The future of train transport
What comes to mind when you’re thinking about trains? China? Yes, China, the home of the longest high-speed network in the world. With about 7,450 miles in length, it is well over double that of the European and Japanese networks combined.
If you want a vision of the future of trains, China is the place to go to.
However, technology in trains hasn’t changed for a very long while now.
Very recently, the UK acquired its first Super Express high-speed train produced by Hitachi. With the ability to reach 140mph it may seem picturesque, but it isn’t much progress for the UK in the train travel industry.
So when will we actually see superfast 200-300mph+ trains darting through the UK countryside?
Evacuated Tube Transport (ETT) technology, which is used in China, might come in handy.
At this period of time, the top speed of a normal high-speed train is around about 250mph. But why? Well, we all know that friction and speed are big rivals, and the more faster we go the more air friction is involved. By getting trains to travel through vacuum tubes, and raising them off the tracks using existing magnetic levitation technology, trains could become speed demons.
Evacuated Tube Transport technology trains could possibly travel at over 1,000mph (1,609kmh).
A five-mile (8km) Hyperloop test track is due to be built in California next year by SpaceX.
Jeremy Acklam, the Institution of Engineering and Technology's transport expert, believes that a combination of maglev (magnetic levitation) technology and vacuum technologies would be "very much more expensive" and "We need to ask ourselves how much extra speed is worth?" he states.
Maglev technology is expensive because the repelling magnets and copper coils use a lot of electricity, and the track infrastructure is far more complex than conventional steel rails.
"Achieving a vacuum across a long distance is a significant engineering challenge," says Mr Acklam.
There are also the safety issues involved too. How would passengers be evacuated if the train broke down, and how would the emergency services gain access?
There's also the obvious point that many people might not like travelling in a tube with no windows to look through. While TV screens and video projections could make the experience less claustrophobic, it would still take some getting used to. Despite such drawbacks, Mr Acklam still believes that the hyperloop concept is one "whose time has come".
In retrospect, the train travel industry has a very promising future indeed. With benefits, come losses, but as technology develops, these issues can surely be fixed.
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