A Japanese rail operator said yesterday it plans to introduce the world's fastest train by 2025, a next-generation maglev built at a cost of US$45 billion.
Maglev, or magnetically levitated, trains travel above ground through an electromagnetic pull. The only maglev train now in commercial operation is in Shanghai.
Central Japan Railway Co (JR Central) plans to build a maglev linear-motor train between Tokyo and a to-be-determined area in central Japan at a cost of ¥5.1 trillion (US$44.7 billion), a company spokesman said.
"It will be the fastest train ever -- if it beats the one in Shanghai -- with a velocity of about 500 kilometers per hour, traveling a distance of 290 kilometers," the spokesman said.
The Shanghai train, launched in 2002, travels at 430kph for a 30.5km distance from Pudong airport to the financial district, according to the Shanghai Maglev Transportation Development Co's Web site.
JR Central's magnetic-levitated train hit 581kph in 2003 in a trial run on a test course in Japan's central Yamanashi prefecture, the spokesman said.
The company's board approved the plan this week estimating an accumulative long-term debt of up to ¥5 trillion when the train goes into service in the financial year to March 2026.
The company projects the train will bring in 5 percent additional revenue in the first year, shrinking JR Central's debt to the current level within eight years of starting operation, a statement said.
JR Central initially had waited on the plan in hopes of government subsidies.
"The reason why the plan has not moved a bit is because the government isn't able to bankroll it," the rail operator's president Masayuki Matsumoto was quoted as saying in the the Nikkei business daily.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of