Terrestrial transportation - How fast are todays trains ?

TGV

In the mass public terrestrial transport systems of the world, we find three technologies are dominating.

The first, TGV from France runs on electric drives dominated by Alstom from France, Magnetic levitation (Maglev) technology pioneered by the Germans, powering the Transrapid Monorail in Germany and Shanghai airport metro. The third is the futuristic Hyperloop from Elon Musk which they claim is fastest at app 1000 kmph.

Shanghai Maglev

Lets get to know a brief about these three technologies.

The French Train a' Grand Vitesse (TGV) is no doubt, the fastest in the world presently having clocked 574.8 kmph in a 2007 run (click here for video).

The German Maglev trains working on Maglev technology (click here for a primer on maglev technology) runs the fastest Maglev from city of Shanghai to Pudong Airport , 17 miles which it covers in 7 minutes (click here for the video..)

Hyperloop technology from Elon Musk can beat all this (still in design stage and futuristic) .. (click here for the technology video). My blog on Hyperloop detailing the business aspects and technology, (click here for the blogpost). Instead of spending mpney on R&D developing their own proprietary technology, Hyperloop technologies conducts global competition inviting technological innovations using hyperloop, thereby limiting the time to develop and implement innovative, fast, energy efficient solutions that could take care of global transportation problems in the future.

Do we see the next futuristic technology with the advent of fuel cells, Lithium ion batteries, solar energy proliferation in the coming years ??

India is slowly getting on the fast train track, but with conventional electric locomotives on advanced tracks set up on the Mumbai Goa Konkan rail route. India's fastest train Tejas now runs at 200 kmph between CST Mumbai and Karmali Goa. 

george..