JR Tokai plans maglev railway for Japan, won't open until 2025

So here's the good news: Central Japan Railway Company (JR Tokai) has announced its intentions to construct a swank maglev railway in Japan. The bad news? It's not scheduled to open until 2025. Reportedly, JR Tokai will be coughing up around ¥5.1 trillion ($44 billion, give or take a few mil) of its own change to build the system that will stretch between the "Tokyo metropolitan area and the Chukyo region, with Nagoya at the center." Of course, we're all going to be cruising around in personal flying saucers in a decade anyway, so we wouldn't be too worried about the wait.

[Image courtesy of FYS]

[V3LOCIP3D3 @ Dec 26th 2007 2:02AM]

But how fast will it go? By 2025 they're gonna have to go supersonic to compete with home teleportation closets.

[Mike Shaw @ Dec 26th 2007 2:03AM]

dang

[Jamar @ Dec 26th 2007 2:11AM]

America needs one of these along each coast.

[Magallanes @ Dec 26th 2007 6:53AM]

American Airlines say that trains are more dangerous and expensive that planes. :-P

[SimbaDogg @ Dec 26th 2007 2:16AM]

i wish california would get a high speed rail up and running. something to like San Fran, Los Angeles and San Diego...i've been hearing talks about this for years, but still nothin concrete.

[404error @ Dec 26th 2007 2:42AM]

I remember hearing about a California to Las Vegas High-speed rail years ago and nothing has come of it since then. Really disappointing.

[SimbaDogg @ Dec 26th 2007 2:45AM]

yeah, i for one must say that i'm very worried about an LA to Vegas run. I mean, imagine how many people would head out there being bored on a sat nite if it were only 2 hours away, piss away a grand then come back and spend all day sunday pissed off...

[Ian @ Dec 26th 2007 4:25AM]

well from what ive heard dont count on that thing poppin up anytime soon, i live in the bay and i havent heard anything about that in like 2 years or so. i hope it comes SOMETIME but im not getting my hopes up.

and on the teleporter thing can you imagine being able to go anywhere!!! damn i only hope they get it in our time... you could go on vacation and not have to sleep at some shitty hotel! you could go out and see everything then jump back home to go to bed. i love it!

[Steelwurm @ Dec 26th 2007 2:25AM]

Tokyo to Nagoya: 45 Minutes
Floppies erased: 2 seconds

[webon @ Dec 26th 2007 2:49AM]

sugoi!!

2008 I leave japan 4 good, hopefully I can come back when this badbois are up and running

[Martin @ Dec 26th 2007 3:41AM]

It better be a whole lot cooler than the transcontinental railroad over here...

[rento @ Dec 26th 2007 5:28AM]

I wish I could take the Maglev to work, sigh.

[Jeff @ Dec 26th 2007 7:49AM]

It sounds like this is going to either replace or supplement part of the current Tokaido line. But I wonder why it sounds like they're not going to take it all the way to Osaka. If they're going to Chukyo with "Nagoya at the center", then that probably means they're going at least to Kyoto. But if they're going to Kyoto, I don't know why they wouldn't just go to Osaka. (Osaka is not in Chukyo, so they're not, according to the info above.)

I don't see how this is going to pay for itself without an extension to Osaka. Nagoya-Tokyo in 45 mins. is nice, but not really a $44 billion justification over the current 90 mins. Kyoto-Tokyo in 90 mins would be nice too, but again, Kyoto's "only" got about 1.5 million people. Osaka-Tokyo in 100 mins, though, would be something.

[Constable Odo @ Dec 26th 2007 11:00AM]

Crap. America can't do any large transportation projects. All our tax money keeps going to the Middle East. They could at least build some maglev line from NYC to Washington D.C. or Atlantic City.

[Nori from Japan @ Dec 26th 2007 12:10PM]

Tokai considers to extend the plan from Nagoya to Osaka but they have bad debt about the same # as for the construction so I think they want to make sure the plan is sound for their budget since its kind of remarkable plan since they are not going to plead support from the government.

