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more than 600 km/h on a line that has accumulated years of delays

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In 2015, a seven-car prototype in Japan made us dream with the tremendous speeds that the trains of the future would have, with the Japanese country as the main standard bearer. The L0 Series train reached 603 km/h on the Yamanashi test line, becoming the fastest manned railway vehicle ever recorded at the time. More than a decade later, that record still standsalthough the promise of its commercial use has yet to materialize. And the line that is supposed to bring it to travelers accumulates years of delays. magnetic levitation. The L0 Series works via superconducting magnetic levitation, using powerful magnets along the track and in the train that interact to lift the vehicle on the track, completely eliminating physical contact with the tracks. Without friction, without mechanical noise, without wear, and with heart-stopping speeds. The system is known as SCMaglev and uses an electrodynamic suspension, different from that used in the Shanghai maglev. Japan National Railways began researching this type of propulsion in 1962 with a clear objective: to connect Tokyo and Osaka in one hour. They have had that dream for more than six decades. Chūō Shinkansen. This is the maglev line under construction between Tokyo and Nagoya, with plans to extend it to Osaka. The idea is that it will be established between Shinagawa and Nagoya stations, with stops in Sagamihara, Kōfu, Iida and Nakatsugawa. The line is not intended to replace the legendary Tokaido Shinkansen, but it will exist to offer travelers a much faster alternative. The line would connect Tokyo and Nagoya in 40 minutes and, later, Tokyo and Osaka in 67 minutes, at a maximum speed of 505 km/h. Today the fastest Nozomi (Japan’s fastest high-speed train service) takes around two and a half hours between the two cities. With Chūō Shinkansen, the idea is that approximately 90% of the 286-kilometer route to Nagoya passes through tunnels, instead of following the coast, as the Tokaido does. This decision is also the root of much of their problems. ORa prefecture and a river. The main obstacle was that the then governor of Shizuoka, Kawakatsu Heita, denied permission to drill one of the tunnels under the Japanese Southern Alps for environmental reasons. The argument was that the impact studies had been carried out with little rigor and that the excavations could affect the bed of the Oi River. The section in question affected just 8.9 kilometers of tunnel within Shizuoka, but it was enough to block the entire project for years. Without that section, the rest of the work could not be completed. However, the current governor of the region, Yasutomo Suzuki, authorized the geotechnical inspection prior, but the works are still in progress. A calendar full of delays. In 2024, JR Central president Shunsuke Niwa publicly ruled out opening in 2027 and targeted 2034 as the new minimum date. But the story doesn’t end there. Last October, JR Central postponed the arrival to 2035. Construction costs have already skyrocketed by more than 50% to 11 trillion yen (about 61 billion euros), according to RailTech. The section to Osaka, for its part, It would not arrive until 2037 at best. The threat from China. In July of last year, during the World High Speed ​​Congress held in Beijing, the state-owned CRRC presented a maglev prototype Designed to reach 600 km/h. The train runs on rubber wheels at low speed and switches to magnetic levitation when exceeding 150 km/h. The Asia Times shares that it will still take a long time to put it into commercial use, and that market demand, rather than technology, is the main obstacle. But there is more: the T-Flight project from the state company CASIC, which combines magnetic levitation with hyperloop-style vacuum tubes, has already reached 623 km/h in tests in 2024, with the goal of exceeding 1,000 km/h soon. China has also, for years, the only commercial maglev in the world that operates regularly: the Shanghai Maglev, which circulates at 430 km/h. Cover image | Maglev.net In Xataka | The Mayan Train has become a nightmare for Mexico: what seemed like a great plan has run into justice

