Top ten fastest trains in the world

Europeans and Asians currently operate the fastest high speed trains in the world, regularly commuting on trains such as the Shanghai Maglev and Harmony CRH 380A. While these two currently hold all the records, other fast trains, such as the HEMU-400X, Zefiro 380 and Talgo Avril, are close contenders for the crown of world's fastest trains.

1. Shanghai Maglev

   Shanghai Maglev tops the list with its maximum operational speed of 430km/h and average speed of 251kmph. The Maglev started commercial operations in April 2004.

It runs on the 30.5km Shanghai Maglev Line, which is the first commercially operated high-speed magnetic levitation line, extending from Longyang Road Station of Metro Line 2 and ending at Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Shanghai Maglev is owned and operated by Shanghai Maglev Transportation Development Co. (SMTDC). The train was constructed by a joint venture of Siemens and ThyssenKrupp.

         watch the Japanese Maglev train achieving 581 km/hour

2.Harmony CRH 380A 

   Harmony CRH 380A, with maximum operational speed of 380kmph, is currently the second fastest operating train in the world.

The electric multiple unit (EMU) set a record by speeding at 486.1kmph during its trial operation on the Shanghai-Hangzhou intercity high-speed railway in December 2010.

The CRH 380A was put into operation in October 2010. It operates from Beijing to Shanghai and provides daily service along Wuhan to Guangzhou route.

The vibration free train was constructed by CSR Qingdao Sifang Locomotive & Rolling Stock. Its high design speed is a result of research carried out at various Chinese universities.

3.AGV Italo

  AGV Italo is the first train in the AGV Series which entered into service in April 2012. It has a maximum operational speed of 360kmph.

The train broke a record speed of 574.8kmph in April 2007.

Considered to be the most modern train in Europe, AGV Italo was built by Alstom. The train currently runs on the Napoli - Roma - Firenze - Bologna - Milano corridor.

The train complies with the European TSI interoperability standard, which includes safety, reliability and availability, health, environmental protection and technical compatibility.

4.Siemens Velaro E / AVS 103

  Velaro E, designated as AVE S 103 in Spain, is the fastest series-production high-speed train in the world. It achieved a whopping speed of about 400kmph during its test trips in Spain.

The train possesses an operational speed of 350kmph.

The train was ordered by Spanish National Railways Renfe, and operates on the Barcelona-Madrid line. It was delivered in July 2005 and began operations in June 2007.

The design of the multiple-unit train was founded on the latest developments of the successful ICE 3 trainset designed for Deutsche Bahn.

5.Talgo 350 (T350)

   Talgo 350, which initially entered service with the name RENFE AVE Class 10, achieved a maximum speed of 365kmph during its trial run. The train has a maximum operational speed of 350kmph.

T350 was developed by Patentes Talgo (Tren Articulado Ligero Goicoechea Oriol) and manufactured by Patentes Talgo in collaboration with Bombardier Transportation.

Commonly known as El Pato (meaning The Duck in Spanish), the train has been operating on the Madrid-Zaragoza-Lleida section of the Madrid-Barcelona line in Spain since 2005. There are currently more than 46 operating trains of the series in the country.

6.E5 Series Shinkansen Hayabusa

 E5 Series Shinkansen Hayabusa trains, which entered service in March 2011, with an initial maximum speed of 300km now run on the Tohoku Shinkansen Line with a maximum operating speed of 320kmph.

Currently the fastest in Japan, the train achieved a speed of about 400kmph during trials.

The train was manufactured by Kawasaki Heavy Industry (KHI) and Hitachi, while East Japan Railway Company (JR East) is the operator.

The train features full active suspension (FSA) system, which reduces the vibration of the moving bogies, and a 15m long nose which reduces the sound blast in tunnels.

7.Alstom Euroduplex

    Alstom-built Euroduplex is the third generation of TGV Duplex, which entered service in December 2011. The trains in the series are touted to be the only double-decker, interoperable high-speed trains capable of running on European networks at 320kmph.

