China launches world’s first neodymium-powered ‘sky train’

In the People’s Republic of China, the world’s first suspension line of a maglev railway was put into operation.

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The structure works on the power of permanent magnets, its length is only 800 meters so far, it is located in the south of China in Xingguo County, Jiangxi Province. The most powerful magnets are used to lift trailers with passengers, the mechanism is able to lift a train with 88 passengers and transport it.

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The height of the span above the ground is 10 meters, which is about the size of a five-story building. At the same time, the train does not even have physical contact with the rails, but it moves in this position at a speed of up to 80 kilometers per hour.

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According to researchers from the Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, in the absence of friction, only a small amount of electricity is needed to move the train. And the cost of building such a transport line is about a tenth of the cost of building a subway of the same length.