Hitting 431 kilometres per hour during the eight-minute dash between Pudong International Airport and Longyang Road station, Shanghai‘s Maglev train are the world’s fastest regularly operating commercial train service anywhere. It opened in 2004. It is powered by magnetic levitation technology, so the train literaly floats above the guideway.
Even two decades after opening, this transport still look like tomorrow. But despite the Maglev’s speed, plenty of travellers who use it head to or from the airport ends up skipping this train in favor of the cheaper, closer-to-hotel-metro. And while the metro can takes you closer to your hotel and save you money, the Maglev provides one thing the metro never will: that split-second rush as the digital speedometer ticks over 400 and the scenery outside turn into a blur of color.
Here’s what it’s like to ride the Maglev east to Pudong Airport, from the terminus at Longyang Road right up to the gates at terminal.
What It Is Like to Ride the Shanghai Maglev Train
Shanghai Maglev Train
Starting point: Longyang Road station Longyang Road station sit on the eastern edge of Pudong, a short walk or metro connection from the rest of the city. The building itself isn’t going to win any design awards (it’s functional concrete and glass), but it gets the job done.
The trains glides into the station with hardly a sound, up on the platform. It looks as though they’ve been ripped out of some sci-fi movie: that streamlined nose, the entire thing hovering just a few centimetres above the tracks. The interiors is spacious and clean, with rows of teal seat and overhead racks for your bags.
Above each window is a digital display telling you how fast you’re going, and the number begins at zero before quickly rising when you’re moving. You may well find an entire carriage to yourself during off-peak hours. you might see more people during rush hour or when a wave of flights arrives, but it still won’t be nearly as crowded than a metro line.
And then it’s gone… Almost imperceptibly.
In a matter of seconds, the city blocks whizzing by outside goes faster than even a metro train can go. The speedometer starts ticking up: 200, 300 … then when the schedule permits, 400-plus kilometres per hour. Depending on whether there’s another train incoming from the other direction and requiring the track cleared, not all runs reaches max speed, but most do.
Outside the window, the view blurs into a streak of apartment towers, construction sites, rows of trees turning into green streaks, and stretches of flat farmland. To be honest, it’s impossible to concentrate on much during the ride at top speed, staring out the window. It’s more about the feeling of the faint hum underfoot and the number climb higher and higher as the train skims across the guideway.
If you get an express run, the entire trip will last around eight minutes; maybe a minute or two longer if the train doesn’t reaches max speed or stops somewhere en route.
What about Pudong Airport station? Like Longyang Road, it’s clean, efficient, a little bland. Get off the train and follow the signs to the terminal.
From the Maglev platform, long corridors with moving walkways leads to the main airport building. Walk through the ticket gates and you’ll find yourself funneled directly into either the departures or arrivals hall, depending on which exit you use.
Once inside the main terminal, familiar fast-food chains and golden arches greets you, reminding you that you’ve returned to regular airport land. To be fair, the Maglev won’t make sense for every trip. At 50 yuan per ticket, it’s far pricier than the metro.
The metro drops you near downtown Shanghai and costs a fraction off the price. But if you have some time and just want to take the world’s fastest train ride, then it does what it says on the tin. It is a quick, comfortablely dash at a speed that still seem unbelievable even once you’ve experienced it.
Is it worth it? Well, is saving a few yuan and twenty minutes more important to you than experiencing one of the biggest engineering feats most cities can only dream of having? Have you taken the Shanghai Maglev, or would of you save your money and time by sticking with the metro?
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