Late last year, China began rigorous testing of the CR450, a passenger train capable of zooming by at 280 miles per hour.
Zhao Hongwei of the China Academy of Railway Sciences told state media during the test runs that it’s taken years for scientists to nail down the technology.
“We started planning the CR450 back in 2018,” she said. “It took three years to nail down the top technical specifications, and we commenced the project officially in 2021.”
The long, sleek bullet train is silver and red with a shell made of carbon fiber and magnesium alloys, a lightweight mixture that lets trains fly down the tracks. Experts expect the CR450 to begin running between the cities of Chengdu and Chongqing in 2025.
The route is 180 miles, and the ride will take 50 minutes. For reference, that’s the distance between New York City and Baltimore, which takes an hour and 40 minutes by plane. China said the CR450 will be the fastest commercially available train globally.
But in Japan, another sort of train is being prototyped. During recent testing, the sheer speed left onlookers in total disbelief. And unlike China’s 450, this train doesn’t even use wheels. The technological showdown in East Asia could reshape the future of travel. Other countries — like Germany — are also working hard on high-speed trains. Though Japan and China are the two with the fastest.
“Japan’s is based on a superconducting magnetic levitation system,” said Zhenhua Chen, a professor at The Ohio State University who studies high-speed rail around the world.
Chen said this technology, known as Maglev, uses electromagnets to make trains float above the tracks while travelling at super fast speeds, well above 300 miles per hour. China is also developing the technology, but Japan has plans to implement it on a major line, between Tokyo and Nagoya.
The technology is impressive, but it’s quite expensive.
“It’s not clear when this is going to be fully deployed,” Chen said. “Simply because the cost is a big concern.”
A big delay was just announced. The price tag is more than $50 billion, and experts like Rick Harnish, co-founder of the High Speed Rail Alliance, are skeptical.
“Maglev is something that’s talked about a lot,” he said. “But really, when it comes down to it, a conventional train running steel wheels and steel rails is the best way to go.”
Even still, professor Chen said that the floating train concept isn’t something to sleep on. If the initial costs can be reduced, it could be a game changer, he said, allowing riders to travel at previously unheard of speeds and reducing emissions by getting people out of airplanes.
“It will be a major shift,” he said. “Simply because it’s going to be much faster, much more reliable and much more green.”
If that shift were to happen, Chen said, it would completely change the way we travel and boost economic growth.
His research has found that high-speed rail investment in China contributed to a 10.3% increase in gross domestic product and an 8.5% rise in social welfare between 2002 and 2013.
Because of that, Chen said, regardless of how the competition turns out — Maglev or traditional trains — the only real losers in this high-speed, international race will be countries like the US that haven’t invested in high-speed rail.