On 6 avr. 07, at 09:48, Gar Lipow wrote:
> Michael: I don't have the figures in front of me. But when a train
> starts traveling at 300 mph it does so very inefficiently. So really
Regarding the TGV record: the wikipedia page is quite interesting for people who want to have basic information about the technical limits of the tests: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV_world_speed_record
An engineer was interviewed during the test and said that to go faster than that would have been too expensive. But they were only 5km/h away from the Japanese maglev train record.
Also, it is interesting to see the the current cruise speed (350km/h) for the TGV is slightly inferior to its first speed record in 1981 (380km/h). So hopefully we'll reach cruise speeds close to 500km/h within the next 20 years...
Jean-Christophe Helary