China to build maglev train that can hit 600 km/h

China is zooming right along with plans to develop an even faster maglev train.

Last Thursday, China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC), the country’s largest rail transportation equipment maker, announced that its plans for a 600 km/h magnetic levitation train had been approved. The train would be capable of making the trip from Shanghai to Beijing in just two hours.

One of China’s 18 national key research and development plans, the special research project officially began last fall, allocated with 9 billion yuan in funding. The project is tasked with looking into a variety of high-speed rail options, including two types of maglev trains: one that will run at 200 km/h and another that will run at 600 km/h.

According to the plan, the first 600 km/h variety will roll off the production line in 2020 and be ready for testing along a 5-kilometer track.

In fact, we already know that maglev trains are capable of reaching speeds of 600 km/h plus. In April 2015, Japan broke its own speed record with a maglev that topped out at 603 km/h. However, commercial operation of these trains is still a long way away, with concerns about the infrastructure cost of building lengthy maglev tracks, not to mention safety issues.

China is already currently home to the fastest commercial train in the world — the Shanghai Maglev, built with German technology, which takes travelers to the Pudong International Airport. Its top operational speed is 431 km/h.

In 2016, China introduced its first homegrown maglev line in Changsha, transporting passengers from the south railway station to the airport at a not terribly impressive top speed of 100 km/h. Last year, Beijing’s first maglev train, also homegrown, went into trial operation, it also runs at a leisurely 100 km/h.

Of course, this is all a bit less impressive when you remember that another Chinese company announced its intentions last year to build a futuristic “flying train,” capable of hitting a maximum speed of 4,000 km/h, while apparently not being a danger to passengers.

[Images via CCTV]

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