The Word's Fastest Train: The SCMaglev

this video was made possible by curiositystream watch thousands of high quality documentaries and get access to my streaming service nebula by using the link in the description 60 years ago Japan invented High-Speed Rail with iconic bullet trains that could operate at more than 200 kilometers per hour the bullet train transformed Japan and kick-started a revolution in High-Speed Rail around the world now the Japanese are setting out to do it again this time by building a new kind of train that'll operate at an incredible 500 kilometers per hour the world's fastest train will connect Japan's two largest cities and it'll be faster than flying covering the 400 kilometer distance in just 67 minutes but this is also one of the most expensive transport projects in history and an enormous bet on a technology that has yet to prove itself and some question whether building the world's fastest train really makes sense foreign [Music] even as the first bullet trains began operating in 1964 Japanese Engineers were already working on a radical new kind of train with cutting-edge rail Technologies bullet trains could operate at speeds once thought impossible and while there were still plenty of room to get them to go even faster Engineers realized that at some point trains would hit a speed limit the friction vibration and noise from conventional steel wheels would simply become too great to go much faster they'd need a new kind of train so to eliminate rail friction Engineers would get rid of the wheels altogether and instead use magnetic force to levitate the train inside a guideway although the solution seemed radical the idea of magnetically levitating a train had been around since the early 1900s with the first patents appearing in 1912 but the Technologies needed to make such a train actually work were only beginning to come together in the 1960s among early experiments with maglevs Japan and Germany emerged As Leaders each investing heavily in unique versions of the technology by the 1980s prototype maglevs were making headlines breaking speed records and promising to revolutionize Railways but it would be another two decades before the first high-speed maglev would see commercial operation it wasn't until 2004 with the opening of the Shanghai trans rapid the maglevs had finally overtaken conventional rail as the fastest trains in the world on the line connecting Shanghai with its airport maglevs based on Germany's technology routinely reached 430 kilometers per hour but since opening almost 20 years ago it's still the only high-speed maglev in operation because much of the world has since given up on the technology and there were once ambitious plans to build high-speed maglev lines around the world with some even predicting that North America alone would see thousands of kilometers constructed by the 2020s but plans never materialized the problem is maglevs are expensive compared to Conventional High-Speed Rail lines they cost anywhere from two to three times more to build and they don't work with existing infrastructure unlike high-speed trains which can make use of more than a million kilometers of conventional Rail lines already in existence along with stations built out in almost every city since 1964 over 50 000 kilometers of High-Speed Rail Line have been constructed a number expected to double in the coming decades that compares to less than 100 kilometers of maglev lines built in the same time period the world seems to have moved on but Japan is still forging ahead Japan's massive bet on maglev technology starts with geography the world's first Intercity maglev line being built by the central Japan Railway company will connect the country's two largest cities just like the first bullet trains did in 1964 but today where it takes two and a half hours for the fastest bullet trains to travel between Tokyo and Osaka the new maglev line will cut that down to just 67 minutes and it means that three cities with a combined population of more than 18 million people will be brought within commuting distance effectively transforming them into a single giant City a degree of Mobility that promises to boost Japan's entire economy but there are also more pressing reasons to build the new line the existing shinkansen line already carries nearly half a million passengers every single day but with bullet trains often spaced just three minutes apart it's reaching its limit and so is the info structure which is now almost 60 years old and the existing line also runs through the most earthquake-prone regions of Japan one major earthquake could sever the country's most critical Rail Link causing enormous Financial damage the maglev line will instead take a more direct route between the major cities through a much less seismically active mountain range and it means that over 80 percent of the line will run through tunnels some of which will be 25 kilometers long and a kilometer and a half below the surface the first section is expected to open in 2027 with the remaining connection to Osaka completed a decade later but when it's all said and done Japan's high-speed Intercity maglevs will be the fastest way to travel between Japan's major cities even faster than flying making