I rode the world's fastest train.
I thought maglev trains were a dead-end technology: but it looks like I was wrong. At JR Central's Yamanashi Maglev Test Track, I rode Japan's new maglev. ■ The maglev: scmaglev.jr-central-global.com/ ■ The exhibition centre: www.linear-museum.pref.yamana...
Local producer: Yasuharu Matsuno at Mind Architect
Camera and edit: Julian Domanski
(This video has an English dub and limited audio description available. These are experimental and use AI-generated voices, so may not be perfect, and I can't promise they'll stay long-term. On supported devices, change the language option to use them!)
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I did consider whether to put mph or km/h in the thumbnail. Alas, that's not something I can localise to different regions yet...!
Hi Tom 👋
When this question arises, the answer is alway metric
Hello there :D
We can convert. 😎
Maybe the solution is to use the UNIVERSAL constant of the speed of light 😁😁
Tom Scott is truly making the most out of his trip to Japan .
He even met Chris Broad. I wonder if they're gonna make a collab
yup
Really hoping for a collab with Chris Broad though!
well... there's some stuff he won't be able to show to truly make it the most, and I don't mean the H
And why shouldn't he!
I don't think people realise how fast 1km in 8 seconds really is 😳
thats a mile every 13-16~ seconds, wow
I kid you not, this speed allows the train to be competitive with air travel in the US when taking border sscurity into acount. You only reach break even at around 3000 km compared to air, possibly even more if you need to monkey around more than 3 hours at the source and destination airports. Forget the clusters like the east coast metro area or the Texas southern cluster of cities. This train could knit the entirety of the US together.
@@dekippiesipthe US doesn’t have enough funding anymore to construct something like this.
@@kxno8302Usa definitely has the money but the money is going somewhere else
@@dekippiesip The security delay on planes is largely unnecessary. Nothing prevents the government from imposing 3 hour security delays on maglev trains, should they ever be commercialized. It just takes one incident (terrorism, sabotage etc) and you can kiss the idea of fast, efficient train boarding goodbye.
"One local government keeps raising objections" - Fun fact, the prefecture of Shizuoka, between Tokyo and Nagoya, has historically been against high speed rail, since those would just skip over the prefecture altogether. Although they would have to provide the land space for the tracks, high speed rail doesn't allow for stops in "minor" areas, so for the local economy it would be like providing the shovel to dig their own grave. This happened back in the 60s during construction of the Tokaido Shinkansen and now, 60 years later, the same exact issue once again. (Edit: it's similar to the "highways killing small-town roadside economies" problem that I'm sure every country has experienced on some level.)
I'd bet the economic advantage the high speed rail provides can be justified despite what the downs and effects for Shizuoka's finnancial contribute to the country as a whole. It's annoying to stop at Shizuoka every single goddamm time from Nagoya side going to Tokyo in a Shinkansen or vice versa.
Couldn't they add a little stop with one of those center pass throughs for express trains?
Even I’m a tourist, I can feel how bad JR東海 in Shizuoka, Shinkansen slow train only in Atami, mishima, Shizuoka and Hamamatsu. Train were missing in existing line and without announcement.
@@w1z4rd9 They have skip stop train in pass, but after nozomi was serviced, that skip stop train cutting off to every half hour
@@w1z4rd9 Most trains on the Tokaido line don't stop at Shizuoka. Shizuoka wants a station at the airport, as the current Tokaido line passes RIGHT underneath the airport... but JR Central doesn't want to do it. Shizuoka Airport is really inconveniently located like a LOT of Japanese airports(except FUK) and mostly has flights to FUK, CTS, and Kagoshima... all places that are a bit far by train... and it's in between two Shinkansen stations now.
seems to be a whole lot more realistic than hyperloop will ever be...
That goes without saying, Hyperloop would be this but with even higher speeds, a continuous tunnel, airlocks and tons of vacuum pumps.
The Hyperloop is a great example of taking the engineering principle of minimizing potential points of failure and then doing the exact opposite of that
That Las Vegas tunnel with teslas and RGB?
@@cd7677 What speed does that run at?
Hyperloop technology has yet to be proven.
Tom is the perfect ad for any company. This is a dream job. He gets invited all over the world for no other reason than his huge audience and his integrity as a person, keeping his videos down to earth, without any hype or artificial drama. It is nice to see quality being valued. I wish Tom the best and am looking forward to see more videos here.
Agreed, and his integrity absolutely is key to that. When we watch a video in which Tom is impressed and excited by a thing, we can trust that the thing legitimately impressed and excited him. He won't pretend, and he can and will simply scrap a video that didn't work out the way he'd hoped - we don't see those.
And it's so scientific too - he breaks down the technology and how it all works into a really understandable format not just shouting "oh my god That's so quick bros!!"
@@patheddles4004 Except, he *has* posted videos in the past that he's confessed didn't go the way he wanted to, except those videos weren't for companies I think, they were to tell stories about integrity and other things.
@@Tara-fo2gx or in which things went wrong in interesting ways which then became the topic of the video instead.
I asked a train engineer how many times his train had derailed. He said, “I’m not sure, it’s hard to keep track
日本国内のどの報道機関より分かりやすく魅力が伝わってきます。言語の壁すら越えて。明快で分かりやすいレポート、ありがとうございます。 地元の人間として、開通を楽しみにしております。
English Translation for those viewing on KZhead Web: "The appeal is conveyed more clearly than any other news organization in Japan. Even beyond the language barrier. Thank you for your clear and easy to understand report. As a local, I am looking forward to the opening."
@@SYDTrainsFilms Yes we do have a translate button too.
Los Angeles to San Francisco is about 380 miles. Imagine being able to go that far in just an hour or so. That is insane and I can only dream that the US would develop their rail system
Japan is spending over 86 billion dollars on their maglev line the US can’t afford that.. not after the 115 billion that was sent to Ukraine
San Francisco and Los Angeles have airports, people just fly there if they need to be there quick.
