Unfortunately, train travel is hardly what it used to be — in the United States, anyway. Travel by plane is now quicker, more convenient and often cheaper. America’s highways have replaced the romanticism of the cross-country train ride with the freedom of the “roadtrip.” Meanwhile, train travel has lost a lot of its former luxurious grandeur. Coach cabins are crammed, the dining cars seem to have misplaced their chefs for microwaves, and travel is slow and full of delays.

In many parts of the world, though, trains have experienced a revival over the last several decades: they’re reasonably priced, comfortable, convenient … and fast. So fast, in fact, that they often rival air travel in expedience and travel time. The technological development of bullet trains has made traveling by train sensible again. And even though the countryside whizzes by at a dizzying pace, it still offers a more intimate travel experience than air travel ever did.

High-speed rail is also much more energy efficient, especially on routes where ridership is high, than travel by motor vehicle or plane. These are just some of the reasons why trains are getting a second look in the U.S., with high-speed rail projects already planned in California and the Midwest.

To get a look at what the U.S. has to look forward to, here are the 9 best high-speed rail rides in the world.

Photo credit: Oxyman/Wikimedia Commons

Eurostar

The Eurostar high-speed railway connects London with Paris, running undersea through a tunnel beneath the English Channel. The Channel Tunnel itself possesses the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world, and has been identified as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

Eurostar’s Channel Tunnel line has revolutionized passenger travel between England and mainland Europe, which was previously only possible via plane or ship. In fact, today Eurostar carries more cross-channel passengers than all airlines combined. It’s a must-ride for world-traveling train aficionados everywhere.

Photo credit: Hiroshi Ichikawa/Shutterstock

Shinkansen

Japan’s high-speed rail network, Shinkansen, became the world’s first operator of passenger bullet trains when it opened in 1964 for the Tokyo Olympics, and it’s still a world leader. In fact, it has transported more passengers than any other high-speed line in the world, totaling about 151 million a year.

The network is also expansive, consisting of nearly 1,500 miles of rail lines, many of which regularly reach speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour. It’s almost always on time, too, coming in at only 12 seconds late on average.

Really, it’s the best way to travel in Japan, with a sterling environmental record. In fact, traveling the Tokyo to Osaka line, the busiest line in the network, produces only 16 percent of the CO2 emissions of an equivalent journey by car.

Photo credit: Sebastian Terfloth/Wikimedia Commons

TGV

TGV is France’s high-speed rail line, renowned for both its speed and comfortable first class accommodations. It was Europe’s first high-speed rail line when it opened in 1981, and has become a model for much of Europe’s renowned high-speed network since.

Today TGV trains operate at the highest speeds in the world for wheeled lines, regularly reaching 320 km/h. By 2010, the TGV service had already transported two billion passengers.

Photo credit: mamahoohooba/Shutterstock

Shanghai Maglev

China is rapidly becoming the world leader in high-speed trains. In fact, they have the largest high-speed rail network in the world, topping 2,000 total miles and continuing to grow. Perhaps China’s most revolutionary train, however, is the Shanghai Maglev.

The Maglev does not run on conventional rails, opting instead for magnetic levitation. Because this technology cuts down on friction, it allows the train to redefine the meaning of “high speed.” In fact, the Maglev is the world’s fastest train in regular commercial service, with a top speed of 431 km/h. Train aficionados with a speed kick will have this train on their must-ride list.

Photo credit: Sebastian Terfloth/Wikimedia Commons

ICE

Aside from having the “coolest” name among high-speed trains, Germany’s ICE line is also chillingly fast, licensed for speeds up to about 320 km/hr. It is one of the most widely used forms of public transportation in Germany, and has nearly a 100 percent brand awareness in the country.

While dangerous activities are not recommended, it’s also noteworthy that the ICE-3 line might be the first high-speed train to ever be successfully train-surfed (Tom Cruise in “Mission: Impossible” not withstanding). That’s certainly a train ride for the ages!

