World's Top 5 S01E02
World's Top 5 S01E02
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CreativityTranscript
00:00Every year, all over the world, trains carry 20.8 billion passengers and 9.3 trillion tons
00:10of cargo. End to end, all those train journeys could circle the earth 66 million times. Trains
00:19are extraordinary feats of engineering. They come in all shapes and sizes, built to handle
00:24a vast range of challenges. But what makes a world beater? Which train travels fastest?
00:33Every four minutes, you've got a train on the same line. Clocks up the longest distance.
00:39You have to be very careful to avoid putting yourself in trouble. Which is the strongest
00:45or can ship the most passengers? See the railroad? It's not a job, it's a vocation. It gets
00:51more crazy than that. In our search for the ultimate giants of engineering genius, we
00:58put the greatest mechanical marvels under the spotlight to establish the best of the
01:04best, the world's ultimate super train. From the vast variety of rolling stock across the
01:15globe, there are over 1,500 different types of trains in the world. I mean, how do you
01:20choose between them? We've shortlisted five super trains for scrutiny. The TGV, the world's
01:32first super high speed double decker. The N700 bullet, Japan's tilting record breaker.
01:41The Maglev, China's extraordinary floating vision of the future. The Qingzhang, the Chinese
01:50death defying mountain climber. The QNSL, North America's mega low bearer. Five high
01:58performance trains, each of them in their own way, a world leader. Judging their performance
02:05across five key tests, for the first time, we reveal the ultimate world's top train.
02:14It's pretty much train riding at its most extreme. First, let's throw the spotlight
02:22on muscle. How much, including their own weight, can the top five trains pull? Out of our five
02:30super train contenders, in at fifth for mechanical muscle is the Chinese Qingzhang. It's a relative
02:39lightweight, just 138 tonnes. That's the train, fuel, everyone and everything on board.
02:46But this mountain goat needs to be lean and mean. After all, it does have to haul itself
02:51up to the same altitude as the Mount Everest base camp. Passengers have to sign a health
02:57waiver. Not a train journey for me. Literally floating into fourth position is China's Maglev.
03:06It's more than 100 tonnes heavier than the Qingzhang at 265 tonnes. But the Maglev doesn't
03:12need heavy wheels or a bulky engine. It levitates on a magnetic field and for a train that floats,
03:19it pays not to weigh. Incredible but true, the magnets of the Maglev only use the same
03:25amount of electricity as an air conditioning unit. Tipping the scales in third place at
03:30a respectable 422 tonnes, the altogether beefier French TGV. With its double-decker
03:39design, the duplex TGV can accommodate 40% more passengers than the original single-decker
03:45model. The designers achieved a bigger payload by switching from steel to lighter aluminium.
03:52The engine can withstand a 500-tonne impact, bang, straight to the front. Now the energy
03:57that hits the train obviously has to be absorbed somewhere down the train and that actually
04:01is in the crush zones in the carriages. It's very safe. Weighing in at number two, Japan's
04:09sturdy N700 bullet train. At 715 tonnes, it's a veritable sumo. By distributing power along
04:19the length of the train, this latest incarnation of the bullet train manages to pack in more
04:25carriages. But the subtle trade-off between power, performance and weight comes with a
04:30heavy price tag. Compared to the old versions, the latest bullet trains go much faster, they're
04:36quieter, they have better acceleration and they actually use less electricity, about
04:3920% less. They did cost an extra $2 billion to develop but in bullet train terms, that's
04:45a bargain. But the steel monster weighing in at number one in the weight category simply
04:51has no equal. The Canadian QNSL is heavier than all our other super trains combined.
04:59In fact, this colossus of the train world can haul 46 times more than its nearest contender.
05:07Beautiful it is not, but it's big, it's butch and it's brutal as it drags iron ore through
05:12the wilderness of north-eastern Canada. This solid steel beast is weighed down by a massive
05:1820-ton diesel engine and an enormous snow plough at the front. But this weight is good
05:24because it means the train can keep going whatever nasty weather northern Canada has
05:28to throw at it. Let's take a detailed look inside the rugged world of the QNSL.
05:40The port of Sétille in Quebec, Canada. Temperatures here can reach a bone-chilling minus 40 degrees
05:48Celsius. But for locomotive engineer Ken Eldridge, it's just another day at the office.
05:59What you're looking at here is a 500 series locomotive, QNSL. Walk along to the side a
06:03bit. This is our fuel tank, which holds up to 20,000 litres of fuel. You pretty much
06:09need a full tank to do the whole run. Ken's carrying out final safety checks before heading
06:15out on one of the world's toughest train journeys. Over the next 48 hours, he and three
06:25other highly trained engineers will operate North America's heaviest freight train on
06:31an 800 kilometre round trip through the planet's most inhospitable terrain. Their destination?
