431 km/h baby. Rode it round trip this afternoon. Wow. Unbelievable. Best $19 I've spent in a long, long, long time. You've got to try it. Cheers, Erik Once you go Maglev, you won't go rail again...
I did the tgv from london to paris thru the chunnel and in france it was going 180+mph. I did not feel any sensation of speed but it was annoying to sit with your back to the forward direction. Don't know how that compares to levitation but it was smooth. T
There isn't much sensation of speed until you look down. When you see the houses and cars zipping by, your brain finally says "oh gosh, I am going that fast". It wasn't as smooth as the Shinkansen in Japan, but we were going faster. Yes, you can feel it "float" as it levitates when you start. It was a little on the bumpy side (a storm front was moving in). Acceleration was very linear, this wasn't a throw you back in the seat kind of ride. Just a nice ramp up (very unlike a 747 at take off). We bought tickets for the VIP section. 160 RMB round trip. Bigger seats, more space. I think the back of the bus was only 100 RMB ($12). Put it on your list of things to do when in town. Cheers, Erik
I'll reference an American paper then. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/22/international/asia/22shan.html
Actually, now that I think about it, I rode one of the first demonstrators of this technology (HSST) at the 1986 Worlds Fair in Vancouver. This was much faster than that one...
