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The Central Japan Railway Company (J R Central) plans to build a maglev train between Tokyo and Central Japan. At a projected speed of 310 miles an hour or 500 kilometers, the train has already been billed as the world’s fastest maglev train.
A maglev train uses electromagnetic force rather than an engine to propel it towards its destination. The current maglev record holder is in Shanghai which runs at a speed of 430 kilometer per hour. The Shanghai Maglev goes from 0 to 300 kph in just two minutes.
During testing, J R Central’s train touched 581 kilometers per hour. The first train is likely to run between Tokyo and Nagoya.
Other countries are also looking at these super fast trains. Germany’s Bavaria state is expected to get the country’s first commercialized maglev train by 2014, and the US is looking at the possibility of having a maglev service connect Washington and Baltimore.