They are already trying to drive up to 150 km/h

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Many of the road regulations in the countries that make up the European Union are very similar, although each country also has room for maneuver to stipulate its own laws. An example is the case of poster colors on highways and highways, there being an interesting division between countries that use green or blue for the background of these signs. In this article the protagonist is the Czech Republic, which launched a pilot project last autumn on one of its highways, the D3, allowing circulation on it up to 150 km/h under strict conditions. This makes the country the first in the European Union to take this step, not without doubts and criticism from legislators and citizens. A movement against the current. The Czech Republic seems to be going against the grain, especially considering that much of Europe is racking its brains to debate how to reduce emissions. Just like they count From Hybrids and Electrics, the Czech Government launched a pilot that allows drivers to reach 150 km/h on certain highway sections. The decision is supported by a legislative change approved in 2023 that enabled this possibility, although its implementation did not arrive until the end of September of last year. Where and how it works. According to account According to the Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic, the section chosen for the test is a 47-kilometer section of the D3 highway, between the towns of Planá nad Lužnicí and Úsilný, near České Budějovice. Along this route, 42 variable speed signs were installed, with a total cost of around 2.2 million euros, which can show three different limits: 150 km/h when everything is in order. 130 km/h in general mode. 100 km/h when conditions get complicated. The issue is that the maximum speed does not depend on the driver, but on a centralized system managed by the National Traffic Information Center, which crosses data from weather stations, cameras and sensors in real time. According to the spokesperson of the Directorate of Roads and Highways, Jan Rýdl, for the 150 km/h limit to be enabled “it cannot rain, the road has to be dry, in winter it is not activated in any case, traffic must flow normally and there can be no accidents, works or broken down vehicles.” What makes it unique in Europe. With this measure, the Czech Republic becomes the country with the highest speed limit in the European Union, above Poland and Bulgaria, which currently top the list with 140 km/h. The only case that escapes this comparison is Germany, where some sections of the autobahn They lack a fixed limit, although this model has its origins in a very different historical tradition. Czech Transport Minister Martin Kupka pointed out in an interview with the news channel ČT24 that the pilot’s goal is to evaluate “how the increase in the limit is received among drivers and whether it causes an increase in the number of accidents.” The test has a minimum duration of six months, and the results will determine whether the model is extended to other sections. Not everyone sees it well. The decision has not been without criticism. Raising the maximum speed implies greater fuel consumption per kilometer traveled and, therefore, more emissions, something that clashes head-on with the environmental guidelines promoted by Brussels. Austria tried something similar between 2018 and 2020, when it raised the limit on the motorway between Vienna and Salzburg to 140 km/h, but backed down due to political pressure and concerns about emissions. The Netherlands, in the opposite direction, even reduced its limit during the day from 130 to 100 km/h for similar reasons. Furthermore, beyond the environmental issue, it is always worth remembering that the higher the speed, the shorter the reaction time in any circumstance and, therefore, the greater the consequences in the event of a collision. Czech authorities defend that the dynamic control of the system mitigates these risks, but not everyone shares that confidence. Cover image | Wikipedia and Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic In Xataka | Spain has been dragging on for years of downward investment in its roads. So much so that it is 13.5 billion euros away from solving it

Yes, the DGT has limited the maximum speed to 80 km/h and has prohibited overtaking. And there’s a good reason for that: wind.

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In Spain the weather is bad. I don’t know if you had noticed but we have had rain, snow and very strong winds for a month and a half. Meteorological events that are impacting all types of sectors. Also that of mobility, where closed roads, incidents on the road and restrictions are being the general trend. If you go to your favorite social network and read that the DGT has limited the speed to 80 km/h, don’t panic. It’s normal. At 80 km/h maximum. And overtaking prohibited by order of the DGT. It is a headline that has been repeated in the last two days and has spread across social networks. Headlines that hid an essential word to understand the information: temporal. Meteorological storm, because the restrictions are due to the clash of storms that we have chained for days and weeks in the Iberian Peninsula. And temporary because the restrictions are not definitive, they are simply used to maintain safety on the road. The restrictions. One of the provinces that found the most restrictions of this type during the past weekend was Castellón. The region has had to live with an orange alert for wind and the DGT decided that the maximum speed at which one could drive on Saturday was 80 km/h on three roads in the province, where overtaking was also prohibited. The trucks They were also not allowed to circulate on the AP-7. Yesterday, Sunday, normality was recovered. These restrictions have obviously been temporary. And, effectively, the DGT can apply temporary restrictions on speed or overtaking for meteorological reasons, just as can close a road to traffic due to snow or it can be restricted to those who They drive with chains or winter tires. For security. The wind is a danger on the road and overtaking is critical when there are very high wind gusts. In particular, some are very dangerous: Screen effect: when you drive through a tunnel or infrastructure that cuts off the side wind and it disappears. At that moment, a gust of wind can move the car to one side of the road and If we are caught off guard the movement will be sharper. Overtaking: something very similar happens when we overtake a large truck or van. In this case, if we are fighting a crosswind, passing a vehicle will automatically cut off the force we receive. You have to be careful because normally we have been moving the steering wheel to the right slightly to counteract the force of the wind. By overtaking the truck, that resistance disappears and we can go against the vehicle on our right, adding that the truck or van fights not to go to the left, which can end in contact. Furthermore, when overtaking, we will again feel the screen effect described above, so we must be careful and remain attentive. Trailers: Both situations are especially dangerous if we drive a vehicle with a trailer since, in that case, the car does not receive the same forces as its rear part and, in an extreme case, movement angles that are difficult to manage can arise. What does the DGT recommend? The first thing we must do is adapt our speed to the traffic circumstances. The DGT has the power to reduce the speed of the road to 80 km/h and prohibit overtaking, but the logical and essential thing is to apply common sense and take your foot off the accelerator. Taking this into account, we must remain very attentive to resolve any gusts of wind. If this happens, you have to act gently, calmly. The DGT also recommends circulate in high gears (one lower than usual) to have a greater response from the engine if we need to get out of trouble. And remember that the more voluminous and taller a vehicle is, the more risk it has of overturning, the more complex it will be to control it and the more care we must take when overtaking it. Photo | Theo Lonic and DGT In Xataka | Everything I learned the day I was surprised by the snow: tips for driving on ice when the situation gets complicated