Photo credit: Encino/Wikimedia Commons

THSR

The THSR stands for “Taiwan High Speed Rail,” and represents the line that runs almost the entire west coast of Taiwan, between Taipei and Kaohsiung. The trains have whittled the travel time along the 214-mile stretch down to just about an hour and a half. The thrilling ride runs on viaducts or through tunnels for most of its length.

Since it first opened service, THSR has carried more than 160 million passengers and has greatly reduced road traffic.

Photo credit: Pedro Salaverría/Shutterstock

AVE

AVE is Spain’s renowned high-speed rail network, with more than 1,600 miles of rail that makes it the second longest rail line in the world (behind China’s), and the largest in Europe. The name, AVE, is a play on the Spanish word for “bird,” apt, because these trains can certainly fly.

The ride between Madrid and Barcelona is the most popular, which is completed in just about two and a half hours. Passengers reduce their carbon emissions by 83 percent on the trip, and the train is also remarkably punctual — a 99 percent on-time rating.

Photo credit: Jpatokal/Wikimedia Commons

KTX

Based on France’s TGV line, the KTX (Korea Train Express) is South Korea’s high-speed railway. The trains are capable of reaching speeds up to 217 mph, which make them the forth line of bullet trains to hit that mark.

After being launched in 2004, KTX has been a remarkable success and plans to greatly expand the network are already well underway. In fact, the line is planned to connect Mokpo with Jeju Island, which will involve the construction of the world’s longest undersea tunnel.

Photo credit: Manuel Paa/Wikimedia Commons

Italo

The Italo is Italy’s newest high-speed rail network, a private enterprise geared at offering an alternative to the country’s state-owned Trenitalia. Apparently, everyone in Italy is calling it the “Ferrari train.”

Not only is it fast, but it’s luxurious. First class includes free wi-fi, leather seats, in-seat smart TVs and hot meals. It’s difficult to imagine a better way to spend time whirling between Rome and Florence. The line just opened in April 2012. It might be the perfect time to travel Italy!

Main photo: Shinkansen train in Tokyo. Credit: Parag.naik/Wikimedia Commons

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The board is a regular 8-pound longboard modified with twin brushless motors, a lithium-ion battery and custom electronics. Most EVs use DC motors, but they are heavier than Boosted Boards’ chosen twin brushless motors, which are compact yet provide 2.6 horsepower — enough to run the board up to 20 miles per hour and up hills with a 15 percent incline.

In total, the Boosted Board will weigh 12-15 pounds, which is significantly lighter than some other electric skateboards on the market: ZBoard has two models of electric skateboards weighing 37 and 30 pounds, E-Glide makes a variety of electric boards ranging from 29-75 pounds, Exkate makes boards from 28-40 pounds, and Metroboard has some relatively light boards ranging from 18-20 pounds.

The battery lasts a 6 mile range and requires only two hours to achieve a full charge (much shorter than a standard electric car). Regernerative braking — where braking pumps energy back into the battery — is also implemented in Boosted Boards. A handheld remote controls the board with a throttle and brake, along with a battery readout to know when a charge is necessary. And don’t worry, riders can still use foot power if they run out of charge or are just looking for some exercise.

The company worked through 10 prototypes before settling on the current model, which will be manufactured and distributed beginning next year thanks to a fully funded Kickstarter project. Boosted Boards turned to the fundraising website to go from prototypes to production of consumer units, and the fundraiser reached its goal within 24 hours.

Unfortunately for us cost-conscious folks, the board isn’t going to be cheap. Boosted Boards estimates the final product will retail for approximately $1,299, though funders of the Kickstarter can get one of the early boards for $1,199 or more. However, that’s a lot cheaper than other EVs, and yearly cost to charge the board will be minimal.

Photo and video via Boosted Boards/Kickstarter

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According to a new poll by the Natural Resources Defense Council, three out of four Americans would prefer not to drive if they had public transportation capable of taking them where they needed to go. (Mitt Romney may want to rethink that plan to end federal support for Amtrak.)

Two out of three people polled want the government to improve and expand public transport, with the majority preferring those funds to support new modes of public transit – light rail, buses and trains – instead of highways.

Conducted by a bipartisan team of pollsters from Republican and Democratic backgrounds, the group asked 800 Americans about the current state of American transportation.

