For 11 seconds, this Japanese Maglev train powered through a tunnel at over 370mph with a peak speed of 374 mph. That’s not to say the thing shot up to that speed and was done. Nope. This train may have peaked at 374 but it cruised along its test trackat speeds that make the traditional 200mph Japanese Bullet Train look like a Yugo with a couple of severed spark plug wires. Maglev is short of magnetic levitation. Very powerful electro magnets create lift as well as creating the motive force to move the vehicle around. Yes, the train was literally floating in the air and being blasted along by magnets. With no direct connection to the ground you can start to see how the elimination of things like wheels and other mechanical drive components would start to make this ultra high-speed travel.

As mentioned before the train was on a test track and it was bring operated by the largest Japanese rail company called JR Central. The company wants to build a Maglev line in Japan to tie major cities together and reduce travel time from hours into minutes. Perhaps more interestingly they want desperately to build a Maglev line in the USA that would connect Washington DC and New York City. If anything, this test was meant more for the potential for a line in America than it was in Japan. The American line would be far less expensive to build and potentially more profitable.

There are larger forces at work in Japan that may not make the crushing investment in creating Maglev train lines feasible in the coming decades (less demand, population shrink, etc) that aren’t necessarily being projected here in the USA so the company is interested in establishing themselves as a technology leader globally.

Would you pay to ride a 375mph train? We would! There’s video of the wild looking creation below. The future is here and it is Maglev.