BEIJING Metro opened its first maglev and light rail lines along with its first fully automated driverless metro line on December 30.
CENTRAL Japan Railway Company (JR Central) set a new maglev world speed record on April 16, when a manned seven-car L0 series train reached 590km/h on the company's test track between Uenohara and Fuefuki in Yamanashi prefecture.
JR Central hosted ceremonies at Shinagawa station in Tokyo and at Nagoya station on December 17 to mark the start of construction on the Yen 5.5 trillion ($US 46.45bn) Chuo maglev line between the two cities.
CONSTRUCTION of the first phase of JR Central's Chuo Shinkansen maglev project linking Tokyo and Nagoya has been approved by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT).
CENTRAL Japan Railway (JR Central) published the Preliminary Environment Assessment on September 18 for the 286km maglev line from Tokyo to Nagoya.
JR Central has confirmed that construction of the inaugural 286km section of its Yen 5.1 trillion ($US 51.97bn) maglev line between Tokyo and Nagoya will commence as early as April next year.