Shanghai Maglev Train: The Fastest Metro in the World at 431km/h
Shanghai Maglev can achieve speeds upto 431 km/h.
advertisement
The Delhi Metro travels at maximum speeds of 135 km/h.
You might think that’s a lot, but did you know that the Shanghai Maglev Train (SMT) travels at top speeds of 431 Km/h?
The Shanghai Maglev Train was built with technological help from Germany, and has been operational since 2002.
It is the world’s first and only commercialised Maglev train line in operation. It runs from Pudong International Airport to Longyang Road Station and the entire journey takes only seven minutes.
The Shanghai Trans-rapid project took $1.33 billion and two and a half years to complete.
If you are traveling to Shanghai, this is one experience you definitely should not miss. A single trip costs 50 Chinese Yuan (approximately Rs 550) and the train has differential speed limits for different times of the day.
The train operates at maximum speeds of 431 km/h between 9 am to 10:45 am in the morning and 3 pm to 3:45 pm in the afternoon. The 30 km journey, which takes about an hour by road, takes only 7 minutes via the Maglev.
Maglev, which is short for magnetic levitation, is a method by which an object is suspended with no support other than magnetic fields.
Thus, the wheels of the Maglev train and the track are never in contact with each other and the train levitates above the track. Using this process, the train can attain such high speeds without compromising safety.
There have been ongoing experiments in Europe on magnetic levitation high speed metro transits, but Shanghai Maglev is the only one in the world where you can actually buy a ticket and experience such speeds.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)