@@levismith7444 perhaps we should not blow all the money on proxy wars then
@@levismith7444 US can clearly afford that considering the CA HSR is even more expensive than that. Unfortunately, lawyers and "environmental reviews" aren't cheap, and Americans can't resist embezzling funds allocated to the project, whether intentionally or as a result of poor planning.
@@levismith7444 im not sure how you can build a railway with missiles and tanks that are about to expire
"500km/h and it feels like a train" reminds me of the pioneers of railway. Back then people were afraid of taking a train because they believed that speeds over 30km/h were unbearable for the human body and thus deadly.
It would be interesting to know how many kilos of coal it would take to move one of those old time trains one kilometer.
@@johnlogullo2237 Depends on when, where and which locomotive you're talking about. Steam trains got more efficient over times and the ones made towards the end of the steam era were much more efficient than the earliest ones due to inventions such as super heaters, and several also started running on fuel oil. The answer in general though will probably be a lot less than you anticipate but still more than a modern electric locomotive would need if it was being powered by a coal power plant. Coal was not the limiting factor for steam locomotives, it was water, which is why track pans were invented. Also the grade of coal being used also mattered, which is why the where was important beyond just the grade of the track. The best coal available was Welsh coal so British steam locomotives would generally be able to get a bit more out of their fuel than American locomotives that had to run on some of the worst coal available. And of course the amount of coal needed would also change with speed since the key feature of trains is that due to the low friction between the wheels and the track they can maintain high speeds easily once reached but are slow to accelerate. An express locomotive going at it's top speed, somewhere around 150 km/h might only need a few kg of coal to cover a km but when it's pulling out of a station it might need more than a hundred kg. So it's difficult to give a consistent number for fuel pr km in the same way you can with cars since it changes so much, a train that spends most of it's time at top speed would be a lot more fuel efficient than one that has to constantly start and stop. This is of course also true with cars but with cars friction with the road is at all speeds where most of the energy goes, and that scales linearly with speed, but with locomotives most of the energy is initially spent solely on accelerating it's mass up to speed and then after that speed has been reached energy only has to be spent to overcome air resistance which is relatively minor.
I really doubt what you said is true at all considering you can ride a horse faster than 30km/h lmao
people were scared of 50 mph I BELIEVE. The main reason was that womens uteruses would be flung out of their bodies apparently :shrug:
For thousands of years they rode horses faster than that.
I can't believe that Tom's videos have gone from dropping drums and cymbals off of a cliff to being invited by JR to test-ride cutting edge trains in Japan.
Cynically speaking? Tom gets eyes on things - And having eyes on *your thing* is something desirable if you're looking for Investment and/or "pressure" to get "Objecting Municipality X" to approve construction.
@@SaberVS7 huh?
I've seen other youtuber on the same train
Yea the production quality has dropped considerably... D:
@@MawDaws Hes saying JR rail hired Tom maliciously to spread the word about the "1 remaining objecting local government" so people harass them to allow construction
It kinda feels like 27 years was the amount of time they needed to actually get such an insane piece of engineering to work reliably enough to put paying customers on it. This wasn't a future that never arrived, it was a future so incredible it needed this much time to get here.
That is simply not true. The original Transrapid maglev trains in Germany reached operational readyness decades ago, transported over half a million passengers on the test track and the only accident since then was due to human failure. Germany started to sell the technology, but there was no demand, partly due to lobbyism from the car and aviation industries. Since then, there has been very little development on this technology. Everything the Japanese explained in this video already existed at the very least on the Transrapid 09, most of it even earlier.
@@bratimm "Everything the Japanese explained in this video already existed at the very least on the Transrapid 09, most of it even earlier." That's not true at all. The Transrapid does not feature superconducting magnets as one glaring example. Note that the levitation and guidance mechanisms are fundamentally different between the two systems. The Transrapid uses an active system, which constantly measures the gap to the tracks and adjusts the currents going through the electromagnets accordingly to correct deviations. The Japanese SCMaglev on the other hand does not need to micro-manage currents at all - it passively induces the guideway to exert the necessary forces simply by passing by at high speed. Since this mechanism doesn't work well at lower speeds, the train has to have wheels for that regime unlike the Transrapid.
山梨県に移って、約30年 その前に宮崎県で、約30年 計 60年近く 実験してます。
@@user-rw6ww6xl4m SCMaglev seems like a safer more robust approach esp. in an Earthquake prone country.
The people of Japan have a lot to be proud of with their transport. The amount of effort and skill that goes into creating this is amazing.
So great to see this is still moving forward. Just like you I thought we would have them all over by now.
Moving forward is the main function of trains
Day by day we are getting closer to Ufo technology Thank you aliens for helping us evolve
@@vincenttt8289 quite quickly in this one's case
moving forward literally
and backwards!
The two cities that 'need it most' between them are apparently Sydney and Melbourne, due to their status as the world's busiest air route. I can't wait until I can start filming 'maglev spotting' trips!
Probably make more sense to build a conventional high speed rail that can go up to 350km/h, with 1 stop at Canberra. That will still be fast enough, only abour 3 hour, but much cheaper than maglev.
Extreme Train Spotting. Don't blink or you'll miss it!
@@qiyuxuan9437 of course you're right, you need imagination for maglev - and that's one thing the Aussies aren't renowned for.
Aye, the Wallaby Wizzer? Quickie Quokka or Qwickaburra? Nah, mate, you mean the Zoomerang?
@@jimhim585 ???