06:40The remote mining town of Labrador City. Their mission? To bring back iron ore to be
06:47shipped out of Canada. A maximum load weighs 24,000 tonnes, one of the biggest freight
06:54train loads in the world. And this metal monster of a locomotive is purpose-built to carry
07:02it. Fuel-thirsty 20-tonne engines are engineered for extreme conditions. Snow will shine each
07:104,400 horsepower engine can haul up to 8,000 tonnes in up to 80 cars. Today I have 158
07:19cars, so I need two locomotives to get the job done. The two locomotives are coupled
07:25together at the front of the train to shift the massive load. If I had any more than that,
07:31I'd have a locomotive in the middle of the train, which I can control from the lead locomotive.
07:37Its maximum capacity is 240 cars, making the QNSL an incredible two and a half kilometres
07:44long. That's over 35 Boeing 747s nose to tail. Six hours down the track, engineer Valmont
07:57Trepanier is setting off from a driver's changeover camp towards Labrador City. This is the most
08:05remote and isolated stretch of the journey. There's safety technology on board, and he's
08:13in touch with base. But if he breaks down, he's on his own. If we have defective equipment,
08:20a drawbar can break, a knuckle can break, my guy will fix it. If it's 60 below zero,
08:26two o'clock in the morning, it's raining cats and dogs, you've got bears all around there.
08:30I mean, bears doesn't bother me too much. I'm looking for a new rug for my fireplace
08:34anyway. Luckily for the bears, Valmont's shift passes without incident. And on day two,
08:44the train pulls into Labrador City and is loaded up with thousands of tonnes of iron ore pellets
08:50and concentrate. This more than triples its already phenomenal weight. For any other train,
09:00this would be a potentially catastrophic problem. Their fixed wheels simply follow
09:05the tracks. The heavier the load, the harder it is to negotiate bends and the greater the
09:12chance of a derailment. But the QNSL trains are engineered to take the strain. Each locomotive
09:19is equipped with a radial steering truck. This steers, not forces, the wheels around bends. So
09:26the heavy cars are less likely to become unstable and topple over. Even so, the drivers
09:33don't take any chances. You have to watch your speed and speed restrictions and whatever the
09:39grade. You're going uphill like downhill. You have to concentrate on what you do.
09:44Michel Legare is on the third leg of the journey back to Setil. It's the steepest,
09:58most dangerous section. His job is to keep the train out of trouble by maintaining a speed of
10:04no more than 56 kilometres per hour. Any mistakes and the train, like some landlocked supertanker,
10:11would take more than a kilometre to grind to a halt. It's a technical job. I'm not driving a
10:17train. I'm operating a train. You have to be very careful to avoid putting yourself in trouble. But
10:25however careful they are, trouble is sometimes hard to avoid. And with a train this heavy,
10:31perhaps the worst thing that can happen is the brakes failing. The QNSL trains are equipped with
10:38a purpose-built airbrake system, but extreme cold can reduce the pressure in the pipes,
10:43which can in turn trigger the brakes, bringing the train to a complete unplanned standstill.
10:52Just a few hours down the track, this is exactly what happens. The QNSL
10:57is stranded and there's nothing they can do but wait.
11:09It takes three hours before the sun thaws out the system enough for them to move on again.
11:14Finally, the QNSL safely delivers its load to waiting cargo ships in Setiale. Once it's empty
11:21and another driver defrosted, Canada's colossal Ironman once again heads back into the wilderness.
11:27I guess we're all crazy in the head. But you have to be, see the railroad, it's not a job,
11:35it's a location. I mean, these are proper tough guys up there in northern Canada.
11:40And the ability to drive these huge, great monsters through the Canadian wilderness must
11:44be genetic, because most of today's locomotive operators up there are fourth generation.
11:48What industry do you get that in?
11:52Coming up, which of our five super trains is out in front when it comes to sheer,
11:57eyeball-popping speed?
12:05Five super trains, but which is the world's ultimate best? Pitting each metal monster
12:11against each other in five key categories will reveal the ultimate winner. Canadian heavyweight,
12:18the QNSL is currently leading the pack, but will its vital statistics add up in our next category,
12:24maximum speed? It's time to stoke up the boilers,
12:28put the pedal to the metal and find out which of these five bad boys is the fastest.
