sen-no-sen wrote:Leo Maximus wrote:
In terms of energy consumption km / passenger, the best performance is that of Maglev type trains.
The problem of the maglev is the mind-boggling cost of the meter of track, the skytrain would be a much more interesting solution from the economic point of view.
In Japan, it is the "Linear Express" also called "Chuo Shinkansen" or "New central line". It is currently under construction since Japan Railways signed the order last June:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1JvoP6aj2s . Anyway it will be done. In 2014 there will be enough track to carry out tests at 700km / h, or even more.
The cost is high in Japan because you have to build hundreds of km of tunnels in a seismic zone, it is several times the Channel Tunnel and then expropriate at a high price but the system itself is not much more expensive than a Shinkansen train. Contrary to what one says, the track does not use superconductors but it is only the "bogies" of the cars which use them.
A train of Linear Express L-Zero is 14 cars and 950 passengers weighing 270 tonnes, that's 0,28 tonnes per passenger, average speed of 500 to 550 km / h and 700 km / h at maximum speed. Energy consumption per passenger is half that of the train.
We can perform tests on the current portion of the future Tokyo-Osaka track, it is the "Yamanashi Test Line". You have to register, there are travel agencies in Paris that offer it. Here a video of a test. We go from 30 km / h to 500 km / h in 70 seconds. The video is absolutely not rigged:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ6dYhHI ... re=related
The Japanese have more than 40 years of experience on this type of train, from the start they believed it.