Canada has unveiled its plans to connect Calgary and Edmonton with a train that will run at the whopping speed of 621 miles or more than 999 kilometers per hour.
The fully-electric vehicle will be “a hybrid between an aircraft and a train”. It will be able to facilitate up to 54 passengers and 10 tonnes of cargo. It is much like the Hyperloop network, which could see passengers shot through a tube at speeds of 700mph by 2030. But this vehicle is comprised of only a train and a vacuum, rather than a train, rail, and tunnels.
TransPod
According to ‘The Sun’, Canadian startup TransPod has been working on the 300-kilometre FluxJet between Calgary and Edmonton for several years. The train will hover magnetically along the rail and use a combination of magnets and plasma technology to achieve speeds of more than 621mph, faster than a jet and three times as fast as a high-speed train.
Much faster than high-speed trains
It can be compared with China Railway’s next generation of high-speed trains. Its tests were completed recently, during which the vehicle achieved speeds of up to 281mph. The highest speed on record is 357 mph, which the French V150 train realized in 2007.
No friction, less energy
But Canada’s FluxJet pods will be able to move with greater freedom, and thus achieve higher speeds, due to a lack of friction in the tube. It will not have to apply force to resist drag so, less energy is required to propel the pods.
TransPod has claimed that riding the FluxJet will be 44 percent cheaper than flying by plane and reduce CO2 emissions by about 636,000 tonnes per year.
Source – The Economic Times