The future of transport? ‘Floating’ hyperloop train hits a record-breaking speed of 387mph – and could outpace a plane one day
For more than a century, people have relied on airplanes to dramatically reduce the time of domestic travel.
But imagine boarding a train that will take you to your destination even faster than any commercial airliner.
That may be the reality that awaits China in the coming decades, as the country has reached a major milestone in its bid to introduce ultra-high-speed rail travel.
The ‘T-Flight’ train has reached a record speed of 600 km/h on a short test track – even faster than Japan’s MLX01 Maglev, the world’s fastest train (580 km/h).
However, Chinese engineers hope that once it hits the market, the plane will reach as much as 2,000 km/h – much faster than the speed of sound and more than twice the speed of a Boeing 737 aircraft.
The Chinese T-Flight is a magnetic train, which means it uses magnets to lift the carriages above the track
At such a speed, the T-Flight train could go from Wuhan to Beijing in just 30 minutes, instead of more than four hours like current high-speed trains.
T-Flight uses magnetic levitation (maglev) technology, which uses magnets to lift the pods above the runway so they can glide seamlessly.
This eliminates the need for wheels and therefore any form of friction, creating a faster and quieter service.
T-Flight would be a hyperloop train, meaning it would transport people at top speed in tubes between distant locations.
The concept – first proposed in 1910 by American engineer Robert Goddard – gained renewed interest in 2013 thanks to a white paper from billionaire entrepreneur and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
T-Flight was built by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC).
When tested in Datong in northern Shanxi province, the T-Flight reached a speed of 623 km/h in a low-vacuum tube just 2 km long.
The T-Flight train reached a record speed of 600 km/h on a short test track – even faster than Japan’s MLX01 Maglev, the world’s fastest train (580 km/h). Pictured: A model of a supersonic T-flight train on display at an exhibition in Beijing, May 2023
Japan’s MLX01 Maglev (pictured) is currently the world’s fastest train in service, with top speeds of 580 km/h
In a second round of testing, CASIC wants to extend the circuit more than thirty times so that it can reach higher speeds. Living Science reports.
The ultimate goal is to build a pipe system between Wuhan and Beijing – a distance of over 1,055 kilometers – which could reduce travel time from four hours to half an hour.
However, due to the costs and practical difficulties, this could take many decades to happen – similar to Britain’s beleaguered HS2 railway line.
It is unclear how much will be spent on the project; MailOnline has contacted CASIC for more information.
Once on the market, T-Flight would far surpass the trains currently in use around the world, not to mention airplanes.
The Japanese Bullet Train travels at a speed of 430 km/h, while the Eurostar travels at a speed of 300 km/h and most British trains travel at around 200 km/h.
It would even be faster than NASA’s latest experimental high-speed aircraft, the X-59, which the agency says can reach speeds of 900 mph.
However, the T-Flight would not quite match the Concorde, the last supersonic aircraft that could reach a speed of 2,100 km/h.
China already has high-speed trains, ‘Fuxing’, but these do not use maglev technology and operate at a top speed of 350 kilometers per hour (217 miles per hour).
China has high-speed trains, ‘Fuxing’, but these do not use maglev technology (magnetic levitation). Pictured: A Fuxing train departing from Fuzhounan Train Station
However, China does have the world’s first commercial maglev system.
The 30 kilometer stretch, which opened in Shanghai in 2002, connects Shanghai Pudong Airport and the city center and cost more than £1 billion to build.
The line runs trains up to 431 kilometers per hour (267 miles per hour) and is the fastest commercial train system in the world to date.
The fastest train in the world was built by Japan, but has yet to be used commercially.
The magnetic train, operated by the Japan Railways Group, set the world record after reaching a speed of 603 km/h on an experimental track in 2016.
China has more than two-thirds of the world’s high-speed railways
Passengers board a ‘Fuxing’ high-speed train on the Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Line before it leaves Cangnan Railway Station on November 20, 2017
China has the world’s largest high-speed rail network, covering a whopping 35,000 kilometers (21,747 miles) as of 2019. China Central Television Station.
The distance is over two-thirds of the world total.
The country’s total railway coverage is 139,000 kilometers (86,370 miles), enough to circle the Earth three times around the equator.
China is investing heavily in the construction of its railway system.
The country plans to spend no less than 2.8 trillion yuan (£307 billion) on building no less than 23,000 kilometers (14,291 miles) of new railways between 2016 and 2020, according to a government plan.
Xinhua News Agency reported that Beijing completed its largest-ever investment in railway construction between 2013 and 2017.
Nearly 30,000 kilometers of tracks, more than half of which were high-speed lines, had been completed at a total cost of 3.9 trillion yuan (£428 billion).
The country’s newest high-speed train model is ‘Fuxing’, or ‘Rejuvenation’, which has a speed of 350 kilometers per hour.
The model before ‘Fuxing’ is called ‘Hexie’, which means harmony.