Industry experts say that China is prepared to test the world’s first vacuum train, which could achieve speeds of 1,000 km/h. Researchers at the National Power Traction Laboratory of Southwest Jiaotong University said that testing would begin on a prototype within 2-3 years. Because they don’t encounter air resistance, trains operating through a vacuum tube can achieve unprecedented speeds. But critics have dismissed technology as impractical (or science fiction) because of the high costs of building and maintaining the vacuum tunnels. Link to full story in Mass Transit.
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Fair, enough. I shouldn’t have said “first,” although it seems like Brunel didn’t have much luck with his atmospheric railway. Actually, the story cited Robert Goddard as an early visionary in this area; his vactrain would have made the trip from Boston to New York in 12 minutes (if Wikipedia is to be believed).
The ghost of I K Brunel must be having a good laugh.
Try Googling on ‘Atmospheric Railway’.
Journalists should never use the word ‘first’ without checking.
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