the AVE at 160 km/h in sections of the Madrid-Barcelona route

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Months of notices from the train drivers, who They were traveling below the maximum speed allowed on the road, and with the images of the Adamuz train accident (Córdoba) very present, Adif has reduced the maximum speed at which you can travel on the Madrid-Barcelona high speed train to 160 km/h. This is all that has happened. What has happened? Adif reduces the speed to 160 km/h in a section of 150 kilometers of the 667 kilometers that correspond to the Madrid-Barcelona route. The measure is temporary and, they announced this morning in Chain Being Before it became official, it was done after hearing the drivers complain that there were potholes in it that reduced driving comfort. after the accident. The exceptional measure comes at a delicate moment. last sunday an Iryo train derailed on a straight line near the town of Adamuz. 20 seconds later, an Alvia train traveling in the opposite direction collided with the last carriages of the Italian train and derailed. When we write these lines, 41 deaths have been reported. Since then, the videos have multiplied in which reference is made to the excessive vibrations of the high-speed trains that circulate through our country. However, the causes of the accident are unknown and It is very likely that it will take us months to know all the details. of what happened. There has been speculation about a defective switch, a stress-fractured track and train vibrations, but nothing has been confirmed by any official source. What is happening in Madrid-Barcelona? For months now, train drivers have been reporting problems traveling at the maximum speed on the track, which in The now cut section was 300 km/h. The complaint about excessive vibrations has been reported by passengers but also by workers. “The crew members complain, the interveners complain and we write complaints, because there are areas where we are hitting boats,” a Renfe driver complains to Xataka who prefers to remain anonymous. From SEMAF (Spanish Union of Railway Machinists) have confirmed to us that the machinists have been reporting considerable deterioration on the tracks for months, to the point of traveling at a speed below that expected. The height of the controversy came when last summer some S-106 trains known as the Talgo Avril cracked. Since then, Talgo and Adif blame each other for what happened. How serious is it? From SEMAF they assure us that vibrations directly impact the running comfort and the useful life of the train components but they rule out that there is a risk of derailment for this reason. From the General Council of Industrial Engineers share this vision: “the usual vibrations are foreseen in the design of both the train and the infrastructure. High-speed railway systems work with very wide safety margins,” they assure Xataka also pointing out that the perception of small irregularities on the road or in the rolling stock are amplified when driving at high speeds. And the driver who has offered us his testimony thinks the same. “If we understand that there is a danger to traffic, we call the command posts and they take measures by putting limitations, although for months we have also been taking them by slowing down. We are the first interested parties, we want to return home,” he emphasizes. First consequence. Adif’s decision is the first significant measure taken after the accident in Adamuz (Córdoba) in which 41 people have died and in which rescue work continues. It remains to be seen if more measures of this magnitude are taken but it must be remembered that the specific reason that led to the accident remains unknown. Photo | André Marques on Wikimedia In Xataka | Spain thought that Spain could manufacture the perfect trains for Spain. The reality: Spain is already looking for trains in Germany

