30 MAY: Japan gave the go ahead Friday for a magnetic levitation line that will shuttle passengers between Tokyo and Osaka in just over an hour using the world’s fastest trains.
Railway operator JR Tokai plans to lay the maglev line from Tokyo through the central city of Nagoya to Osaka, in western Japan, with trains travelling at a dizzying 500 kilometres an hour (300mph).
The company hopes to begin an environmental assessment in December with a view to starting construction in 2014.
The world’s only other high-speed maglev in operation, launched in Shanghai in 2002, travels at 430kmh from Pudong airport into the city.
Japan’s version, which hovers 10 centimetres above the tracks, reached a world record speed of 581kmh at the company’s Yamanashi Maglev Test Line near Mount Fuji in 2003.
Japan’s fastest operating trains are the Sanyo Shinkansen, or bullet train, run by JR West in western Japan and the Hayabusa Tohoku Shinkansen that links Tokyo and northern Aomori, both of which travel at 300kmh.