12:36Dropping like a stone from first to fifth is the QNSL. But it's no surprise this 33,000 ton
12:43monster is bringing up the rear. It was designed for heavy lifting, not speed. Even empty,
12:49the train can only muster a stately top speed of 65 kilometres per hour.
12:55Slow and steady is the name of the game with this train. And to do that,
12:58it's got three different braking systems.
13:01In at four, it's a marathon, not a sprint for China's long-distance Qingzhang train.
13:07This sprightly mountain goat travels 2,000 kilometres from Xining to the heart of Tibet
13:13on the world's highest railway. But with two mountain ranges in between to slow it down,
13:19this skilled climber only clops up 120 kilometres per hour.
13:23The engineering considerations and design that they had to put in because
13:27of how high this train operates is just mind-blowing.
13:32Shooting in at number three, Japan's iconic bullet train.
13:37The one-time world beater now takes bronze with its ear-popping top speed of 332 kilometres per
13:43hour. A bullet train enters the tunnel so quickly that the pressure drops massively and you get a
13:49popping ear on the bullet train. To compensate against this, what they've done is they've
13:54pressurised the carriages so you do not get the popping ear effect. That's how quick it is.
13:58That's how awesome it is.
14:02Cranking it up now, in at two, China's maglev train,
14:06hitting a remarkable 500 kilometres per hour.
14:10Although technically a train, it actually flies to its destination at zero altitude,
14:15which is appropriate as it's going to Shanghai's international airport.
14:19I mean, that's physics at work.
14:21But taking the chequered flag at number one, the Gallic Goliath,
14:25France's TGV, or train à grande vitesse, with a phenomenal top speed of 575 kilometres an hour.
14:33Remember in the early 90s, some of the previous versions of the TGV were getting the train speed
14:37records at the time, but there was this battle between that and the bullet train in Japan.
14:41But now, obviously, they've got the fastest train in the world and it's kept that record.
14:45It's brilliant.
14:47Time for a speed check with this tour de force.
14:53The Gare de Lyon is the busiest train station in Paris,
14:56and adding the rush-to-rush hour is France's very own track star
15:00and our winner for speed, the TGV duplex.
15:06Every single day, 115 super-fast TGV trains transport almost 230,000 passengers
15:15at lightning speeds all over France.
15:19The commercial speed of the TGV is the fastest commercial speed all over the world.
15:25Every four minutes, you've got a train on the same line.
15:32Maintaining ultra-high speeds puts every single TGV component
15:36under potentially crippling stress.
15:39Any kind of damage, however small, could result in a catastrophic derailment.
15:45So it's crucial that every train is regularly checked.
15:53Today, this TGV duplex, or double-decker, is one of 100 scheduled for servicing.
16:01Claire Le Corvec is maintenance manager at the TGV Technocentre.
16:05She's one of 1,200 rail engineers working around the clock to ensure safety.
16:11She and her team have just six hours to spot any potentially lethal problems.
16:35There's one component that takes more punishment than any other.
16:39The train's wheel axles.
16:42Its wheels are connected to the main body of the train via a chassis, or bogie.
16:47These are the self-contained, swivelling wheel units the train sits on,
16:51and they're vital to the TGV's high speed and safety.
16:55This is one of the parts we are checking.
16:57So every three days, we check on the sides, under and on the top.
17:02So they are checking that all the screw is tight and that there is no pieces missing.
17:08The TGV uses a special type of bogie, an intercoach bogie.
17:13Carriages and many other types of train are supported by two traditional bogies,
17:17but the intercoach bogie is shared.
17:20It sits in between carriages.
17:22This means the TGV's passenger cabins can drop down closer to the rails.
17:27So fewer of the heavy bogies are needed, which makes for a lighter, more stable and faster train.
17:33The first high-speed TGV was launched in 1981.
17:37It transformed the entire French rail system,
17:39reducing the 538km Paris to Lyon journey to just two hours.
17:47The incredible success of the original TGV
17:50led the way for the introduction of the world's first high-speed double-decker,
17:54the TGV Duplex.
18:04Back at the maintenance centre,
18:05three hours into the double-decker's regular check-up,
18:08the team has uncovered a potentially deadly fault.
18:12These trains go so fast,
18:14it's not humanly possible to see trackside stop signals.
18:20The drivers rely heavily on information to keep track of the train's speed.
18:24The TGV's speed is measured by the speedometer.
18:27The speedometer shows the speed of the train,
18:30and the speedometer shows the speed of the train.
18:32The speedometer shows the speed of the train,
18:35and the speedometer shows the speed of the train.
18:37The drivers rely heavily on information signals
18:40transmitted to their cab from a central control centre.