There is a reason why Germany allows driving at 300 km/h and it is not history or politics: it is the asphalt

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If you like to step on the accelerator, you will have already seen firsthand that cornering at 100 km/h is better than at 130 km/h. I don’t need to remind you that the maximum speed allowed on state roads is 120 km/h. Although there are quite a few countries within the European Union with higher limits, Germany is the only state where there are sections without speed limit. 300 km/h without breaking a sweat. Obviously, this poses a danger to driving as cars such as a Porsche at 322 km/h. At these speeds, the risk of the car jumping or losing control is notable. But the “recipe” for manufacturing the German Autobahn has its particularities that allow it to offer enviable flatness and a road surface with high load capacity. And it can be found in the regulations and standards of the FGSV (Research Society for Highways and Transportation) and the BASt (German Federal Authority for Road Safety and Traffic). Blessed sandwich. While in Spain Flexible or semi-rigid pavement predominates with thicknesses of 40 to 60 centimeters. In Germany they use a standardized layer system called RStO 12 (Guidelines for the Standardization of Pavement Structures). That is, with a total thickness of between 70 and 90 centimeters with an antifreeze base composed of highly permeable gravel and sand so that water does not remain trapped (in case of freezing, it would generate large cracks as a result of expansion). About this, layers of gravel mixed with concrete or asphalt to provide sufficient rigidity to prevent collapse under the passage of heavy trucks. cwhen concrete and when asphalt. In the intermediate section the Germans use two materials, highlighting the concrete for those stretches of free speed and high truck traffic thanks to its rigidity and durability. In more detail: The 25 to 30 centimeter high-resistance concrete pavements longitudinally integrate plastic-coated steel bars. Thus, they allow some thermal expansion but do not allow them to move independently, causing steps. The transition between the concrete slabs is barely noticeable. Asphalt with stone matrix (S.M.A.), a combination with crushed stone and cellulose to offer extreme resistance to deformation and maximize the tire’s grip. The “superstructure” of German roads. Von Susan from Bielefeld, Deutschland – Straße, CC BY 2.0 Extreme plain for safety and by law. If you hit a speed bump at a certain speed, your car will go away. If you go 300 km/h in a sports car, the loss of aerodynamic load is such that it could be fatal. So Germany takes the plain very seriously by regulations: the maximum allowable deviation three millimeters in four meters. They achieve it with controlled pavers by global navigation and laser sensor systems. Auf wiedersehen, aquaplaning. Once the risk of steps, cracks and unevenness has been minimized, there remains another staunch enemy for speed: water on the asphalt. And they fight it in two ways. For starters, autobahns have a slope of at least 2.5% on the sides to evacuate the water as soon as possible. For concrete pavements, it is used waschbeton or washed concrete, a technique that brushes the surface to expose the aggregates, thus creating a rough, non-slip area that breaks up any water film that may form. In Xataka | Germany, Austria and Switzerland have plenty of roads. So they have started covering them with solar panels In Xataka | The Autobahn are the only roads in Europe without a speed limit. More and more Germans want to end them Cover | Wes Tindel and Nick Fewings

In 2010, the owner of a Ferrari missed a radar in Switzerland at 137 km/h. He took home the most expensive fine in history

