China Railway Rolling Stock Corp. Ltd. (CRRC) announced that it will start researching and developing a magnetic levitation (maglev) train that could run as fast as 600 kph, the fastest among any other maglev trains in operation today.

The CRRC Corp. also revealed that its subsidiary unit CSR Qingdao Sifang Co Ltd. will build the trains and a test track that spans at least 5 km long, Caixin reported.

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The new maglev train will cut more than half the travel time between Beijing and Shanghai to two hours instead of the usual five hours, while a trip from London to Paris would only take a mere 34 minutes.

CRRC Corp. will also be researching about cross-border trains that travel at 400 kph and alternate on different track sizes ranging between 60 cm and 1.676 meters, according to China Daily.

The new trains will consume 10 percent less energy compared with the current bullet trains used in the country, Sun Bangcheng, a CRRC official, said. CRRC committed that it will first improve its levitation and traction technology before it develops its next set of maglev trains, as maglev trains use magnets and electric currents to glide above the track instead of fossil fuels, Shanghaiist reported. 

Japan currently has the fastest Maglev train with a speed of 603 kph during test run. However, it has not yet introduced this type of train commercially because of worries over infrastructure construction costs, the Daily Caller reported.

Meanwhile, China is the home to the fastest maglev train in the world, the Shanghai Maglev, which could run at a top speed of about 450 kph and the first high-speed maglev train to be operated commercially.

The proposed train will also top off the planned train revealed last month that could carry passengers at a top speed of 500 kph and cargo at 250 kph. 

TagsCRRC, China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, maglev train, CSR Qingdao Sifang, bullet train, trains, Shanghai Maglev