Japanese engineers are incredible, their imagination, problem solving and fabulous products etc they have created over the decades. They just never cease to amaze
Weebs
This is just a test track. Why didn't Tom go to China where these kind of trains are actually used everywhere in real life situations? I'm living in China and the trains have a potential operating speed of >400km/h quite regularly. I think the average speed on plenty of lines is like 300 km/h. China is also testing all kinds of Maglev train designs on different intercity lines (Alstom, Shinkansen, etc.). The G7 train from Beijing South to Shanghai Hongqiao has an average operating speed of 350 km/h (217 mph). Unlike Japanese Shinkansen, Chinese trains are also affordable to normal people (Beijing-Shanghai costs ~$40 while the Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka is over $100).
@@lynth He explained this in the video though.
@@lynth Because he had to make sure to throw in some anti-china rhetoric at the beginning even though anyone with a brain can tell that the Chinese bullet train system is superior in most ways.
@@lynthwell I think it’s that the Shanghai maglev in operation doesn’t go as fast as it could go, so technically it’s the fastest train in operation, but it doesn’t actually go that fast. It’s not to say there aren’t really fast maglev tests in china, I just think that as of recording, the one in Japan was the fastest
I wish somebody would build a maglev here in the u.s. You could build straight sections for thousands of miles and it would probably compete with air travel.
never gonna happen...way too much ego and that means the intellect needed to achieve this sort of product would take light years and too many fingers in the pie. sad but true! Asian countries have an attitude that has overtaken the 'we are the biggest and fastest' attitude of the west..
Well here in the USA we don't have the money for maglev trains. If Republicans were in charge of CA they would had it done a long time ago like days.
You live in a funny world @@KurtBenning
We dont have things like this because of the greedy people your taking about. Stop letting them control you. @@KurtBenning
Theoretically, it would be possible to travel between New York and Washington in one hour. The chairman of JR Tokai has made a sales pitch in New York.
With Tom in Japan and trying all sorts of transportation modes, surely it's time for him to try one of the many monorail lines dotted around the country....
Chiba monorail oh please
Isn't there one in Shelbyville?
@@Kelthor85 Mono... doh!
@@danielalba7651 There's also one in Kyushu, and one in Tokyo that goes from Haneda airport!
@@jama211 my favorite is the shonan monorail (also safege type)
The fact it still looked super fast at 1/4 speed is incredible
should be 125km/h, which from I know is what the average train does.
definitely faster than the average train, here commuter rails in the US tend to only do like 30mph so it’s more than 10 times as fast
The 1/4 speed looks like a normal bullet train does when it goes by IRL
FrFr
As a Canadian, I envy how advanced the trains are. When you factor in flight delay, baggage delays here, you can drive to your destination quicker. Our high speed train goes about 140 to 160km an hr to put it into perspective.
I was immensely impressed by JR services while in Japan. This another level.
so true, its clean and super punctual.
That drive-by gave me chills. Wow. This is some incredible technology.
For real- like wow.. I lost words even tho I wasnt speaking. like literraly jaw drop- jeeez
Top speed of 374.69 mph Nice
My guy is talking about fukin "Levitation coils" we are legit in the future. We are living through a Sci fi flick
Y'know what's even weirder? It seemed rather similar to my experience of having Dutch Intercity trains pass by the station. Yet, I know it must feel completely different. One goes 140 km/h, and the other is doing 500 km/h.
fly-by ;)
As a Japanese local I thank you so much for traveling to the more rural parts of Japan and showing off some unique stuff here. To us it sometimes feels like everything is doom and gloom due to shrinking population and decades long recesssion but seeing you genuinely get excited about these things in Japan gives me hope in the place where I live and love. Thank you.
LMAO stop believe main stream media every country around the world face same problem but media bias is dangerous propaganda stop 💯 believe in main stream media
As an American in high schooler who is currently studying Japanese, I can ensure sure you that everyone around my age really appreciates this kind of amazing technology Japan brings to the world. Although the population decrease is most definitely a serious issue, Japan has plenty of time to find solutions within the coming years. 心配しないでください!
stop ホルホル
@@fcbbbb3424 キレてる?
@@akiroclimbs2300 - Yea, immigration and worker's rights. The majority of Japanese politicians might prefer to economically destroy Japan before they do that, though.
You were invited by JR to have a ride on Maglev!? Unthinkable! The power of 5.97 million regular viewers.
My exact thoughts. This doesn't happen.
exactly; no one bats an eye about this. Very likely some elderly councillor or official was against this video being filmed.
I hadn't thought about how they powered the trains without a point of contact! And it's also so weird that it doesn't need actual power to levitate, the speed + magnets do the trick. So cool.
The phenomenon of superconductivity allows you to charge a coil once so that current always flows through it. It is enough to keep the coil cold (the temperature required to achieve superconductivity is close to 0 Kelvin or -273°C). In case of accidental power loss the coils will remain cold for enough time to allow train to levitate
The Chinese maglev which also goes around 600 km/hr doesnt use wheels to accelarate, it's magnetic levitation from start to finish.
@@manojpatra2840 That German transrapid design (EMS) needs constant correction by a computer since it isn't dynamically stable while Japan's design (EDS) is. They both have different pros and cons, but overall Japan went with EDS due to increased safety since it passively corrects the train's position without any electrical or active input which is a necessity in an earthquake prone country.
@@ryoukokonpaku1575the issue is china is stuck with the mindset of improving that german design from the 80s they stole 2 decades ago, instead of actually developing something different
You know why I think it will definitely work this time? The interior of this maglev looks exactly like the clean, spacious and entirely forgetable cabin of every shinkansen that I've ever been on. Conceptual/experimental designs always, always look funky and impractical 🤣
It is not just that. Maglevs take a considerable amount of energy that couldn't beat planes on their cost-effectiveness. The tables are now turning on this regard.
@@enkiimuto1041 how so? Are the room-temperature superconducting materials here?
