The fastest passenger trains in the world run in Japan.  They are better known to us as Bullet Trains, or ‘Shinkanshen’ as the Japanese call them.  They travel twice as fast as those in North America.  The fastest of Shinkanshen, the Tokaido, travels at speeds greater than 440 kilometers per hour.  The Tokaido rail line is also noted to be the world’s busiest railway line.


    The initial models of Shinkanshen trains were designed to run at speeds ranging from 200 to 210 km/h.  This was later increased to 220 km/h (135 mph). Certain trains still serve the Japanese rail network even today commuting passengers between the cities of Hakata and Osaka.

    The most common Shinkanshen trains travel at speeds of 300 kilometers per hour.  Germany, France and Spain have been recent competitors to Japan’s high-speed program.  The French TGV is another high speed train which achieved a maximum speed of 574 kilometers per hour on a test run.  The Shinkanshen, translated as ‘New Trunk Line’, was actually intended to carry both passenger and freight trains, but later the railway network decided that it be used only for transporting passenger trains.

    The Japanese have yet another ambitious upcoming project which intends to manufacture locomotives that travel greater than 580 kilometers per hour.  This will be based on the technology of Maglev or magnetic levitation.  The train will consist of rotating magnets built into its sides, and there will be present a roll of magnets on the side of the track as well.  The magnets on the train are aligned so that they are constantly being pulled towards the magnets that attract them and pushed away from the magnets that repel them.  The wheels of this train will be designed in such a way that once the train crosses a 140 miles per hour, they retract, just like the tires of an airplane.  Thus, the train will be suspended in thin air which eliminates the presence of any friction that could slow it down.

      The Shinkanshen network has a very safe rail record.  There have been no human fatalities since the system came into functioning.