The Euroduplex was initially introduced on the Rhine-Rhone LGV high-speed rail line. The train is capable of transporting 1,020 passengers (multiple units), compared to TGV Duplex which transports about 512 passengers.

Euroduplex trains are designed to operate on French, German, Swiss and Luxembourgish rail networks. They are equipped with traction systems adapted to different electric currents used across Europe.

Some of the trains in the series will also be capable of operating in Spain.

8.TGV Duplex

   TGV Duplex was manufactured from 1996-2004. They are operated by SNCF and were manufactured by Alstom and Bombardier. The trains can reach maximum speeds of 300kmph to 320kmph.

TGV Duplex is Alstom's first third-generation double-decker/duplex train. It provides a seating space for 512 passengers in its upper and lower decks. The train is constructed of aluminum to reduce weight.

The trains in the TGV Duplex series mainly run on the TGV Méditerranée line between Paris and Marseille.

More than 450 TGV series trains are currently serving 230 destinations.

9.ETR 500 Frecciarossa Trains

     Elettro Treno Rapido 500 (ETR 500) Frecciarossa trains entered into service in 2008. The trains are designed for a maximum speed of 360kmph and currently run at 300kmph on high speed lines.

The Frecciarossa (Red Arrow) is a renovated version of the ETR 500. The renovated trains operate between Rome and Milan.

The cars are equipped with climate control and sound insulation, and feature ergonomic seats to provide maximum comfort.

The trains in the fleet are operated by Trenitalia and manufactured by TREno Veloce Italiano (TREVI), a consortium of Alstom, Bombardier and AnsaldoBreda.

10.THSR 700T

       The THSR 700T operates on the high-speed line between Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan. The train entered into service with Taiwan High Speed Rail in January 2007.

It operates at a speed of 300kmph reducing the journey time between the two cities from four hours to just 90 minutes.

It was constructed by Kawasaki, Hitachi and Nippon Sharyo. Based on Kawasaki's 700 series Shinkansen trains, the 700T was the first Taiwanese rolling stock to import Japanese high speed rail technology.

The total investment for manufacturing the initial 30 trains in the series reached about NT$100bn ($3.4bn).

How Wireless Mobile Chargers Work

There are several products on the market today that you can use to recharge a device just by setting the gadget down on a charging pad. Then, as if by magic, power transmits from the pad to the device. But it's not magic -- it's science!

Magnets, Electricity and Inductive Coupling

To understand how wireless power chargers work, we need to take a look at how magnetism and electricityare related. It's a relationship that makes possible hundreds of different types of electronic devices!

First, let's take an electromagnet. It's easy to make a simple electromagnet -- all you need is a battery, some insulated copper wire and an iron nail. Wrap the wire around the iron nail, leaving enough wire on either end to connect to the battery. Make sure each time you wrap around the nail that you're going in the same direction. The more coils you make around the nail, the stronger your electromagnet will be.

Once you've got your nail wrapped in insulated wire, you can connect the two ends of the wire to the terminals on a battery. Electricity flows through the coiled wire, generating a magnetic field along the nail. You can use the nail to pick up other nails through magnetism. If you switch the ends of the wire to the opposite terminals on the battery, you'll reverse the polarity of your electromagnet -- what was the north end of the magnet becomes the south end and vice versa.

If you assemble a second coil of wire and place it near the first, you can use the magnetic field from your electromagnet to create a flow of electrons in the second coil. If you hook that second coil of wire to a voltmeter, you can actually see the needle or readout change whenever you connect or disconnect the wires from the battery.

That's because exposing a coil of wire to a changing magnetic field can induce electricity to flow through that wire. The key is that the magnetic field must change to keep electricity flowing -- a stable magnetic field won't work as an inductor.