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The fine for speeding highest ever recorded did not come from a German road or a French motorway. It arose in Switzerland, and they gave it to the driver of a Ferrari Testarossa. The most curious thing is that they did not put it in for pushing the power of this 90’s classic to the limit since it was traveling at 137 km/h. The result was a fine of more than 247,000 euros, an amount that officially appears in the Guinness World Records as the biggest fine for speeding. A record fine. The highest speeding fine officially recorded was imposed in Switzerland in January 2010. A court in the canton of St. Gallen sentenced the driver of a Ferrari Testarossa to pay about $290,000 (more than 247,000 euros at the exchange rate) after being detected by radar traveling at 137 km/h in a section limited to 80 km/h. The amount of the fine was not arbitrary. In Switzerland, judges do not set fines based on rigid tables according to the infraction, but rather based on the real impact they must have on each driver’s pocket. A system designed so that everyone hurts equally. Swiss legislation contemplates a model of fines proportional to the driver’s income, instead of establishing a table of fixed amounts as happens in Spain. This applies an equivalence factor with respect to economic capacity, making the sanctions truly have a deterrent nature. A fine of 200 euros for a person who charges a salary of 16,000 euros It can be a compelling reason for you to take your foot off the accelerator when you don’t play. But that same figure is insignificant for someone with a net worth of several million euros. Sanctions in Switzerland are at another level. In the case of the driver of the Testarossa, the sanction was triggered because the driver declared assets that exceeded 22 million dollars and accumulated a record for similar violations. For the Swiss authorities, the fine should reflect not only the risk committed, but also the economic impact it should generate. The 2010 record is not an isolated case. According to collects the local newspaper 24hourslast August a billionaire resident in Lausanne was fined 90,000 Swiss francs (about 96,500 euros) after exceeding the 50 km/h limit on the road while traveling at 77 km/h. Although the violation was not extreme, the final calculation was, and was justified by evaluating income, assets, and family circumstances. 96,000 euros for exceeding the speed limit by 27 km/h. Switzerland is not the only country that applies it. Finland shares a sanctioning philosophy similar to that applied in Switzerland. There are also fines calculated according to income, with precedents that have exceeded 120,000 euros. One of the best known cases It is that of a businessman who was traveling at 82 km/h in an area limited to 50 km/h and ended up facing a fine of 120,000 euros due to his level of income. In Austria, for example, a millionaire They took away his driving license and the Bugatti Veyron was immediately seized for traveling at 123 km/h in an area limited to 60 km/h. Spain will never come close to these figures. The Spanish traffic legislation is located at the opposite extreme. The fines depend exclusively on the margin exceeded over the speed limit, not on the financial capacity of the offender. Thus, the case of the Finnish driver fined 120,000 euros, in Spain would be resolved with a fine of 400 euros and four points less on the driving license. In fact, you would even have a 50% discount on the fine if you pay it in the first few days. In Spain, the most serious sanctions are penalized with a maximum of 600 euros and the withdrawal of six points on the license, without there being a link between the sanctions and the level of income. This implies that someone with high purchasing powermay consider the cost of the infringement to be minimal, thus losing its deterrent nature. In Xataka | The DGT allows legal circulation at 150 km/h without being an emergency vehicle. The secret: a sign Image | Unsplash (Noah Boyer)

a supermassive black hole ejected from its galaxy at 3.4 million km/h

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Until now, we thought about supermassive black holes like the immovable anchors of galaxies, being gravitational giants that keep everything in order from the center. But we were quite wrong, since the James Webb Space Telescope us has confirmed that, sometimes, these anchors break and are shot through intergalactic space as if they were real gun bullets. The study. A team led by astronomer Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University has presented the first observational confirmation of a wandering supermassive black hole. It is called RBH-1 and its existence is the result of one of the most violent events that physics allows: being “kicked” out of your home by gravitational waves. A scar. Detecting this is not easy, since black holes They cannot be seen with the naked eye, but the destruction they leave in their wake is analyzed. This is precisely what JWST saw when it detected a massive linear structure about 200,000 light years long (twice the diameter of the Milky Way), which connects a distant galaxy with a bright, fuzzy spot. After trying to analyze this destruction in more detail, the telescope itself has revealed that it is a discontinuity. In layman’s terms: there is something extremely massive moving at an absurd speed of 954 km/s, which is equivalent to 3.4 million kilometers per hour. A speed that would allow us to travel from the Earth to the Moon in less than seven minutes. How do we know? The question in this case seems obligatory: How do we know that it is a black hole and not a simple star formation? The answer lies in everything it leaves in its wake, since by moving at this type of high speed, the black hole It compresses the gas so violently that it generates a trail of hot plasma that can be measured, as well as the formation of new stars. And now science has been able to confirm that this gas is not heated by the light emitted by stars, but by the brutal collision of a target that has at least 10 million times the mass of the Sun. Why is he running away? The theory behind this phenomenon is not new, but has been predicted by general relativity for 50 years. But in order to understand what has happened here, we can see it in three different steps: The first thing that happened was the merger of two galaxies and their respective supermassive black holes that began to orbit each other. After this, a third galaxy arrives to join this party and its black hole interacts with the binary system formed before. Finally, a cosmic “kick” is given. In this case, the interaction of three bodies generates a great asymmetry in the gravitational waves that results in a black hole shooting out of the galaxy at a high speed. It’s not the first. We already knew about wandering “stellar mass” black holes (a few times the mass of the Sun) roaming our own Milky Way, detected by gravitational microlensing effects by Hubble or the Gaia mission. However, finding a supermassive, what is the type of object that usually lives in the heart of galaxies, is a milestone on a different scale. Why this matters. The confirmation of RBH-1 is not a simple curiosity for physicists, but validates models of galactic evolution that suggest that the universe is full of these ‘exiles’. And this shows that if supermassive black holes can be ejected so easily, it means that many galaxies could be “orphaned” of their central core, affecting how they grow and form stars. Images | NASA Hubble Space Telescope In Xataka | China is launching more rockets into space than ever before. And the reason is very simple: not to depend on Starlink