I've never ridden a shinkansen, but I'm not a fan of the tiny windows and shared arm rests. Trains are my favorite mode of transportation in a big part because of the comfort and scenery they provide, this seems to be an experience similar to an airplane
@@WarioNumberOne With most of the track being in the tunnels, I guess they didn't see a reason to make big windows. The whole idea seems to be closer to an airplane - the kind of train you use if you want to get there faster, not look at the scenic route.
@@WarioNumberOne Ever taken the same route for years? This kind of train is made to go between cities and carry people who take the trip to their work and stuff
It's so awesome to see the Japanese excited to share their advancements with you. That multiple companies straight up offered you these close up views of their new projects is amazing.
There is a reason for that.
@@buttnutt soft power baybeeeeeeee
@@buttnutt advertisement W
technically it's german technic
Of course, it's Tom Scott
Tom really does know his video technology, adding DOH and dubbing optionally. That's a really good thing for accessibility. He is such a proponent of it, that we could all stand to learn. I'm sure next comes alternative video streams, unless I've missed those too!
Dear Tom, you made a video about the Dutch clocks that counted money about 9 months ago and it saddened me that this is not well known but there are still working clocks, they’re in the Veiling Rhein-Maas complex. The Veiling Rhein-Maas is a collaboration between royal flora Holland and Landgard. It’s also really really really big company ground, 19 hektars iirc. It’s located in Germany. If you’re interested in seeing the clocks at work I think you’ll be able to visit. It’s the exact same system like the royal flora holland had in their big warehouse there. Our company too deliveres to the „clok service" regularly. It’s really a sight to see and I only can recommend paying a visit. I hope this reaches you well, Yours sincerely, A friendly gardener.
Local here. I'm impressed by the level of coverage Tom has provided. Yes, there is one local government (Shizuoka prefecture) protesting on the construction. The tunnel cuts through one of the mountains where their river originates from, and they are worried that the river might dry up as has happened with a similar sized tunnel before. This is exacerbated by the fact that there will be no station to be built in Shizuoka, leaving them with potential damages with no benefits.
I wondered why a local government was protesting, but I was thinking “the Japanese don’t strike me as the type to protest just to be a jerk about things,” and now I know what’s going on. That’s an unfortunate situation, and I understand why they’d be protesting now.
Well it's at least a well founded reason. Routing the track a different way would be my choice in this case, but no idea what that would bring then.
Nimbys driving up costs and delaying the future exist no matter what country we live in :)
@@Mecharuva meanwhile that one farmer in the middle of Narita airport
@@Mecharuva Oh another fun fact, the Narita Airport was also strongly protested by the locals
The part where the wheels come up at 5:30 is such a cool moment. What an amazing technology!
Indeed! 🤩
Completely like taking off at a really shallow angle of attack ... just before an unrestricted climb, of course
Transrapid wouldn´t be in need of having wheels, it can float at 0km/h already and then accelerate to up to 500 or, as the chinese promise with their copy CRRC CF600, 600km/h. The speed is generated by the railway and the statorpackages underneath it, since that would be the engine of a transrapid (EMS-Based).
It's almost like a magic
I just love being able to say, "The wheels come up."
It's smooth, it's quiet, and an altogether delightful experience.
I got goosebumps with this. Very insightful video! Keep the great job up!
The part at the end is seriously fascinating: they managed to build the curve with *exactly* the angle, that cancels out the centripetral force from the curve itself.
That is how most railways work.
The 'track' itself is U-shaped, with magnets all around the U - that's not a banked corner like in car racing. I'm not sure how much is passive physics and how much is active management by the train, but the train will definitely ride at different bank angles depending on how fast it's going. And it has to, because that train can go around that corner at 7 km/h or at 700 km/h - different speeds require very different bank angles. (to be clear, I agree that the engineering to manage this is incredible)
@@grummhd3020 I've not yet been on one where the match was so close that I did /not/ notice the curve being one, or the tilt.
@@grummhd3020 No, they have to include a little bit of centrapetal force, otherwise all the passengers get motion sick. This was one of the problems with the UK's tipping Advanced Passenger Train.
@@grummhd3020 And roads as well.
3:44 "That's incredible! I don't have words. It's my job to have words for a moment like this, and I don't!" If only more KZheadrs were as articulate - and as humble - as Tom is.
WOW GUYS!!! Did you see that?! That was so fast guys! I can't believe It!!! It's like it was there and then it's gone!!! Can you believe it guys?! This is so incredible!!!
Tom, thank you for telling the world about the current state of Japan's SCMaglev trains, much more than we Japanese do.
The guy just casually said that they invented an inductive power collection system. That is beyond nuts. It's literally like sending charge to your iPhone battery as if it were bluetooth. Completely wireless.
My iphone can already charge wireless i dont know if you lived under a rock ?
@@pierholtrop5432But your phone still have physical contact with the charger ?
@@_bakedbeans6970 I think it can be slightly above and still work
2 Days ago, I was coming back to Tokyo from the Fuji Goko Area via the Highway Bus (I have work up there sometimes), And I was thinking to myself "You know I've never actually seen the Maglev pass through this track" in the probably 50-60 times I've passed by it, and THE SECOND that I thought that, I saw it come out of the tunnel and shoot by. It was FAST, and incredibly cool to actually see in reality right in front of your eyes. The timing on that was the most perfect thing I've ever experienced in my life.
That is what we call psychic 😊
Life is full of coincidences (;
It makes sense that you never experienced it, too. As those trains pass by in 1-5 seconds and then are gone, you really have to be lucky to spot it one time.
We get lucky sometimes 😁
You notice things what you think about - Baader Meinhof effect
Everything about this video feels more like a plane than a train. The fact that it starts grounded and then “takes off” with the magnets, the sterile white aesthetics, this visibly looks like a plane to me! It’s just engine-less and REALLY close to the ground
Another thing that's plane-like that's not shown in this video is how you board it. The electromagnetic radiation from the magnetic coils is so strong that to shield passengers from it, they have to board the train through jetbridges, which is what you use to board a plane at an Airport.