18:44If the warning lights aren't working, they're driving blind,
18:47and there's a real chance of a fatal collision.
18:51Technician Mohamed Benfadila and his specialist team
18:54have just three hours to isolate and fix the fault.
19:03Meanwhile, 400km away,
19:05engineers are pushing the boundaries even further,
19:08in La Rochelle, a glimpse of the future, with plans to go even faster.
19:13The French need for speed has the team here working on the TGV's successor,
19:18the breathtakingly quick AGV,
19:22or Automotrice Grande Vitesse.
19:26Weighing in at 410 tonnes, it's 12.5% faster than the TGV,
19:3212.5% faster than the TGV,
19:35uses 10% less energy and has 20% more space for passengers.
19:45Like the TGV, the AGV uses a shared bogie system,
19:50but there's one huge speed-increasing difference.
19:53Instead of two engines at either end of the train,
19:56the AGV has 10 750kW engines positioned on the bogies throughout the train.
20:14This new power system makes the AGV 69km per hour faster than the TGV.
20:20In Paris, it's time for coffee and croissants,
20:23as the maintenance engineers identify the problem, a simple blown fuse.
20:28They've checked the duplex from top to bottom and made their deadline.
20:33So now the train is ready, so it's going to go on the cleaning line
20:38and then directly to the train station.
20:42So the TGV pops a magnum of champagne and rightly so,
20:47So the TGV pops a magnum of champagne and rightly
20:50takes the trophy for being the fastest commercial train of all time.
20:55I would say that the success is through the figures,
20:59I mean more than 70% of the high-speed train fleet in the world is TGV based.
21:06The TGV is just everything a train in today's world should be.
21:10It's sleek, it's efficient, but most importantly, it's fast.
21:17Coming up, which of our super trains goes the distance?
21:30Five world-beating trains assessed on their key attributes.
21:34The Maglev.
21:36Japan's Bullet.
21:39French Wonder, the TGV.
21:41Canada's QNSL iron ore carrier.
21:44Qingzhang, the Chinese mountain climber to Tibet.
21:50Each is put to the test and rated in five key categories.
21:55We've already revealed which is in pole position for maximum weight
21:59and the world's fastest.
22:02But will they maintain their dominance for journey length?
22:06Well behind the rest of the field in fifth place, China's Maglev.
22:10China's Maglev.
22:12It's super fast, meaning a super short journey for passengers
22:16wanting to make their flights on time, just 30 kilometres.
22:20But with each of those kilometres costing over 46 million dollars,
22:24it's a pricey appliance of science.
22:27The Maglev's the perfect example of Newton's first law,
22:29because in theory if there was no wind resistance,
22:32we had limitless amount of track.
22:34It would just keep going and going and going.
22:37In at number four, the lumberjack of the bunch,
22:40Canada's QNSL.
22:42Its 418 kilometre route takes it through the most desolate areas
22:46of northern Canada.
22:48But though a short journey, it gets the prize for the coldest
22:52and the one where you're most likely to be attacked by a bear.
22:56The QNSL is an insane train.
22:57It really is two and a half kilometres long.
23:03The middle distance runner at number three is Japan's bullet train.
23:07With a route that runs 1069 kilometres from Tokyo to Hakata.
23:13Although since they were first introduced back in 1964,
23:16the trains have travelled far enough to span the globe 30,000 times.
23:22When it comes to most trains being built in areas around towns,
23:25most people move away from them.
23:26They don't want the noise.
23:27With the bullet train, it actually increased the population
23:30of the towns on the route by 30 percent.
23:33That's how popular it is and that's how amazing it is.
23:35Pulling away into the distance in second,
23:38France's marathon machine, the TGV.
23:42Covering routes all over France and beyond,
23:44it barely even breaks a sweat as it sprints the 1,278 kilometres
23:50between Nice and Brussels.
23:52It's such a fast train.
23:54I mean, it travels at double the speed of a Formula One car.
23:59But in at number one, setting the standard for the long haul.
24:02Crossing two countries and traversing one of the world's
24:05highest mountain ranges without even stopping for a sit down.
24:10With a route that's 1,972 kilometres long,
24:14it's the Qingzhang Tibet train.
24:17This route is sheer engineering genius.
24:18Railway experts across the world said it couldn't be done.
24:21But a combination of cutting-edge technology,
24:25a 20,000-strong construction team
24:27and 6,000 pieces of specialist equipment
24:30to elevate and anchor the track down, got the job done.
24:34Let's take a closer look at how they did it.
24:47The China-Tibet border is a mountainous and hostile environment.
