Let's talk the future...one of technology...Maglev

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/21/asia/japan-maglev-train-world-record/index.html

Fastest in the world

The train broke its own record from last Thursday, when it ran at 590 kilometers per hour (366 miles per hour) on a test track.
Japan's trains as safe as they are fast




That beat the old record of 581 kilometers per hour (361 miles per hour), which was set in 2003 during another Japanese maglev test.

Right now, China operates the world's fastest commercial maglev, which has hit 431 kilometers per hour (268 miles per hour) on a route through Shanghai.

By contrast, the fastest train in the United States, Amtrak's Acela Express, is only capable of 241 kilometers per hour (150 miles per hour), though it usually plods along at half that speed.

There are workable maglev systems that could run 4000 miles per hour and use 2% of the power of a jet airliner....

Crap.......T has been hypnotized by President Obama.

I rode the amtrak back from chicago last year and had a great time. But the applications are specific in the usa.

2seaoat wrote:Crap.......T has been hypnotized by President Obama.

Actually I don't see it before our economic system collapses and our political system is restructured and greatly reduced. We need a system based on making life better not people richer....We need to be reaching for the stars not blowing people and things up. Obama is irrelevant, engineers and technologists aren't.

I used to love taking the train as a child.  My Grandfather was an engineer in Birmingham who ran trains to Atlanta, stayed overnight, and back again to Birmingham.  It was incredible looking into folks back yards and small towns across America.  Amazing natural beauty and gripping poverty.  However, I am trying to get some sense of what the scenery would be like at 340mph......a blur.  I am looking forward to the day when a line could cross Siberia and travel could be so much less costly.