Seeing Our Neighborhood at 265MPH

We rode Shanghai's fast train -the Maglev- to the airport last week. Video can be found here.

Maglev is short for "magnetic levitation." Basically a series of electromagnets on the rails and on the train cars act to lift the cars off the rails by about 1/2 inch. The train actually rides on air, making it smooth, quiet, and very fast. The speed peaks out at 430 kilometers per hour, or about 265 mph. Unfortunately at present, the train doesn't really go anywhere. It runs between a station near our apartment and the Pudong airport, covering 20 miles in about 7 minutes. It stays at top speed for only a minute before it starts braking to enter the station.

There are rumors that the line will eventually be extended to the Hongqiao airport on the west side of the city, and then on to other cities in China. However, there's also another rumor that building the rails for this costs $60 million per kilometer, so I doubt we'll see any expansion for a while.

Here are some links where you can find more information about this train and maglev technology.
http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20030809_pudong_airport_maglev_in_depth.htm
http://www.smtdc.com/en/index.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Maglev_Train
http://science.howstuffworks.com/maglev-train.htm