SCMaglev
Japanese superconducting maglev system holding the crewed rail speed record.
The SCMaglev, originally called the MLU, is a maglev train system from JR Central and the Railway Technical Research Institute. It uses electrodynamic suspension to float, steer, and move. The L0 Series test train, built with this tech, set the crewed rail speed record at 603 km/h.
Quick Facts
- Record speed
- 603 km/h / 375 mph
- Levitation technology
- Electrodynamic suspension (EDS)
- Levitation height
- 100 mm / 3.94 in
- Levitation threshold speed
- 150 km/h / 93.2 mph
- Scheduled opening (tokyo–nagoya)
- 2034
Facts from the source article.
Technology
The SCMaglev employs an electrodynamic suspension system. Superconducting magnets on the train's bogies interact with two sets of metal coils in the guideway. The levitation coils are wound in a figure-8 pattern along both guideway walls and cross-connected underneath the track. When the train runs on rubber wheels at low speed, its magnetic fields sit below the coil centers, creating an unbalanced electrical potential. This induces current that generates a reactive magnetic field opposing the magnet's pole and an attracting pole above it, lifting the train 100 mm once it reaches 150 km/h. The cross-connected coils also produce guiding and stabilizing forces: if the train drifts off-center, currents correct its position. Propulsion comes from a linear synchronous motor using a second set of guideway coils.
History
Japanese National Railways began researching linear propulsion in 1962, aiming for a one-hour Tokyo–Osaka train. After Brookhaven National Laboratory patented superconducting maglev in 1969, JNR announced its own SCMaglev development. The first successful run occurred on a short track at the Railway Technical Research Institute in 1972. Testing moved to a 7 km track in Hyūga, Miyazaki in 1977; by 1980 the track was reshaped from a ┴ to a U configuration. In April 1987 JNR was privatized and JR Central took over development. In 1989 JR Central decided to build a better facility with tunnels, gradients, and curves. Construction of the Yamanashi Maglev Test Line began in 1990; its 18.4 km priority section opened in 1997 with MLX01 trains testing until fall 2011, when the line closed for extension to 42.8 km and commercial upgrades. Since 1997, over 2,044,000 miles of test runs have been accumulated, with a single-day record of about 2,525 miles.
Commercial use
In 2009 Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism deemed the SCMaglev ready for commercial operation. Permission was granted in 2011 for the Chūō Shinkansen linking Tokyo and Nagoya by 2034, and to Osaka by 2037; construction is underway. Since 2010 JR Central has promoted the system internationally, notably as the Northeast Maglev in the United States. In 2013 Prime Minister Shinzō Abe offered to provide the first 40 miles of track free to the U.S. In 2016 the Federal Railroad Administration awarded $27.8 million to Maryland for preliminary engineering on a Baltimore–Washington, D.C. route. In late 2015 JR Central, Mitsui, and General Electric in Australia formed Consolidated Land and Rail Australia to build a Sydney–Canberra–Melbourne line funded by private investors.
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