Japanese Railway Central is bidding to bring it’s awesome magnetic-levitation trains to America for a proposed route that would link California to Florida. The trains can reach speeds over 360 miles per hour. That’s frickin’ fast by any standard, but especially so when you consider the sorry-ass trains currently roaming the country. CrunchGear served up more details:
A major requirement for these funds is that the products be American made. JR Central worked up a plan that involves major parts of the $3.5 billion project would be made locally. This would included infrastructure such as the signals, and track, while just parts of the rolling stock would be built by U.S. companies.
I’m pretty big on public transportation (grew up in NY). I’ve also taken a lot of train rides in Japan and love JR’s products. I would love for America to get futuristic mag-lev trains that look like they should have a wave-motion cannon. Come on America! Modernize your railways!!!
I haven't had the pleasure of experiencing that but i'll take your word for it Rpad. I was impressed by the Korean railways and subways when I was stationed there in 1998-99. I'm from Chicago and we do have a fairly good transportation but i was quite blown away but what i saw over there. I can just imagine what i would do experiencing this in Japan or here if this comes to fruition. I wonder if they will have a stop at Union Station in Chicago??? I hope they do, i'd rather ride the rails then fly but it's sooooooooooo slow compared to flying.
If I could get from Cali to FL in less than 7 hours and not have to deal with flying I'd probably take it. Flying can take a whole day. of course, this all depends on the security on these kinds of trains. I imagine it would be a lot less complicated than air travel, but still more complicated than buying a pass and catching the next stop.
of course that begs the question, do I really want to go to Cali or FL?
@shockwave
I don't think it will be complicated. I'm sure it will have the same rules as air travel or more thorough inspection of luggage/bags, at every stop for new passengers but maybe that's it. If whomever is in charge of this takes an Japan's rail system, i'm sure it will be great.
@tokz – no kidding, air travel can be a whole day effort no matter where you go. plus, this could be a cheaper option to get there almost as fast
@shockwave
Yeah, i agree. I travel a lot for tradeshow/conventions/meetings for work and it's a B, sometimes with incompetent (sp?) airline ticket agents, baggage fees, and different security procedures being in place at different airports. If they want it to succeed and be a viable threat to airlines it will but they will most likely get together and complain to Congress about this threat.
true, I'm sure the air travel industry may fight this one
SWEET! California to Florida means it'd most likely go right through Houston, since I-10 is the Florida-California Interstate!
Man, it'd be cool to get from Houston to Florida in 2 hours!
Maybe I'd even end up visiting CA at some point…