China recently rolled out a high-speed maglev train with a designed top speed of 600 km per hour, stated to be the world’s fastest ground vehicle. The new maglev transportation system made its public debut in the coastal city of Qingdao, China’s east Shandong province, according to the state official report.
Launched in October 2016, the high-speed maglev train project saw the development of a magnetic-levitation train prototype with a designed top speed of 600 kms per hour in 2019, and conducted a successful test run in June 2020, the report said.
The train can travel with two to 10 carriages, each holding more than 100 passengers. Compared with traditional vehicles running on wheels, high-speed maglev trains do not have contact with rail tracks. They have advantages in terms of efficiency and speed, and produce very little noise.
Magnetic levitation: In Maglev, superconducting magnets suspend a train car above a U-shaped concrete guideway. Like ordinary magnets, these magnets repel one another when matching poles face each other. With maglev technology, the train travels along a guide way of magnets which control the train’s stability and speed. While the propulsion and levitation require no moving parts, the bogies can move in relation to the main body of the vehicle.
