I once went from Tokyo to Osaka, with very few stops in between ~~and the train topped out at 500kph~~ [apparently it did not :( ]. The only minor annoyance being that my camera wasn't fast enough to capture Mt Fuji at that speed.

It would be awesome to have that same experience between, say, London-Paris-Berlin-Warsaw, and you could consider additional stops in Luxembourg, Frankfurt, and Poznan.

[–] kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Tokyo to Osaka services don't go upto 500 kph. IIRC, the maximum operating speed for that section is 320 kph. Whilst in testing, Maglev trains have breached 500 ( and even 600 kph) barrier, commercially they don't run as of now. (I don't think apart from Shanghai, Maglev runs anywhere and even that topped off at 431 kph).

Traditional bullet trains in Japan exhibited record speeds of ~450 kph in the past but of course, operationally, they aren't run that high.

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

I recently learned that there is only 66 kilometers of maglev tracks in use. Everyone is up in arms about maglev maglev, when we have classic bullet trains going well fast enough IMO.

I guess there is a reason why the french don't run their trains over some 360km/h even if they can. The cost is probably not worth shaving off 10 minutes of your 2h journey.

[–] federalreverse@feddit.org 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

What you say is corroborated everywhere on the internet. But I have real trouble trying to square this information with my recollection. Hrmph. :/ Thanks for the correction though.