I wonder of it's cheaper than a plane. It's certainly more environmentally friendly at least
I mean that’s literally just how trains in japan are Clean
@@arkynkueh i wonder if they are funded by Jeff Bridges
If that’s true, then the coils are energized all the time, even though it’s standing still…
Tom, you lucky boy! Mind you, it’s well and long earned from the great library of fun and informative videos you have created. 👍🏻
Their solution for non contact power seems simple but man, that's got to be hard and it's amazing
That 10 degree incline blew my mind, the fact that the train feels level on that bank gives me a much deeper understanding of how fast it's going than the number of km/h
We had tilting regional trains in Germany back in the 90s or even 80s. Not sure how much those tilted, but it seemed quite significant. And you only notice it when you look out the window and see all the trees and houses leaning. And that's at fairly low speeds as trains are concerned. I believe it's a function of both how fast the train is going through a corner and how tight the corner is. At 500 km/h, having a 10° tilt feel flat, you probably still have a really wide running corner.
@@Yora21 I did the math, I think the turn radius comes out to something like 11km
All high speed rail track has to have superelevation or banking. Even the lowly Amtrak Northeast Corridor can have something like 10%, which is 5.7 degrees according to a converter I found. I was once on an Amtrak that had to be stopped on a curve because it hit someone. People were asking "is something wrong with the train" 🤣.
It's like a rollercoaster...when you hit a banked section of track at speed you don't notice the banking because of the centrifugal force generated but when you are going slow or stop you notice it.
Conventional European tracks "tilt" for maximum of 8 degrees, if I recall correctly. Mostly in places where the train almost never stops, so this experience isn't usual for us.
The 1/4 playback speed actually looks like a normal train passing by ! That's mind blowing !
@@TippyHippy based
@@TippyHippy thank you for your service
In the US, 1/4 playback speed of this maglev looks like 2X playback speed of a normal Northeast Corridor train passing by.
@@TippyHippy Chad.
Well, it only 125km/h at 1/4 after all!
Excited! Waiting to use Maglev trains in Japan.
It's AWESOME seeing you get excited about stuff! Your enthusiasm is contagious.
I’m glad you had that high viz and hard hat on. Nice and safe near a 500kmph train.
I suspect it's to make it easier to find the pieces - kind of like airplane seatbelts.
FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND MILES PER HOUR?!
If there is a small piece of debris flying away from the train, a hard hat can definitely save the day.
There's been plenty of people who could have survived if they were wearing a hard hat. As someone else said, there's always a chance of a piece of debris being flung by the passing train.
@@johannes.f.r. Or just a small piece of a tree branch or pebble that's brought along. They'll probably make it so that the general public cannot go anywhere near the tracks. Bridges over the tracks are most likely going to be protected as well.
I've never had my jaw drop from a youtube video before. The train going past at 3:20 is absolutely incredible. It absolutely translates on camera, so sick
@@luxraider5384the sound looking weird
@@luxraider5384 No, it's less than half the speed of sound.
@@joriss5 i forgot that the spped pf the sound was actually 340m/s
@@joriss5A train going Mach 0.4!!!
i got goosebumps
This is awesome! Can't wait to get one in the USA, I hope my great great great great great grandkids will benefit from it.
The Japanese are awesome engineers and nice people too.
When I lived in Japan, it took me about 40 minutes on the subway to go from my local station in the suburbs to where I went to school in downtown Tokyo. The fact that now I could go to Nagoya from Tokyo in that exact amount of time is frankly mind blowing.
Actually it’s coming out in a couple years not now
yea its coming out in 2027
@@shogunateball2739 No it's been pushed back again. Now there is no official date
Wait, Nagoya isn't being skipped this time?
@@noytelinu3409 No but Kyoto and Yokohama are skipped
Great video!! Really amazing. It would have also been interesting to know about the objections that are being placed against its implementation. Thanks as always.
One of my friend's dad is a lead engineer here and has been since 2016. Living in Japan, I know that they are known for their consistency, with the Shinkansen bullet trains having 0 major crashed in decades. A likely reason for the delay is the high safety standards they are trying to meet. This is heavily marketed and I can't wait for its opening to the public!
And the crashes the Shinkansen DID have was one from operator error at low speed in a train yard, and another in 2004 due to a large earthquake (which caused the train to completely stop).
Replacing tracks or laying down new tracks with protective barrier would take a long time.
Tom alluded to the reason for the delay in the video, but one of the tunnels runs under a river which is a major water source for several cities in Shizuoka. So Shizuoka prefectural government is demanding a guarantee that JR Central will replace a significant water loss so that the overall level of the river doesn’t change, and JRC haven’t been able to offer that guarantee. As much as we all want a new Shinkansen and we all want to see relief on the Tokai Line, we can’t expect to sacrifice a major river to get it.
@@odorikakeru I was going to ask "Couldn't JR just say 'Fine, you don't wanna play ball with us we'll reroute the train line elsewhere" but then I looked at a map and realized Shikuoza is flanked by Ocean on one side and Mount Fuji on the other. There isn't really anywhere else JR can go without a massive detour.
@@gnnascarfan2410 Not exactly like Shizuoka was going to get anything out of it going through their province though - It's the one province on the route that has no planned stations - It just passes through and doesn't benefit the citizens of that province at all.
Please don't feel the need to apologize about being excited. Everyone loves it when you get excited. Amazing video as always. I hope that this test track will pave the way so that it finally becomes a bit more mainstream.
