Maglev

rpcrowerpcrowe Registered Users Posts: 733 Major grins
edited June 9, 2010 in Journeys
I recently had the opportunity to ride the Shanghai MAGLEV (Magnetic Levitation) train from the Loyang Road Station to the Pudong International Airport as the first leg of my trip back to the U.S. from China.

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The Shanghai MAGLEV is notable for being the first commercial high-speed MAGLEV line in the world.

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The MAGLEV trainset and tracks were manufactured using the German TRANSRAPID Technology. There were two previous MAGLEV trains in operation in Birmingham, England and Berlin, Germany. However both were low speed operations and had closed before the opening of the Shanghai MAGLEV.

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Although the MAGLEV has reached a record speed of 511 km/hr (311 mph), the top operational speed is 431 km/hr (268 mph). The 30 km journey takes 7 minutes and twenty seconds. However during early morning and lete afternoon, the train usually travels at a lower speed of about 300 km/hr (187 mph) which adds an additional 50 seconds on to the trip.

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The interior of the MAGLEV is quite comfortable.

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And the ride is so smooth that it is difficult to realize that you are traveling so fast.

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Comments

  • zentricksterzentrickster Registered Users Posts: 104 Major grins
    edited June 9, 2010
    Nice pictures... I too just returned form China.. I was there on a one month adventure with my new wife. Currently I am wading through about 20Gb of pictures...

    I wanted to take the high speed train from Beijing to Tianjin (my wifes home) but found that getting from Beijing to the train depot takes almost as long as it does to drive from Beijing to Tianjinne_nau.gif

    So my brother in law picked us up and drove us to Tianjin..

    Suppose I should include pic from China... hope this is not a hijack...

    This is from a menu in Xi'an...sounds appetizing doesn't it? We did have a really nice meal at this restaurant ( cel phone pic)
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