Over in Japan, where they get everything cool before us, they're about to unveil the latest upgrade to their amazing train technology. The new Shinkansen bullet train (secret in development code name Fasttech 360Z!) is expected to set speed records by traveling 224 miles per hour. This will not be the fastest a train has ever traveled (that would be the TGV in France,, which hit 515 mph), but it will be the fastest average speed for a journey.
For reference, a 224 mph train ride would take you from New York to Boston in about an hour, New York to Washington in about an hour, and LA to San Francisco in about an hour and a half. Can you imagine? People would actually take trains! Instead of the trains we have in America now, where you can see cars passing you on the highway. Note to Amtrak: why not spend a few hundred million on buying some trains that actually get somewhere, and then quickly make back your money when people actually use your product? Amtrak execs are reading, right?