Maybe, but I still think Maglevs are gonna be a tad niche. They'd still be much more expensive than conventional high speed rail, with a lower benefit, and still some key issues like lower capacity. The Japanese maglev trains are notably smaller than their existing bullet trains, particularly in width, making them carry fewer passengers at a time. That's on top of other difficulties like the track switching mechanism which is much more complex and slow for Maglevs requiring much more time to set them right. That means that while there can be a conventional bullet train between Tokyo and Nagoya every 2-3 minutes, there has to be a gap of approximately 10 minutes between each Maglev train. One of the reasons the Maglev is even viable between Tokyo and Nagoya, and its planned extension to Osaka is because these are already megacities well beyond whats seen in most of the world, plus the fact that the conventional high speed railway between the cities is so congested that there's no room for additional trains. In most of the world where high speed rail exists that's barely a concern as of now.
@@drdewott9154 and from what I've seen, 'maglev' (don't know the actual terms) is usually only used for smaller machines for precision when little to no friction is needed such as balancing scales.
If Tom is excited, you know the Video is a banger.
He is British.. he needs to apologize for showing emotions 😂😂
He can get excited enough for all of us.
This is what I think of fast trains. We need more of this.
As a train nerd, this is so cool! It's something being told how fast it goes and then seeing it on camera. It's SO fast!
THIS. Experiencing Heathrow Express blew my mind at 160km/hr I'm here trying to process how like about 3x speed of that will be in reality. Edit: Its 160, not 200
@@KhoPhi Heathrow Express is only 160km/hr, right? :D
@@joshpipe7755 Yup
@@KhoPhi You'd feel like riding on an airliner that never take off , more than trying to comprehend a train going at that speed
@@joshpipe7755 you're right. It has a top speed of 160km/hr for Heathrow Express. That is the fastest train I've been on till date. From Heathrow to Paddington.
As somebody who was a massive train fan as a kid, and hasn't been that into it as an adult. This made me cry, genuinely. The engineering and construction of this is astounding, even if it's never open for public use I'm just happy to be alive to see it, it takes my breath away. The feeling that came over me seeing the train speed past Tom without a sound felt nothing short of religious. The mad lads finally did it.
I had a similar reaction. Just the possibility that this could one day be a normal mode of travel is amazing to know
Agreed, were finally getting there! 👍👍
@@Varangian_af_Scaniae Toxic masculinity has no place here. Shoo.
@@Varangian_af_Scaniae ok Varangian af Scaniae
@@Varangian_af_Scaniae bro just came out of the 1970's edit: nvm it's a troll
When Tom Scott is amazed by something, that is really something
Thank you for coming to Japan! I'm excited that a linear motor car will be realized in the near future.
gave me chills when the train went past. i bet that was intense being there in person experiencing something that large and fast going by
The Japanese have spent a lot of money, time and effort to make trains generate less noise pollution.
I went there once and I can say Tom's speechless reaction is real. I only stand on the observation deck which Tom was facing in the video, that sound that wind and that speed still shocks everyone. I do encourage everyone to visit that facility. You won't even feel that even in car racing or watching planes take off.
It's like a fighter jet going by.
That 500kph is about 40% of the speed of sound at sea level, or about 3 times the typical speed of a bullet, or about 87 times the flight speed of an unladen swallow.
Yep. I've experienced bullet trains passing by me at full speed, so this must've been a shocking experience
imagine travelling from Tokyo to Osaka in less than an hour. I'm actually more impressed by how fast it accelerates from a complete stop to what regular trains drive at all while remaining a very smooth ride. Combined with the immaculate train scheduling of Japan is just *chef's kiss*. Sasuga nihon no enjiniaringu
I think the project is split into two phases. Phase 1 is the 40min bit, from Tokyo to Nagoya, then Phase 2 will take it into Osaka. Regardless, it'll still be breathtaking to travel between Tokyo and Osaka at whatever the final journey time is.
Weeb
@@mastertrams Tokyo-Osaka travel time has been quoted as 1hr 7min per JR material. Seriously, if the current Shinkansen doesn't render flying more or less pointless, this absolutely will obliterate the market for flying in that corridor!
If it makes a loop-de-loop on the way, then I'll be impressed. They'll even make more money as amusement park customers will also pay them for rides.
@Adam P. the one thing is cost, which is why a lot of people take the night bus. The Shinkansen ain't cheap. but fr air travel is terrible, especially quick domestic flights.
Huge respect to these engineers. Such perseverance to test it for so long. Hopefully this is launched rapidly across the world soon.
It will start running in Japan soon, so please come to Japan and experience the world of 500km/h.
Japan's public transport system has never been anything but amazing. And this will take it to the whole next level.
Strictly speaking, most(all?) of japans "public" transport is actually privately owned.
@@SomeGuy-ty7kr JR and most of the private metro companies collaborate so closely with the government, saying they're "Privately" owned is kind of misleading in it's own, Japanese way
One of the greatest achievements
I have traveled on a high-speed train at 300kph between Naples and Rome. The experience was quite memorable and futuristic. Would prefer it over a plane every time.
I'll be in Italy later this year, could you please tell me how you can ride on that train? I've never been to Europe before.
The main line north-south (Turin - Milan - Bologna - Florence - Rome - Naples) Is High Speed now. Just book any FrecciaRossa on those line and you'll be on one of those trains.
High speed rail in Italy has effectively killed our national airline: nobody in their right mind would go through the hassle of taking a national flight, save for the islands. The train is so much more convenient.
@@JukaDominator Also the Venice-Florence-Rome line is high speed, if that's where you plan to visit. "Just" 250 kmh, though.
@@lorenzocelata4107 Thank you so much! Out of curiosity, how much and how long did the trip take?
Tom is so excited in this video, it's very nice to see
Awesome videos mate, keep em up!