[Nori from Japan @ Dec 26th 2007 12:15PM]

full of grammer mistakes...haha sorry

[kev @ Dec 26th 2007 9:45PM]

That sucks, that means you're stuck taking the hikari to Osaka. Oh well, at least you shave about an hour or so.

[michael @ Dec 26th 2007 12:44PM]

Sadly, in the US, most of our money goes to building more and more highways and roads.

Eventually, years from now, when it's a bit late, most people will figure out that constantly widening roads and building more won't solve a thing in a growing population.

We need high-speed trains. By the time we really start building them, Europe and Asia will already start building double/triple decker trains that run just as fast and as efficient.

[Johnny5 @ Dec 26th 2007 3:51PM]

Comparing America to European/Japanese train service is tricky. Rail makes sense regionally, say within 200-300 mile radius and with a significant population density, like Japan, Benelux Europe or the NE corridor in America. Compare apples to apples here.

I just flew southwest from DC > Portland OR roundtrip for $200. Could rail ever do that? Would you even want to travel by rail 3000 miles? Southwest turns a profit doing 3000 miles for $200. No rail system could ever do that as cheaply. Commuter rail should certainly be a part of regional transportation in America WAY more than it is but it is not THE silver bullet solution you and many others suggest.

[michael @ Dec 26th 2007 4:07PM]

Well I never said it was an end all solution.

And I never said it would take down air travel.

Just that most people are looking towards rail infrastructure as a more better transport, than just slapping on more road concrete.

[EJ @ Dec 26th 2007 1:17PM]

JR Tokai? At a glance, I thought this was going to be a Chinese attempt at a fantasy novel.

[WorldCTZen @ Dec 26th 2007 5:56PM]

Johnny5..
As you suggest, compare apples to apples. Don't compare Hi-Speed trains to cross-continental airliners. In the area of 500 miles, air travel has the upper edge in not needing rails, ignoring terrain (i.e. the Rocky mountains), higher speeds, etc. So, for cross country travel, air will dominate (short of some massive innovations in mag-lev).
Each has it's use and place and a modular travel network is more efficient and robust than relying on cars and airplanes alone.

[WorldCTZen @ Dec 26th 2007 5:59PM]

My post was cropped.. :(

In the area of less than 500 mile travel, Hi-speed rail has an advantage over air travel. Most inter-city travel in America is at about 300 miles (i.e. eastern seaboard, along the west coast, etc). For REGIONAL travel, Hi-speed rails would be invaluable for lowering travel costs, increasing capactiy, lowering FUEL consumption, and, especially around this time of year, IGNORING BAD WEATHER. Ever hear of trains being grounded for low visibility? Now, beyond 300 miles, things begin to be comparable, as planes can actually get to cruising altitude for a while before having to descend again. At more than 500 miles, air travel has the upper edge in not needing rails, ignoring terrain (i.e. the Rocky mountains), higher speeds, etc. So, for cross country travel, air will dominate (short of some massive innovations in mag-lev).
Each has it's use and place and a modular travel network is more efficient and robust than relying on cars and airplanes alone.

[Jaegz @ Dec 31st 2007 5:46PM]

The only way to justify bullet train in USA is to cut down highway use and air traffic. I also believe that JR has a crappy version of Transrapid (which I rode in Germany). It's a cheaper design, and hasn't been maxed out because the longest track in Germany is only 13 km long and you cannot accelerate to more than 500 km/h; however given conditions were better it could most likely reach at least 600 km/h. Had Transrapid chosen a more bullet shaped vehicle, I could see it being able to reach 800 - 900 km an hour on tracks longer than 40 miles long. Politics are the main barrier with bullet trains. However, you will see one day that governments will start banning air traffic to the same destinations as bullet trains on "environmental" grounds, and this will make these extremely high costs no longer an issue.

[phat tuesday @ Jan 1st 2008 4:59PM]

deez nutz