China greenlights projects to bring faster high speed, maglev trains

China has officially approved a five-year project to develop high speed trains that can travel at 400 kilometers per hour and a maglev train that can reach 600 kilometers per hour, according to a top academician.

Zhai Wanming, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a senior official from Southwest Jiaotong University, said in an interview with the Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday that the Chinese government has confirmed that the project will go ahead.

Zhai said that the trains will respectively rely on high speed cold rail technology and high speed electromagnetic levitation technology. “The country already has a high speed train with the fastest speed reaching 350 kilometers per hour, so it is necessary to innovate a train with a speed of 400 kilometers per hour,” said Zhai.

Sun Bangcheng, a senior official from the CRRC Corp, China’s rail transit equipment manufacturer, told media at the company’s press conference in Beijing in October 2016 that the maglev train will make its debut in June of 2020, and that the country will have atomization ability and see industrialization of the maglev system by 2021.

In August, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation announced at the Third China (International) Commercial Aerospace Forum that China will develop a supersonic speed HyperFlight transport network with a designated speed of up to 4,000 kilometers per hour, reported Xinhua.

HyperFlight will become a new signature product for China, according to the company. It will feature a transport system that reduces air resistance with a low vacuum environment and supersonic shape, and reduce friction resistance via magnetic suspension.