China Plans to Develop Maglev Train that can Exceed 600km/hour

Chinese railway company has announced plans to develop maglev train technology.

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State-owned China Railway Rolling Stock announced last month that it would start research to produce a high-speed maglev train by 2020, according to People’s Daily. A maglev train designed and built by local firms began a trial run in Changsha in May, but its maximum speed is only 100km/h.

China already has a commercial maglev line that runs between the city of Shanghai and Pudong International Airport, with a top speed of 430km/h. This train was developed and built with the help of a German consortium.

People’s Daily reported that a maglev line could be developed between Beijing and Shanghai to cut travel time to two and half hours. The current high-speed train takes about 5 hours to travel between the two Chinese big cities.

Last year in April, Japan tested a maglev train with speeds that reached 603km/hour and  breaking its own speed record set just a week earlier.

China has the advantage of scale of developing railway lines for its vast territory, and state funding. The nation has built about 20,000km of high-speed railway lines in a decade, and is continuing its spending spree on railways. Abroad, China has been in a hotly contested race with Japan to export high-speed rail technology in recent years.