My Thoughts and Expectations on the Yamanashi MAGLEV Test Line

Executive Director, RTRI

   The Yamanashi MAGLEV Test Line under construction in the Yamanashi Prefecture has 
at last reached the stage such that it will officially start operations next spring.
   Two sets of test trains will run over an 18.4km long pilot section. This is the 
biggest R&D project and investment ever undertaken by the RTRI since the JNR was split 
and privatized and the RTRI reorganized as an independent institution. With a delay 
of two years taken for acquisition of the plot and after a lot of other troubles 
experienced, our dream of an experimental line permitting a 550km/h run is about to 
come true.
   Glancing at a 70m long train set completed featuring the body with a streak of 
blue-on-white back ground, I cannot help being impressed and excited with a renewed 
sense of fight and resolution to bring the project to a final success.
   It is 17 years ago that a record of 517km/h run was attained on a 7km long line 
of the Miyazaki Test Track, but we could not expect from the Miyazaki Test Track 
anything more spectacular unless the test scale is upgraded. A full-scale test line 
must be built by all means if we intend to make clear the fundamentals of superspeed 
mode of transport; namely, transport capacity, environmental requirements, safety and 
stability of operation including the high-speed passing of trains in opposite directions, 
ride comfort and economics of superspeed run; and to demonstrate these performances to be 
transformed into commercial operation.
   The new test line was conceived and authorized in 1990 as a national project. Originally 
it was planned for 42km length, but for immediate use, 18.4km was set aside as a pilot 
section on which to start the testing and get economic orientations toward realization 
of MAGLEV line within a three-year period. With tunnels accounting for 87% of the line, 
there is no loop section, though the double-track part is 12km long. These conditions are 
not favorable for reliability and endurance to be confirmed within the set period. 
Nevertheless, we are determined to execute a series of testing with all our abilities 
mobilized and to come up with worthy results in due time.
   The superconducting magnetic system is an attractive thing. The anti-vibration property 
of the superconducting magnet is now about 10 times enhanced compared with 5 years ago. 
The vehicle can now run non-contact on a curve of 8000m radius at 500km/h. Being levitated, 
the vehicle does not give any extreme impact on the structure. Being enclosed between sidewalls, 
it is not likely to cause much noise. Since the train can be located to a cm accuracy by the 
wayside computer, it can be perfectly monitored.
   In Japan last year when a megaquake hit the Hanshin district, the safety of high-speed 
trains in an earthquake became a hot topic of debate. By contrast, MAGLEV trains running 
10cm afloat and 6cm clear of the sidewalls will remain free from any catastrophic damage 
and accordingly the aseismic design of structures will not call for any major revision to 
the present practice. 
   MAGLEV being a totally novel system, however, various troubles are naturally anticipated 
in the process of testing. Enough experience has been attained, we believe, but we are prepared 
to encounter much more new developments to be verified. Our memory is still fresh of a fire 
which happened in testing. Notably, the long tunnels we have to deal with hereafter are not 
good experimental circumstances and equipment failures are inevitably hard to deal with.
   When we take the traffic of the 21st century into perspective, it would be our earnest 
wish as human beings to harness this MAGLEV by any means. Much expertise gained so far and 
progress of technologies about organic materials, semi-conductors, super-conducting substance 
at normal temperature will provide new forces to our success. By the time this issue comes out, 
the long-awaited Test Center will be open with all the people bustling for test preparations, 
including the education and training of the crew. I am firmly convinced that the day will come 
when their devoted efforts are rightly rewarded.