“Americans hate traffic and love transit,” said Peter Lehner, the NRDC’s executive director. “Investing in public transportation eases congestion but for too long most federal funding has limited people’s choices, leaving them sitting in traffic.”

As much as the car was once emblematic of so much that is American, many people these days would prefer to take the bus, if only there was a bus to take. Fifty-five percent of Americans want to drive less, but 74 percent say they have no other choice to get from point A to point B. And despite our national loathing for traffic jams, 63 percent would rather address the problem with better public transportation instead of building new roads.

The crucial question is: Are we willing to pay for it? Apparently, yes. In fact, many are willing to overpay for better public transport. Those polled guessed that their states spend an average of 16 percent of their transportation budget on public transport, and want to nearly double that number by bringing the percentage up to 28 percent. In truth, however, over the past three years, the average portion of transportation budgets spent on public transit was just 6.55 percent per state.

Main photo credit: Shutterstock

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The array of sensors and computers needed to operate these vehicles means that there is a lot of data available about the car. The dashboards of these vehicles typically have much more information available to the driver about the power generating state (whether the car is charging or not), momentary and overall efficiency, and a range of other data, but that is just a small fraction of the information that is collected about the vehicle.

Connecting cars to the electronic world we inhabit was one of the major trends at this past year’s North American International Auto Show. Many manufacturers are developing applications for smartphones and finding ways of integrating the car and the driver’s lifestyle. Along with this, more and more data about the vehicle is available to both the owner and the manufacturer. Car owners can access some of this data through subscriptions, like a monthly email report from OnStar for owners of the Chevrolet Volt.

The manufacturers of several electric vehicles not only offer data to the car owners, but also are using this data internally. Although the various manufacturer programs are strict about privacy concerns and do not share the data with others, their engineers are certainly using this collected data about vehicle performance to learn more about how these relatively new vehicles are performing in the real world. There have even been cases where a problem with a vehicle was identified through anomalous readings, enabling the manufacturer to contact the car owner in order to fix the problem before it became a more serious issue.

As with software that sends the developer a crash report when it fails, to allow it to be improved and debugged, automotive engineers are also able to learn from the data that is reported from these vehicles. This information will assist with both the maintenance of existing vehicles as well as providing a better profile about vehicle use that will be helpful in improving new models of electric vehicles and learning how to make improvements in range and performance for subsequent models of these cars.

Main photo credit: rudisillart and Mariordo/Wikimedia Commons

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Solar Roadways is developing solar panels unlike any we currently see on rooftops and by the sides of the road. Their prototype solar panels are strong enough to support the weight of automotive traffic and could potentially replace all asphalt surfaces in the U.S. and generate some 13,961 billion Kilowatt-hours of electricity (worst-case scenario, dead of winter). That’s more than three times the amount of electricity currently used in the U.S. each year.

In 2009 the company was given a contract by the Federal Highway Administration to build its Solar Road Panel prototype. These panels are made of structurally-engineered panels consisting of three layers: road surface, electronics, and base plate. The road surface is translucent enough for sunlight to pass through to the solar cells underneath but tough enough to withstand traffic. The electronics layer contains the solar collectors and all the electronics needed for sensing loads, controlling heating elements for deicing and melting snow and running the LED lighting system which provides road lines. Lastly, the base plate layer distributes the generated power to the grid or local utility stations.

Because of the success of the Solar Road Panel prototype, in 2011 the FHA awarded the company a 2-year Phase II $750,000 contract to develop a prototype solar parking lot that will be tested under all weather and sunlight conditions. Future tests may include the concept of induction charging EVs as they drive down the road and utilizing the connectedness of the panels on the road to create a smart traffic management system. The road to the future does seem to be paved with something other than asphalt… and that’s a good thing.

Check out this 3 minute short film about the Solar Roadways project:

Solar Roadways | Michéle Ohayon from Focus Forward Films on Vimeo.