A battery provides electricity in a direct current -- the electricity always flows in the same direction. But if you hook up an electromagnetic to an alternating current -- a circuit in which electricity flows first in one direction and then the other many times per second -- you alternate the polarity of the electromagnet in time with the changes in the current's direction. That creates a constantly changing magnetic field -- the perfect condition for inducting electricity.

Transmitting Power

Most wireless mobile charging solutions rely on inductivecoupling. Here's a typical approach:

The charging station takes the form of a mat or other flat surface. Inside the mat are one or more inductive coupling coils. The mat itself is wired -- you have to plug it into a wall socket. Since theelectricity coming to your house is alternating current, the mat provides the electricity the coils need to generate a changing magnetic field.

Your mobile devices need a special case or attachment to take advantage of this magnetic field. Some manufacturers make devices with cases and electronics that facilitate inductive coupling -- the Palm Pre had this feature. But most manufacturers make equipment that still requires cables or wires to recharge. For these devices, you may need to use special sleeves -- each sleeve fits a particular model of a device. Or you may have to attach an adapter that plugs into your mobile device's charging port. The sleeve or adapter will have the matching coil to the surface's inductor coils.

Whether your device natively supports inductive coupling or requires a sleeve or adapter, your next step is to place the device on the charging surface. The inductor coils inside the mat generate the magnetic field that induces electricity inside your device, sleeve or adapter. This electricity then recharges your device's battery. Because there's no direct current passing between the mat and the device, it's perfectly safe to pick up a gadget when you're on the go.

Inductive coupling is useful but there are some downsides. The largest drawback is that it doesn't work over large distances. Placing a device a little too far to one side might mean that you aren't actually recharging the battery. Some wireless charging surfaces try to compensate for this by outlining where a device should fit on the surface or by creating raised areas that devices fit inside to make sure the coils are close enough together to work.

While inductive coupling is the most common approach to wireless chargers, it's not the only game in town. Let's look at some alternatives to induction.

Conductive Connections, Radio Transmissions and Wi-Fi?

Another approach to wirelessly recharging mobile devices uses a more direct route.Conductive recharging mats create a direct electric circuit between a mobile device and a charging surface. The charging device's surface has strips of conductive metal on it. When a device with corresponding electrical contacts touches these strips of metal, electricity flows into the device.

For this to work, the device must have the contacts incorporated into its case or a special sleeve that has the contacts on it. You snap your device into the appropriate sleeve -- each model and type of device needs its own -- and place the sleeved device on the right part of the surface, ensuring contact. This creates a circuit and charges your device.

The Palm Pixi's design allowed you to charge the smartphone just by setting it on a charging station.

Courtesy Palm

You have to make sure the contacts on the sleeve match up with the conductive strips on the chargers surface or you won't create a circuit. But conductive strips can be more efficient than inductive coupling, which according to the Wireless Power Consortium averages between 50 and 70 percent efficiency [source:Higginbotham]. That means at least 30 percent of the power needed to run the charging station goes to waste, even in an efficient inductive coupling system.

While radio transmission of power isn't efficient, it's possible to design a charging station that converts radio frequency waves into direct current electricity. But unless you have a large antenna and a particularly powerful broadcast source, you won't harvest much electricity from the ambient signals around you.

In 2010, RCA announced the company was developing a wireless charging station that could harness WiFi signals and convert them into electricity. If such a device could work, it could be a great resource in any place that had a WiFi hotspot. But mathematically, such a device isn't practical. WiFi routers only emit only a tiny amount of energy -- often around one-tenth of a watt. A converter would only capture a fraction of that energy, which means charging something like a battery just once could take decades if you depend entirely on WiFi signals to supply the power.

Why only a tiny fraction? It's because energy emissions obey the inverse square law. This is a law that states any point source that spreads out evenly in all directions -- such as a radio wave -- will reduce in intensity relative to the distance from the source. When you start with a low-power energy emission and then move away from the source ,the intensity drops away quickly.

With so many options for wireless chargers, we may be close to saying farewell to tangled cables and proprietary plugs -- and good riddance!