Europe Euphoria

By fast I mean really fast! That is moving with speeds such as 125 mph (201.12 km/h) and up, according to the International Union of Railways besides even faster trains are on the way. Adopting these trains does not come easy; it costs up to $20 million a mile. Certainly not as fast as jet aircrafts, but the time taken comes almost to power when you consider, time to reach the airport. Super duper fast trains A Japanese maglev Shinkansen train called MLX01 went 361 mph (581 km/h) in 2003 Japanese Shinkansen systems: The Japanese have excelled in both standard multi-engine trains and shorter maglev (magnetic levitation and magnetic roll forward) trains. Their high-speed Shinkansen trains have become a world model. They travel at just below 200 mph (321 km/h). Each train of their 500 series cost $40 million. The Japanese tunnel through mountains rather than climbing grade, and it is a major cost factor. The Shinkansen system will be fully operational by 2009. Image credit French Train a Grande Vitesse (TGV): France just grabbed the world record for standard-gauge rail trains with its TGV V150. The cost of construction is averaging $21.5 million a mile. It is minimized by using steeper grades rather than tunneling. Image credit German Neubaustreke systems: Germany is also working to increase speeds with a series that they call Neubaustrecke (NBS) routes with new train cars. Image credit Spanish National Railways (RENFE): And in Spain, RENFE is planning a Barcelona-to-Madrid run that will, when it opens, accomplish the trip of 375 miles (603 km) in two-and-a-half hours at a speed of up to 230 mph (370km/h), a quarter of the time it takes by car. The Spanish government has allocated about $31 billion through this year for work on it. The car-dominated United States is a clear lags way behind Europe! So if you are fed up with airport hassles while in Europe, just go in for the nearest fastest train!