Japanese obsession for quality is no joke, testing for 26 years just goes to show you their dedication and why Shinkansen is never late and never has any incidents (accident)
except for quality of life
@@nutsackreviews rebuilding your economy into the second largest economy in the world (before China) by a long shot, driving insane scientific innovation and discovery, comes at a price. But from the ashes, Japan still did it. I’m sure they’ll be okay
I feel like the Americans or Chinese would have taken more risks and got it done quicker.
@@nutsackreviews quality of life is one of the best among developed countries
@@CrazyMurica working 12 hours a day with minimum wage i wouldnt really call that quality of life why do you think suicide rates are so high and birth rates so low
I really appreciate the last 15s shot at 10degree bank angle being able to show us how many different things has to happen when building a train like this capable of 603kph and still at full speed feeling like gliding over a puffy cloud.
* km/h
@@tstcikhthys kph means kilometers per hour, which is the same you just wrote.
@@blai.arabia4238 No, it doesn't. It means "kilopicohours", which amounts to "nanohours". You can't abbreviate in the metric system; you can only use symbols. And it's _kilometres,_ not "kilometers".
@@tstcikhthys what does it matter when you understood they meant kmh?
@@Kofja Because they're two different things (and it's km/h, not kmh). Just because the other person can parse someone's mistakes doesn't mean they didn't make a mistake. It's like saying, "why point out my mistake that 2 + 2 = 22 when you know how to add?"
Thanks for the video. It doesn't seem to be as smooth a ride as I had imagined but I am guessing that is due to variations in the "track" itself. Amazing technology.
Geoff Marshall is gonna be seriously envious that you got to ride that train now.
Who?
@@poppinc8145 he’s a KZheadr who visits train stations I believe
@@poppinc8145 Another KZheadr who is interested in trains. He and Vicki Pipe did a KZhead series called All the Stations where they visited every train station in the UK.
@@poppinc8145 British KZheadr who makes videos mostly about passenger trains and public transport
@@poppinc8145 train daddy
Unbelievable how quiet it is! You can still hear Tom when it goes by at full speed
It’s still quieter than a British Pacer train, even at 300 mph!
In a tunnel, no less
Still quieter than my postman's motorbike!
Er, Tom doesn't talk while the train is going by at full speed (3:17 - 3:27), so if you're hearing him, he might be right behind you shooting a new video. ;-)
Brilliant .
Tom’s videos remind me of ‘Beyond 2000.’ An Australian documentry series from 1985 & featured future technology, innovations and many more! It was my favourite show as a kid 😄
I remember that!
WOW!!!! I'm thinking of how quickly I could get to different places in the US. Amazing technology! thanks for sharing.
I rode the maglev people mover at Disney World in 1979 and my girlfriend couldn't understand why I was so excited about it. "This is the future!", I said. Now, 40+ years later, it's still the future.
That isn't maglev. It has a linear motor, but runs on wheels.
@@svenlakemeier it only uses its wheels up to about 150 km/h because at low speeds the interaction between the superconducting magnets in the train and the coils in the track is too weak to support the weight. above 150 km/h the magnets supply enough lift and the wheels retract.
Is your girlfriend still around 40+ years later?
@@mrxmry3264 He talked about the disney ride.
@@mrxmry3264 does the people mover even go that fast?
That thing going by at 500 km/h is the most amazing sound I've ever heard.
It is considerably faster than the physical speed limit of helicopters.
Definitely sounded like a well made sci-fi sound effect! Glorious
Wow they need this here in America
I have been on the amazing PVG Maglev several times and yes, infrequently used and most times have to get a taxi to downtown station there and on return as a difficult location.
Thank you for that perspective on maglev trains.
That SOUND as it zoomed past was so cool - and awesomely complimented by the reverb of the tunnel! Incredible! 👀
might be a problem for actual maglev lines tho. I don't know how much current high-speed trains sound but Germany apparently had problems with the tunnel mouth designs in the past. Also wheel noise should be louder going slower speeds so maybe maglev is quieter overall.
It was super sci-fi.
When I watched the whole video and still can’t hear pls give timestamp
Time stamp pls
Tom, it's fascinating you were deathly afraid of a simple roller coaster, and yet are totally relaxed on a 300+ m.p.h. train. The mind does bizarre things to us.
Being fully contained and having all of the environmental cues for "normal travel" make a world of difference... and not beginning with a heart-stopping plunge helps.
a simple roller coaster simply does not have simple walls and ceiling
he said it as much, it's less about speed and more about the sudden drops that gives you the heaving shits. you take all the exciting elements of a roller coaster away and what would you get? a train. of sorts.
@@wytfish4855 You get the kids train at the amusement park, or the cars on tracks.
I would say that passenger rail (at least in the US) is held to much higher safety standards than roller coasters. Though passenger accidents on both are highly infrequent; they both have the same number of passenger deaths in the USA (~5 per year), but most train deaths are from passenger behavior, where amusement park deaths are predominately maintenance issues. There are also many more deaths from railways with employees and at crosswalks, but those are not specific to riding a train.
ahh i love toms videos. The built in youtube subtitles are blank when they translated japanese in-video subtitles are playing so you dont get overlap
You should have done another run where you stood next to the train and threw a ball right as the train came into frame. I think that would really help show how fast it's moving, especially in slow motion!
I remember MagLevs being the next huge thing. Saying they were already being tested in Germany. Then they never really happened. Amazing opportunity for you Tom
The Shanghai Maglev actually uses German Transrapid technology, iirc
I think a big problem was cost and well technology
Germany and trains... lmao
I remember when MONORAILS were the next big thing 😂
it works... just that the normal stuff is just cheaper and still works... there's a margin when Maglev will make a comeback... (sans the nutty ideas of a hypertube or something...)
I luckily got a ride in the German maglev before it closed down. It was an experience crusing at 535km/h and feeling perfectly level in the turns while seeing a sideways world outside the window.
You mean 420km/h.
