By Jamie Barrie W hile Canada continues to weigh itself down by borrow without an end in sight and the United States stalls all forward momentum while sifting through hacked emails to decide who the least objection- able candidate to be president is, China keeps innovating and moving forward at the speed of sound, as they look to developing technology for a new bullet or super train. It is no secret China has a love affair with trains. The interest is particularly keen on the highly advanced magnetic levitation type ormaglev transportation. Maglev uses magnetic levitation to propel without touching the ground. The system travels along a guideway and magnets produce both lift and thrust without friction loss. This method is energy intensive at low speed but when reasonable momentum is obtained the train is literally flying permitting extremely high speeds. China is already home to the fastest commercial train the Shanghai Maglev which shuttles airport travelers at a whopping 430 km/hr. completing the 30 km ride in 8 minutes. According to a recent story by Smartrail World the China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation has started devel- opment of a commercial train they claim will travel 600 km/ hr. That is nearly half the air cruising speed of a Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 while the train remains on the ground.
bullet train makers. The company is preparing a test track 3 miles long for the project. Other than that, the devel- opment has been kept top secret. The whole world is watching the proliferation of Maglev travel explode. The concept of using an air cushion and gaining a natural rear push and front pull frommagnets is clearly a greener alter- native and catching the eye of environmentally focused organizations worldwide. The downside is very few com- panies have access to sufficient capital to make the initial investment in building maglev infrastructure. There are no limits to maglev technology and certainly no shortage of future projects for companies in the sector. One Japanese maglev is being highly recognized and drawing significant attention to the use of this technology globally when it set a world record last year of 589km/ hr. Although industry experts say that meglev technol- ogy will not be commercially viable until 2027 globally as getting a maglev up and running requires all new infra- structure and is very capital intensive. When looking at capital cost, The Shanghai Rail System was the second largest public works project in history after the US Interstate Highway, but even giving these costs there are several maglev proposals currently being considered in various regions across the United States as governments look for greener forms of transportation for commercial goods and travel.
China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation is a state-owned company formed after the merger of China’s two largest
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NOVEMBER 2016 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS
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