The Madrid-Barcelona AVE will reach a peak speed of 350 km/h. And it will do so thanks to new sleepers of Spanish design

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While in China they are already thinking about trains that reach 4,000 km/hIn Spain we are looking for an AVE that reaches 350 km/h that could be reached without problems if it were not for one detail: the tracks. And for something much more specific: the sleepers. The solution is a new design called “aerotraviesa” that will increase the speed of the BIRD. The problem is that theory is one thing, and practice another. a physical problem. Spain plays in the high speed major league and, in it, Renfe opera four types of trains. The Alvia and Avant reach 250 km/h. The Avlo and the AVE reach 300 km/h. However, the machines are prepared to reach higher speeds, the aforementioned 350 km/h. The problem is in physics. When a train exceeds a certain speed, 300 km/h, a phenomenon called ‘ballast flight’ occurs. This implies that the underside of the train generates turbulence that creates areas of low pressure on the track. This causes the passage of the train to vibrate the stones, the ballast, lifting them and causing them to collide against the underside of the train or settle on the tracks and sleepers themselves. Furthermore, at more than 300 km/h, the possible bumps on the journey increase. Air traverses. That’s where a new sleeper design comes into play that the company itself Adif presented a few years ago. Instead of a flat crossbar, a traditional rectangle, the central part of it has a more rounded design. Adif affirms This modifies the velocity field on the ballast in the area between the sleepers, minimizing the presence of ballast particles, and the key points are: Reduces 21% of the aerodynamic load in the space immediately above the ballast bed. The design allows increasing the distance between the ballast level and the upper face of the sleeper. It has no higher manufacturing or handling costs (they are still molds). And most importantly: the aerodynamic load generated by a train at 330 km/h on a track with current sleepers is equivalent to that generated by the same train at 370 km/h, but with aero sleepers. AV350 Plan. In short, the aerocrossers improve the aerodynamic performance of the infrastructure and there is another important fact: their use allows an increase of 12% in the operating speed of the train. And it is not just theory, since Spain wants to start installing overhead traverses to improve the speed of the AVE. A few weeks ago, Óscar Puente, Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, advertisement that the Madrid-Barcelona line will be the first to have these overhead traverses. The result? Reach the maximum speed of the original design of the infrastructure, which is 350 km/h. Currently, the AVE reaches those 300 km/h due to the physical limitations mentioned above. This will allow us to go from the two hours and 37 minutes of the AVE that currently takes the least time to less than two hours. Puente highlighted that the design of the aerocrosses is pioneer in the world. The Polytechnic University of Madrid, Adif and SENER constituted a consortium to develop this technology and obtained the patent in March 2014, achieving international protection in Europe, Saudi Arabia and the United States. There are countries that have faced the ballast problem in other ways, Germany covering the ballast with concrete, for example. Arching an eyebrow. Increasing the speed of the train by changing the sleepers sounds great. The problem is that there are some aspects to consider. On the one hand, the cost-benefit debate not only because of what the investment will mean in changing all the sleepers, but also because of the maintenance of certain train materials that will suffer more than now. Driving at 350 km/h exponentially increases the wear of both the wheels and the catenary, regardless of whether the ballast causes no damage to the train, or causes less. On the other hand, not only the sleepers come into play, but also the own land. A bump at 300 km/h can be annoying, at 350 km/h it can be something more. Or two. And, beyond whether it is worth the investment to gain half an hour or what will happen with those possible technical problems, the big question is what happens with the rest of Spain. It is estimated that the Madrid-Barcelona section in which these air crossings begin to be applied will take about two years to complete. At a rate of 800 sleepers changed per day and 1,666 sleepers per kilometer, the work is of great magnitude. And it is clear that it is a congested route and that it is seeing a boom in the number of travelers, but while that line is reinforced, the connection with other parts of the peninsula remains neglectedlike the train to Soria, Teruel or the perennial case of Extremadura. Images | Xataka, Adif In Xataka | AVLO’s departure from Madrid-Barcelona seemed like another problem for Renfe. He has left us an unexpected winner

