Japan working on the world's fastest train

Japanese engineers are working on would be the world’s fastest train.

Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central) is testing the L0 Series, a Japanese Maglev train, Euronews reports.

It says there is the potential for speeds of up to 603kmh, way ahead of the current record breaker: China’s Shanghai Maglev at 465kmh.

The new service would be on the Tokyo to Nagoya route, a route currently served by Shinkansen bullet trains but the L0 Series trains would half the current travel time.

The L0 Series Chuo-Shinkansen line is currently under construction to enable these speeds. It may also be extended to serve Osaka in the future.

The maglev technology uses magnetic levitation that lifts the train above the tracks, enabling much higher speeds.

The bad news: the project is still about eight years away from completion.

Usually, a train from Tokyo to Nagoya can take anywhere between one hour and 26 minutes to two and a half hours or more, depending on whether travellers take the faster bullet train (Shinkansen) services, or the slower Kodama or Hikari ones.

The L0 Series’ Chuo-Shinkansen is expected to cut this travel time down to only 40 minutes.

Once deemed commercially operational, the L0 Series train will be able to travel from Tokyo to Osaka in one hour, a journey which currently takes anywhere from 2hr 30 mins to four hours.