Posted on January 16, 2009 - by Richard

The mag lift train experience, is this the future?

My mag lift train experience happened when I took a ride last night via U tube and I thought it was fantastic! The video was taken sometime in Nov 2005 and was done in Japan. From what I could sensed in the video, the ride was a little bit noisy although it was fast and efficient. Looking inside the maglift train, it was like having a plane ride except there is no climbing or taking off. All it is was a steady acceleration until the train reaches over 400 km per hour.

From this mag lift train experience, I could see the inside compartment looking similar to a plane where you have nice comfortable seats and stewardess seating everybody. I did not see any buckle straps which I assumed are not necessary since the train does not have any take off or excessive braking when the plane lands. Maybe, it should have but if any of you have actually have taken a mag lift train ride, please post it here in ATS. However, I did not see any “buckle up” signs either.

Here is the video that I saw taken from Japan:
Mag lift train ride in Japan

To get a better mag lift train experience, I then saw another video taken which was shot just 1 year ago in Shanghai, China. This time, there was a bit difference: I could swear the ride was really quiet and includes showing a little boy talking and you can hear his voice clearly. This shows the train ride was really almost perfect because of absence of outside noise while the train was moving. Its like having a plane ride in first class comfort which is really safe and absolutely quiet.

Here is the video taken from Shanghai China:
Shanghai Mag lift train ride

To me, this kind of transportation is long overdue here in North America where almost everybody invest in expensive privately owned vehicles which harms our environment and basically divides us. At this time of hard economic times, public transport like mag lift trains should be installed so people will not only save precious energy but learn to live together and get along.

Mag lift train experience is something I would like to have in the future because it is fast as an airplane but a lot cheaper to travel without causing green house pollution.