Bullet trains to floating trains

We in India are still exploring the option of a Buller train, that too one train, connecting two cities. On the other hand, the pioneer of bullet trains, Japan is thinking far ahead – floating trains. If bullet train brought to mind the picture of a blue and white train speeding with the Mount Fuji as the backdrop, floating trains will redefine train travelling.

The same company which first brought in the bullet train is now developing a floating train, which will cut the journey time between Osaka and Tokyo to little more than an hour—less than half the current time via bullet train. As explained by Wall Street Journal, this will come cheap. It carries a price tag of $90 billion, could be the world's most expensive railway line to date. It will work on magnetic levitation, or maglev, which lifts the cars several inches off a concrete track and whisks them along at more than 500 kilometers, or about 310 miles, per hour—nearly 200 kilometers per hour more than the fastest bullet train, or Shinkansen.

Construction is set to begin from early 2015 and if it succeeds, it could become one of the biggest exports for Japan. Prime Minister Abe has already spoken about this to Obama, planting the seed for a floating train between Washington DC and New-York, all in one-hour!

This will take a long time to come - the first section, from Tokyo to Nagoya, will be completed by 2027, which is seven years after the Olympics in 2020. Phase two, connecting Nagoya to Osaka, will happen only by 2045. Wonder whether the Japanese will have enough population to use the trains by then…..