China has built a prototype for a train that's 3 times faster than a plane

Using a near-vacuum tunnel, scientists believe maglev trains can reach 2,900 km/h.

he researchers from Southwest Jiaotong University in China have already built a prototype testing platform (pictured above) for the near-vacuum maglev train.

Inside the tunnel the atmospheric pressure is 10 times lower than the atmospheric pressure at sea level, which drastically reduces the amount of energy needed to overcome air resistance,Business Insider explains.

And it's this lack of air resistance that will help the train reach theoretical speeds of 2,900 km/h. Currently the fastest commercial maglev train can reach speeds of just 431 km/h.

At the moment the train is limited by its small testing platform, but if they're right about the speeds it could reach on long straights, you could travel from Paris to Moscow in about an hour. And if there was a direct route, Londoners could be in New York within two hours.

There are just no words for how awesome this would be if it works - the world will just get a whole lot smaller.

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