In the search for a supersonic train, China tests a Maglev that will reach 4,000 km/h. The problem will be maintaining it

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China’s conquest of the high-speed train field is impressive. In the 2008 Beijing Olympicsthe country had just 120 kilometers of high speed between Beijing and Tianjin. 17 years latermanage more high-speed kilometers than any other countrya very long distance from Spain or Japan. They are not only building kilometers to unite the entire country: they are developing technologies so that the plane is no longer necessary. As? With Maglev trains at speeds of 1,000 km/h. And a specific model, the T-Flight, which dreams of 4,000 km/h. Maglev + Hyperloop. China is one of the countries, along with Japan, that is investing a lot of money in the development of the magnetic levitation trainsor Maglev. This technology allows trains not to rest their wheels on the rails, but rather to float thanks to a series of powerful magnets and an electromagnetic field. This allows us to exceed the 250 km/h that has been set as a standard for high speed and, for example, China has the fastest Maglev in the worldone that reaches 431 km/h. It is already operational between Beijing and Shanghai, but in Japan is testing one that will exceed 600 km/h. It’s a speed that will seem slow compared to what CASIC is preparing. It stands for “China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation,” a state-owned tactical missile company that announced the T-Flight project in August 2017. The idea? Combine magnetic levitation trains with Hyperloop-style vacuum tubes. T-Flight. In short, it is putting a Maglev in a vacuum tube, eliminating air pressure and resistance as much as possible, but there is much more. For example, the idea of CASIC is that magnetic levitation is enhanced thanks to superconductors that will raise the train up to 100 mm above the rail. Conventional Maglevs are raised by about 10 mm, and the idea is that the higher the train is, the more stability it will have at extreme speeds. On the other hand, the tube itself, with a system that extracts air from it to create a low pressure environment, reducing aerodynamic resistance to the maximum. This partial vacuum and levitation that eliminates the physical resistance of the wheel and track is what will allow unprecedented speeds to be achieved. Achievements. In 2024 they already achieved one first validated test as a world record by reaching 623 km/h, but in the summer of this year, in a low pressure environment, The train reached 650 km/h in seven seconds in its laboratory. They were strange tests, since the track was a kilometer long when the usual thing is much longer, but that also gives us a clue of what brutal which is both the acceleration and braking of the train. That is, think that, in seven seconds and in just one kilometer, the train accelerated to 650 km/h and stopped. The team’s idea is to reach 800 km/h as the top speed this year, but the ambition goes much further. Ambition. Currently, the team is in Phase 1, which is the one that aims aim that speed of 1,000 km/h. To do this, and to validate the speed in real conditions, they want to extend the test track to 60 kilometers. However, the thing does not stop there and, when the project was born, it was already said that Phase 2 and Phase 3 would have as aim 2,000 km/h (almost double the cruising speed of a traditional commercial airplane) and 4,000 km/hsupersonic speeds that would compete with the fastest planes in the world. This would allow large urban centers in China to be linked in a few minutes, leaving aside the need to take planes to cover long distances. In fact, this high speed is already showing in Europe that short flights do not make sense if we combine the waiting time at the airport with the flight itself and compare it with the comfort of access to the train. A major challenge. Now, the goal will not be easy. Maglev technology works and is proven, but what they want to achieve with this T-Flight not only complicates things because, in addition to a track, a tube must be built. And, of course, maintain it. Extending this partial vacuum over hundreds of kilometers of tube represents an enormous technical challenge because it implies that the joints must be perfectly sealed, without the cold and heat dilating them so that there are no leaks. It is estimated that a 600 km pipe requires an expansion joint every 100 meters, and each one of them represents a potential point of failure. Furthermore, at 300 km/h appreciate vibrations in the seats. Air system to reduce pressure inside the tubes Furthermore, any decompression would be catastrophic and perhaps most importantly: there is no certification standard or safety protocols for something like this. In any case, T-Flight continues to take steps at a good pace and, although it seems difficult to see it working in the short term, if a country can achieve it right now… it is China. Images | Geely In Xataka | After 20 years, the definitive one arrives: Brazil prepares the first high-speed train in South America