Image Credit: Solar Roadways

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Both military and civilian customers are finding new uses for the huge machines. Because they can float over an area for days, they’re often a good way to monitor stretches of land that an airplane could only fly over for a few hours at a time. In Afghanistan, more than 100 simple, blimp-like airships, known as aerostats, hold cameras to keep an eye on the ground for miles around military bases. That’s up from fewer than 10 of the machines in 2004.

Much of the work done by airships today involves surveillance and advertising, but new types of airships offer new possibilities. Worldwide Aeros Corp. in California is building a 265-foot zeppelin that combines airship and airplane technologies. With piston engines, it can take off without a runway, and a buoyancy control system gives it the ability to maneuver in ways planes cannot. The company hopes to launch the first of the ships early next year and demonstrate its ability to carry cargo.

The possibilities of airships go way beyond an eye-catching steampunk vision in the sky. Companies that make the ships say they may be able to deliver fuel, construction material or food to remote villages that are hard to reach in other ways. They generate less greenhouse gas than cargo jets, offering a cleaner solution for air transportation, and they provide a less invasive way than truck to navigate environmentally sensitive landscapes. They can also help with climate research and other scientific missions that require staying in a particular spot in the air for an extended time.

There’s also, of course, an entertainment angle. California-based Airship Ventures already offers Zepplin tours. It’s planning a tentative flight to Alaska next June if it can line up partners, which might include cruise ship companies or documentary filmmakers.

Image credit: jitze/Flickr

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Sure to generate giggles from the 12 year old within all of us, this three-wheeled motorcycle from Japan-based toilet company TOTO Ltd. made its debut Thursday at a showroom in Fujisawa, near Tokyo. And while it isn’t actually made to be powered by a pooping rider cruising down the highway, according to Metro UK the highly-efficient 250cc engine is made to run on biofuel generated from livestock waste or waste water from Shika-oi Town in Hokkaido and Kobe city. The toilet seat on top of the bike is for effect only, used to generate interest in the technology.

We have vehicles running on biofuels made from algae, cooking grease, animal fats, seeds and other assorted oils. Why not livestock waste? There is plenty of it to go around and no chance of it ever running out. Sounds like the perfect biofuel to provide for our transportation needs. Leave it to a toilet company to build a prototype motorcycle meant to run on the stuff.

“We hope to raise awareness among customers about our green campaign through development of environmentally-friendly products such as water-saving showerheads and water-saving toilets,” said TOTO spokesman Kenji Fujita. Anything that does that, including the building of the Toilet Bike Neo motorcycle, is good with me.

[via AutoBlog Green]

Image Credit: AP Photo/Koji Sasahara/Metro UK

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The 2012 challenge for solar-powered vehicles began on July 14th in Rochester, New York and ended July 21 in St. Paul, Minnesota, encompassing 1,650-miles and over 44 hours of drive time. Even with some rain delays and storms, the University of Michigan team members guided their car Quantum to victory, winning by 10 hours and 18 minutes over Iowa State University and setting a national record in the process. The previous record was set in 2008 by a different U-M car, Continuum.

“This is the seventh North American title for the U-M team, which won the inaugural event in 1990 with its first car, the Sunrunner.It is exciting and a relief,” said crew chief and recent grad Ryan Mazur. “We have proven that Quantum is a great car and made all our alumni proud.”

Quantum is U-M’s lightest vehicle yet, weighing in at just 320 pounds without a driver – a full 200 pounds less than their last car, Infinium. It is also 30 percent more aerodynamic than that car, requiring the same amount of energy to run as a hair-dryer and capable of reaching a maximum top speed of 105 miles an hour. It cost more than $1 million to design and build,

Financial assistance and sponsorship from IMRA America, Michigan Engineering, Ford and General Motors helped to cover the $1 million cost of this year’s solar car.

The University of Michigan Solar Car Team is a student organization made up of over 100 students which designs and builds its own solar-powered vehicles, building 11 such vehicles since its inception in 1990. In addition to the American Solar Challenge in the Spring, the team takes an entire semester off in the fall to participate in the 1,800 mile World Solar Challenge. Its highest placement for that race has been third place, which it has repeated four times.

[via University of Michigan]

Image Credit: University of Michigan Solar Car Team

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