Central Japan Railway Company
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US and Chinese firms agree on high-speed rail plan from LA to Vegas
Pledge agreements aren't the only deals being inked ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's first official state visit to the US. A consortium led by China Railway Group has come to terms with America's XpressWest Enterprises LLC to jointly build and operate a high-speed rail link running between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The project has already cleared its environmental impact study, obtained all of the necessary DoT licensing and right-of-way approvals, and is ready to begin building as soon as next September. China Railway has already put up $100 million in initial capital. According to China Railway, the route will span 230 miles between Las Vegas and Los Angeles proper. XpressWest's website, however, claims the tracks will stop in Victorville, California, 85 miles outside of LA, and 55 miles closer to its destination.
Japan gets official on plans and details for world's fastest maglev
We'd already heard about Central Japan Railway Company's not-so-near-term intentions to deploy a speedy new maglev system in the country, but it looks like it's just now getting official with things, and it's still promising to have it up and running no sooner than 2025. By then, there should be 180 miles of track stretching from Tokyo to central Japan, which'll accommodate a maglev train capable of topping out at 310 miles per hour, apparently making it the world's fastest. That, as you might have guessed, comes at a fairly hefty cost -- $44.7 billion, to be specific -- which makes some similar, but decidedly less speedy systems pale in comparison. As The Register points out, however, while Japan's train will be the fastest maglev system, it won't quite keep up with the fastest conventional trains around, or whatever else might be around in the year 2025.[Photo courtesy of FYS]
