How fast can we get! - Trains of today and tomorrow

The world has become a small place, and it can be said because of Advanced means of transportations. It now takes less than two days to travel around the globe. The most amazing advancement is made in the field of Railroad, with trains now a days running at more than 500km/hr. With such a speed you can reach Mumbai from Delhi in about three hours! But with super sonic planes coming into picture after the introduction of Concorde, the Airplane industry isn't also lagging behind. It is now possible to fly around the globe without re-fuelling/stop over. Talking of Concorde's, who would have thought that those marvelous machines would be retiring so soon. This was not because the concorde technology had become obsolete, but because there were very few takers of the first class exclusive Supersonic Jet, which flew at about Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound!). The Automobile Industry has also come a long way, from horse pulled Chariots to fast running Lambhorgini Diabolo's. Modern Transport has made us all come closer in a way. With man beginning to look into colonizing the space, a visit to the moon could become like going to the local Grocery store.

The fastest trains in commercial operation today are the French Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV), the Japanese Shinkansen (or bullet train) and the German InterCity Express (ICE). The TGV routinely travels at 300 Km per hour through the French countryside and has been clocked at 515 Km per hour in test runs. The bullet train averages 262 Km per hour between stations and has recorded 443 Km per hour in test runs, while the ICE has a top operational speed of 280 Km per hour and has recorded 408 Km per hour in trials.
These trains have several things in common:

• They all use electric motors (some very fast trains still run on diesel, but these are slower than their electric counterparts).
• They all have steel wheels that run on steel tracks.
• They have aerodynamic designs to decrease wind resistance; in some ways they look like long, thin aeroplanes without wings.
• They all require special lines to achieve their maximum operating speeds in particular, these need to be as straight as possible, because very fast trains and tight bends don't mix well.

Nevertheless, these trains can also run on conventional lines at reduced speeds, a great advantage when approaching major urban centers. Let's look at one of the most successful of these trains, the TGV, in slightly more detail.

Innovations in the TGV

Many of the innovative aspects of the TGV are in the design and placement of bogies. Bogies consist of two or more pairs of wheels, their axles and a connecting frame that supports the carriages (usually called cars) above.While developing the TGV, engineers found that increasing the distance between axles in the bogies could reduce instability and hence increase its top speed. In addition, since instability increased with increasing bogie weight, they moved the electric motors, usually mounted on the bogies, and suspended them from the bottom of the cars.

Efforts are continually being made to reduce the overall weight of the train, largely because the lighter the train, the less stress there is on the track (therefore lowering maintenance costs). Reducing the number of bogies saves weight. In addition, new, lighter materials are used in the construction of the trains. Even the seats are now made of lightweight carbon fibres, magnesium and composite materials.

Wheels on tracks or levitated

While the TGV, the bullet train and the ICE all use established technology - electric motors and steel wheels - revolutionary technology has produced a high speed train which floats on a magnetic cushion of air above a special track.

Maglev

The Maglev differs radically from its more conventional high-speed cousins. It doesn't have wheels and it doesn't run on a steel track. It doesn't even have an on-board motor. The motor that propels the Maglev is in the special track, and the propulsion comes from magnets. In Maglev technology, electromagnets (devices that become magnetic when fed an electric current) are mounted on the train and in the track (usually called a guideway). The electromagnets levitate, guide and propel the train along the guideway.

Maglev vs conventional high speed trains

Maglev technology has several theoretical advantages over conventional high-speed trains. Since there is no wheel-to-track contact, less energy is lost due to friction and the trains create less noise. In addition, since the motor is in the guideway rather than on the train, it is possible to increase its power on steep sections. This means that Maglevs can climb steeper grades than conventional high-speed trains, reducing the need for tunnels. Despite such advantages, Maglevs remain commercially unproven. In comparison, trains like the TGV, the bullet train and the ICE have been formidably successful. Millions of people have travelled on them; hundreds of thousands use them each day.

Safety and future of high speed trains

Very fast trains are safe compared to most other forms of motorised transport. But this is not to say that major disasters are impossible. In June 1998, an InterCity Express, travelling at about 200 kilometres per hour, derailed near Eschede in Germany, killing 102 people and injuring hundreds more.Commentators seem to agree that very fast trains - the conventional ones, at least - will form a significant part of the international transportation scene in coming decades.
Ref: http://www.science.org.au/