a suitcase with wheels at 30 km/h

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Just a few days ago, Pere Navarro, director of the DGT, said that “The only way to access the cities will be by public transport“. These are words that a good part of the media has used to advance supposed prohibitions about which nothing has really been said. But they do reflect another battle: the battle for space. For years, European cities they have put up a battle with the cars and they are redistributing space. The large pedestrian areas such as those in Barcelona, ​​the mandatory ZBEs in Spain or the commitment to cycling in Paris are good examples. But it is a movement that has been brewing for decades. What happened to the Scalextric de Atocha? Did you know that Amsterdam was once part of the car paradise? These same debates were already taking place in Japan more than 30 years ago. And when one lives in overcrowded populations and with very high population densities, having or not having a car is no longer a question of purchasing power, it is a question of how that can impact our own environment. These questions of how many cars there should be in a city and what implications they have is what led Japan to implement the Shako Shomeishothe regulations that prevent you from buying a car if you do not have a secured parking space. At least in the busiest cities. In that same context were born the kei carespecially narrow and small cars with specific regulations to avoid being subject to taxes and that Shako Shomeisho that limits the purchase of vehicles. The concept wants to repeat in Europe although if it has triumphed in Japan it is because it is deeply rational, something that does not always go well with the European idea of ​​the automobile. And since in Japan the radically rational triumphs and they are decades ahead when it comes to space management, already in the 80s and 90s they were wondering what mobility solutions They could arrive in the future to move us around in a motorized vehicle, taking up as little space as possible. With those, Mazda pulled an ace up its sleeve. One in suitcase format. The Mazda Suitcase Car or the “suitcase car” The 90s had just begun and Mazda wanted to look for original mobility solutions. Playing the typical Futurology game that It is made in design centersthe Japanese company opened an internal competition to receive proposals for a groundbreaking vehicle. It is very likely that the executives who received Yoshimi Kanemoto were already expecting that the designer who led the Mazda Suitcase Car project would arrive with the proposal in a suitcase. We imagine, of course, that not in the way they expected. Because that suitcase did not hide sketches, design games or feasibility studies. What he was hiding was the very vehicle that had been requested. With the help of Kanemoto, a group of engineers gave life to the Mazda Suitcase Cara small three-wheeled vehicle that moved thanks to a two-stroke engine. The chassis? The suitcase itself, of course. And it is in the same suitcase where the humble apparatus of the vehicle is stored in which the… driver sits? Or pilot, rather. In this video You can see how it has just enough space to store the engine, the tank and the three wheels. Once assembled, it is as simple as getting on and starting to roll, driving this kind of three-wheeled kart with a handlebar that includes a handle to give gas, like on a motorcycle. The prototype, obviously, did not reach production but it was an example of how far technology could go to miniaturize the components necessary to make a vehicle roll. The company itself explains that the prototype was born as an idea to anticipate what vehicles would be like in the year 2020. For its Japanese designer, we would move in a 57×75 cm Samsonite suitcase in which a small kart with the capacity to reach 30 km/h would be hidden. It’s no small thing. The idea, however, was presented outside Japan. In 1992, Associated Press photographed to one of the company’s executives riding the device in the middle of Times Square, in the days before a New York Auto Show. Obviously, the proposal went nowhere but we would have to ask Kanemoto what he thinks of those who cross half the world today to get on a kart, dress up as Mario Bross and ride through Tokyo traffic as if they were experiencing a Mario Kart race. Photos | Mazda In Xataka | Aboard the Mazda MX-5: It’s uncomfortable, it’s small, it’s loud, it’s charming, it’s unique, it’s cool

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