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China just launched the worlds fastest ground transport a 600kmh maglev train now connecting Shanghai and Beijing
(peertube.mesnumeriques.fr)
this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
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Looks pretty similar to the Japanese SCMaglev. But does that means the track would need to be active like the Japanese one? I tried to research this in the past and all the sources say that the Japanese Maglev has the linear induction motors on the track, in addition to passive coils that the train's electromagnets interact with.
That's in addition to Maglev's intrinsic need for power delivery coils in the track (the bottom of the track basically needs to be primary side of one giant very smart transformer).
Imagine building from Beijing to Shenzhen's distance in ultra high tech tracks that can't interop with regular trains, where they'll have to safely handle a 600 km/h train passing over them in the harshest weather conditions. And you can't have very thick armor for it because you need the magnetic fields to be as close as possible to make the power delivery efficient, It's both a construction and a maintenance nightmare. The tracks themselves will offset a lot of the ecological benefits of trains over flying.
SNCF set the wheeled train record at 500 km/h with a test train. Why not try to beat that?
I imagine that technical challenge is the whole point as it's a demonstration that China is capable of building this sort of technology. China exports their technology and infrastructure to other countries in BRICS and BRI, and many of them don't have any HSR infrastructure at all. China will be able to showcase how this infrastructure works in practice, and offer something no other country can.