such eye-watering speeds possible is a technology that's been in development for over 50 years it's called SC maglev the SC stands for superconducting to levitate trains off their guideway electromagnets are cool to extreme temperatures in order to take advantage of a phenomenon called superconductivity which significantly increases magnetic force the Train's electromagnets interact with coils embedded inside a guideway one set of coils is used to propel the train while the other is for levitation and guidance the second set of coils is on powered it means SC maglevs must first accelerate on Wheels to 150 kilometers per hour before they can induce a magnetic field to levitate but once up to speed the trains are dynamically stable requiring no active systems to keep them stable and centered the trains are also fully autonomous controlled not by a driver but by the track meaning collisions are almost impossible and with three separate braking systems they can also stop faster than conventional trains this is a train straight out of the future and it'll be the most ambitious implementation of maglev technology but does it actually make sense to build [Music] for nearly 60 years Japan has continued to develop their iconic bullet trains today they're recognized as some of the most advanced reliable and efficient high-speed trains in the world leading some to question whether the switch to maglev is less of a leap forward and more of a misstep to start SC maglevs are smaller than bullet trains in almost every Dimension and it means they'll carry fewer passengers nor will they run as frequently as bullet trains maglev switches the mechanism that allows maglevs to switch tracks are much slower than conventional rail switches it means maglevs must operate at least 10 minutes apart compared to just three minutes for bullet trains smaller trains running less frequently means Japan's maglev will never match the capacity of a conventional bullet train all the while consuming a lot more energy below 300 kilometers per hour the energy consumption of a bullet train and maglev aren't that different but operating at 500 kilometers per introduces much more air resistance made worse by running mostly through tunnels it means to operate at twice the speed of bullet trains and see mag loves will consume four times more energy and the project is already the most expensive in Japan's history estimated to cost at least five and a half times more than the original 1964 bullet train line much of it owing to the amount of tunneling required but also the cost of building entirely new stations next to or below existing ones proponents argue that SC maglev technology can be exported to the rest of the world the question is where the rest of the world has already passed up on Germany's trans rapid in favor of conventional High-Speed Rail China is the only other country still researching Ultra high-speed maglevs showing off its own prototype in 2021 but the country also recently renewed its commitment to expand its conventional high-speed rail network by tens of thousands of kilometers by the end of the decade well there are proposals to implement SC maglev technology elsewhere the reality is few places in the world have Japan's combination of wealth population density and appetite for enormously expensive infrastructure projects leaving many to question whether Japan's enormously expensive investment into maglev can never really pay off [Music] when the Japanese were pouring billions into constructing the first bullet train many ridiculed it as a misguided effort Railways were viewed as a dead technology too slow to survive the Modern Age but the world's first high-speed Railway was an enormous success and other countries soon followed with their own massive investments in High-Speed Rail the SC maglev is Japan's next Quantum Leap operating at speeds well beyond the reach of conventional rail it'll be cleaner quieter safer and more comfortable than any train before it but these benefits will be weighed against enormous development and infrastructure costs the SC maglev story is yet to be written and it remains to be seen whether the project can Herald in a new era of high-speed ground transport or whether it's destined to join other failed attempts at Reinventing railways if you're wondering how I make my videos or what software I use maybe just a bit more about who I am check out my latest behind the scenes q a video on nebula where I answer questions submitted by you and while you're at it check out my other exclusive nebula videos nebula is where top educational creators like Wendover Productions post exclusive content without annoying YouTube ads or sponsor messages and it's home to a growing library of full-featured Originals foreign [Music]

Channel: Mustard

Views: 7,944,549

Keywords: SCMaglev, Superconducting Maglev, Maglev, Fastest Train In the World, High-Speed Train, Shinkansen, Chuo Shinkansen, Chūō Shinkansen, Train speed record, Railways, Fastest Train, Fastest Railway, Tokaido Shinkansen, High Speed ground transport, Magnetically Levitating Trains, High-speed Maglev, Transrapid, How fast can trains get, Trains, Bullet Train, Mustard

Id: -MmcQKE12Hg

Length: 11min 2sec (662 seconds)

Published: Thu May 27 2021