Tokyo-Osaka Maglev Train (Japan)

       This is the future--maglev trains. Japan’s all aboard. They’re spending a staggering $85 billion over the next 30 years to connect the island’s three largest cities: Tokyo to Nagoya to Osaka. That’s over three hundred miles that you’ll be able to cover in about 67 minutes by racing through the countryside at over 300 miles per hour. Maglev technology uses powerful magnetic charges to move rail cars that float several inches above a concrete guideway, rather than riding on steel wheels. This frictionless system allows for a smoother ride at significantly higher speeds than traditional high speed rail. In contrast, California’s planned high speed rail system that’ll eventually connect San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, will only be able to travel at top speeds of 220 mph, but its estimated overall cost is ten billion dollars less than the Japanese system and will cover a distance two and a half times as long. The Chinese city of Shanghai has had a short maglev line in operation since 2004, but the Japanese line is the world’s first intercity link to gain public approval. The project’s called Chuo Shinkansen - or as the Japanese refer to it, Rinia Mota Ka - and is a culmination of 40 years of Japanese maglev development that began with an unlikely partnership between Japan Airlines and Japanese National Railways. What’s really impressive about this project is that JR Central - the company that’s building the line - will finance the project without public money, thanks largely to the success of the bullet train it’s run from Tokyo to Osaka since the mid 1960’s. The company’s also pushing hard to construct a maglev line between the American capital city of Washington DC and New York, which would showcase the technology to the American market and the rest of the western world. The Japanese government has even offered to fully finance the 40 mile first leg of the US project from Baltimore to DC, a proposal Prime Minister Shinzo Abe directly pitched to President Barack Obama during a meeting last year. But critics of Maglev say the costs outweigh the benefits. Opponents have raised questions about the sheer monetary cost of the project, its environmental impact, and whether it is really needed. Tunnels will be blasted through some of Japan’s highest mountains to build the Chuo Shinkansen line. But regardless of what the critics say, something had to change. When the Maglev system is done it will help alleviate the overcrowding on Japan’s existing rail system and make it feasible for commuters into Tokyo to live further outside of the city than they can now.