Japan has always been a pioneer when it comes to high speed train travel.
The bullet train was launched on October 1, 1964 and kickstarted Japan’s high-speed rail travel which transformed the country.
Despite this engineering marvel, travel around Japan continues to become an increasing worry with the need for a faster and more efficient way to move people around its major cities of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.
A new train line costing an eye watering £38billion to build will transform the way we think about journeys as travel between cities will be cut to a fraction of the time it once took.
The Japanese maglev line is currently under construction between Tokyo and Nagoya, with plans for extension to Osaka.
Magnetic levitation on trains may be something out of a futuristic film but this idea was proposed to help with moving more people in Japan, faster.
Known as Chuo Shinkansen, this new line will glide above the tracks at roughly 10 cm.
This train is not just another high speed way of travel but rather the world’s first major commercial maglev line.
This revolutionary line is expected to connect Toyko to Osaka in a mere 67 minutes at a maximum speed of 314 mph (505 km/h) – faster than most airplanes fly on short haul flights.
Currently, the fastest train journey from Tokyo to Osaka takes about 2.5 hours on the Tokaido Shinkansen Line.
Around 90 percent of this track will be running underground though urban landscapes and mountains of Japan to keep the environmental impact low.
These underground tracks will be over a kilometre deep in some places making them the deepest railways in Japan’s history.
Magnetism is at the core of the train line’s ingenuity as the train does not touch the track but rather elevates above it, allowing for less friction and far greater speeds.
Adding to its revolutionary way, these trains can reach immense speeds while still remaining stable even on sharp bends or in adverse weather conditions.
To make Shinkansen earthquake-proof, pillars of elevated tracks have been seismically reinforced with steel plates but the effect of tunnelling on groundwater has been the biggest obstacle engineers have faced during construction.
Depletion of water resources due to the line’s extensive underground constructions have been raised along with a host of other setbacks.
As such, these delays have pushed the timeline of completion from 2027 to 2034 but will set a new global standard for transportation.