@@kyohiromitsu4010 you're probably right. That was almost 20 years ago, and my memory is a bit fuzzy. I just distinctly remember the not-feeling of the speed and seeing the Emsland zip by.
I’m obsessed with what the wheels are made of (I assume they are solid “rubber”) and whether they have pre-spinners to make their engagement smoother and less damaging !
Excellent presentation. I liked it. Thanks for sharing.
Just got back from a tour of Japan a couple of days ago, and I had the JR rail pass the whole time... incredible is an understatement! Clean, quiet, smooth, and hilariously fast. It was so convenient and comfortable that I wish I could use one instead of flying across the states. Timely video, and the trains I was on still weren't going even close to 500k!!! Plz bring these to the northeast US hahaha
God yea new york to miami in 4 hours domestic maglev im ready.
Nah the us government is too busy being paid by car companies
What would happen if this was operated in northeast USA, then you get a big snowstorm? Imagine this thing hitting a pile of snow at 500 km/hr. In a tunnel will be fine, but that makes it more expensive and less likely to be constructed. I don't reckon you'll see it going past your house any time soon. Otherwise, I agree with you, I'd like a ride on one of them too.
@@Mark_Bridges Snow wouldn't be an issue. Heated tracks, intermediary snow removal trains which have a plow. These things already exist.
@@Mark_Bridges 1. it snows in Japan too. Sometimes a lot. 2. heavy snowfall affects all other modes of transport as well.
Gotta love Tom's "Bloody" and facial expression as that thing goes by. That's the reaction of someone who thought they were prepared and weren't. Fascinated by how the train will float without power over a certain speed using the induction in the magnets, really clever and something I wondered about.
Japan's love of trains over cars and planes is so unfathomably based
I wish we had more trains in America. Our road networks are boring, loud, and really not fuel efficient. Trains are so much cooler.
God bless you Tom
Im weirdly happy for Tom. He always is so excited and I think he deserves it all
This is an amazing video! Not just because maglev is still a thing and you got to ride it, but it must have cost the company quite a bit to run the train empty twice - just for you! I think we're all grateful they considered the publicity to be worth the cost.
They are dirt cheep to run and they need the hours on the clock for certification.
@@matsv201 I was about to say they gave Tom one of the test rides :D
@@matsv201 not really true. Electricity is expensive. I imagine this used a lot of it! Also they have already driven this train 104 times around the world or something like that. Do they really need any more testing?
@@onlineo2263 do you really need crash tests if the car says 'safe to ride' on the window?
@@onlineo2263 For a maglev, not _that_ expensive --- regenerative braking, remember!
This is one of those things that can really only happen with dedication. 26 years is an insanely long time when you factor in changing budget priorities and technological advancements. Hopefully this becomes something commercially viable. It'll go a long way to reminding people and politicians that sometimes you have to be patient for the truly magical stuff.
Im usually someone who finds things in nature to be more exciting than what humans can do but the fact we can do this amazes me.
Meanwhile in Canada, I'd be thrilled if we could have commuter trains that traveled at an average speed of 100 km/h-heck, I'd even take 80!
Meanwhile in the us , have poorly public transport, be grateful for your canada
@@Lampuunion9989 don’t even have a bus in my city in Canada
We don’t even have sidewalks
In India, I'm suprised with 40. Also, our trains are too over crowded.
Meanwhile in America, I'd be thrilled if Amtrack ran to their actual schedule the speed at which is secondary. 4 times I've bought tickets for Amtrack trains and 4 times I got there on a bus 😮💨
I just came back from Japan. Shikansen bullet train is such an amazing experience. Quiet, comfortable, spacious, and amazing window views.
That itself is marvelous, given how the whole shinkansen project nearly didn't take off as expected back in the day. The new tech promised is maglev, and I want to know if it's feasible to build and make one, not just in Japan, but other parts of the world.
@@FiredAndIced arguably Japan is the worst country to build it in - mountains everywhere and seismically active. So it should be fine in other parts of the world. But it'll be limited to rich countries only - the construction costs are enormous. Even if that money can be recouped from usage later.
@@korenn9381 Japan is a great country to develop it, because it forces them to implement more safety features due to seizmic activities.
@@korenn9381 Japan & Switzerland - Both extremely mountainous and, as you know, known for their incredible unique railways and trains each in their own way.
And built in the 60s. :)
Great video, I camped under the bridge in a severe thunderstorm a few years ago, I thought it was a fighter jet when they were doing tests!
I replayed your 1/4 speed replay on 0.25x speed and it still looks like a decently fast train, that’s nuts.
Really is.
Imagine if Amtrack had the funding and expertise of JapanRail. Such a shame our legislators don’t prioritize these things
It seems they only prioritise derailments at the moment
*Amtrak
JapanRail is a private company which self funds (technically seven, I think), so I'm not sure why our legislature needs to be involved.
@@damianodonnell5844 Nah, that's CSX and Norfolk Southern. Who supposedly "maintain" the rails. And by "maintain" I mean ignoring them until they fail and then crying to the federal government to give them the money to replace it all with worse quality stuff.
@@SomeGuy-ty7kr I would love if they didn’t have to be involved. Unfortunately many of them take lobbying money from airlines and are actively working against passenger rail projects. An uninvolved legislator would be a step up from our current situation
Such joy provided about engineering. Proves that engineers are the creative angels we all need. Once again, thank you for the pleasure of distraction/learning/entertainment/delight!
I am *not* an angel! I can do interesting stuff as cheaply as possible and, thanks to the law around engineering, I live in perpetual fear of someone being hurt by one of my creations (especially as a result of their own stupidity.) You are welcome.
At 7:33 Tom says that it’s “a little bit louder than you’d expect from a train”-I wonder how much of that sound is just the force of air moving past the train in the tunnel?
Cracking video lad . Keep it up