of them in China:
- Shanghai Maglev
- Line s1 of the Beijing Metro
- Changsha Maglev
- Linimo near Nagoya in Japan
- Incheon Airport Maglev in South Korea