24:52And this remarkable feat of railway engineering ploughs right through it.
25:01Taking on all challenges to join the two countries
25:04over a nearly 2,000-kilometre route.
25:09The Qingzhang train is a vital lifeline for the region.
25:13But this long-distance world beta very nearly didn't exist.
25:19There were so many challenges to overcome.
25:27But the railroad's biggest, seemingly insurmountable problem
25:30lay below the ground.
25:34More than a quarter of the line needed to run across permafrost,
25:38a dangerously unstable layer of thawing mud and ice.
25:43But one man has come up with a groundbreaking solution
25:46to stop the groundbreaking.
25:49Professor Chong-Gua Dong,
25:50head of engineering at China's Lanzhou Institute,
25:53spent 40 years developing an ingenious ventilation system
25:57to keep the ground frozen year-round.
26:01The temperature on the ground is three degrees higher than the atmosphere.
26:06So if the surface is three degrees above the ground,
26:09it's very difficult to go down.
26:10If I have a ventilation tube,
26:12I can lower the temperature of the air to two or three degrees.
26:19Once the permafrost layer was stabilised,
26:21iron spikes were driven 33 metres straight through it
26:25to anchor the track to solid ground.
26:27It took five years of construction, costing $4.2 billion,
26:31before the railway, one of the longest in the world,
26:34opened on 1 July 2006.
26:39But the train couldn't be just any old off-the-shelf rolling stock.
26:43The length of the line, combined with its sheer altitude,
26:46meant no ordinary locomotive would survive the journey.
26:50Canadian engineering company Bombardier was brought in to find a solution.
26:57At these skyscraping altitudes,
26:59a train loses about 1% of power for every 100 metres climbed.
27:03By the time it reaches 5,000 metres, the highest point on this railway,
27:08it's lost 49.2% of its power and risks grinding to a halt.
27:13Bombardier's solution was to build a turbocharger.
27:17Exhaust gas from the engine turns a turbine,
27:20which sucks air into a compressor.
27:22Concentrated air is then squirted into the pistons,
27:25a bit like using a pair of bellows on a fire.
27:29Although the train and tracks are engineered to survive the harsh conditions,
27:34the journey is still no pleasure cruise for the passengers.
27:39Travelling for 12 hours at over 4,000 metres above sea level
27:43means deadly altitude sickness is a very real danger.
27:50No-one is allowed to board the train without signing a health waiver.
27:54On board, personal oxygen masks are standard issue.
27:58But the deadly potential of the long-distance trip hasn't deterred passengers.
28:05Since it opened, the Qingzhang-Tibet train line has carried 41 million passengers
28:11and 180 million tonnes of cargo.
28:17I'll tell you an interesting fact I know about the Qingzhang train.
28:19I'm very proud of knowing this.
28:22The toilet water is heated.
28:25Because if it wasn't, it would freeze and it would just come out as ice cubes.
28:28It's the only train on the planet like that.
28:33The world's highest train, the Qingzhang in Tibet,
28:35may be in the lead on longest journey,
28:38but it's still lagging behind overall.
28:42Can it improve on its top five position in the next two categories?
28:47We've already ranked our five trains for their top speed under test conditions.
28:51But which will keep up the pace when transporting passengers day in and day out?
28:57Our next category, operational speed.
29:04Unsurprisingly, at the back of the pack,
29:06the Canadian steel mountain that is the QNSL.
29:10Any faster than 56 kilometres per hour,
29:12pulling a load like this is an accident waiting to happen.
29:17With any moving vehicle, you want to keep the centre of gravity
29:19as low as you can to prevent derailing.
29:21But with this thing full of iron ore,
29:22obviously the centre of gravity comes up, you take a corner too quick,
29:26the whole thing flat out on the track.
29:28Trouble.
29:30Moving slightly quicker at number four is the Qingzhang train,
29:34with an operational speed of 100 kilometres an hour.
29:38Designed to be less of a sprinter and more of a triathlete,
29:41the train, on its 24-hour long journey,
29:43has to climb mountains, carry heavy passenger loads and even speed across ice.
29:49Japan's newest bullet train, the N700, ricochets in at third place.
29:55Although a hot rod in the speed trials, when passengers are involved,
29:59drivers need to ease off the pedal,
30:01giving a regular working speed of 270 kilometres an hour.
30:06The bullet system is so advanced, it almost removes the need for a human driver.
30:10Computers control the speed of the train,
30:12and if the driver fails to respond to a stop signal alert,
30:16an automatic braking system kicks in.
30:19Hopefully.
30:22The thundering French TGV storms into second place
30:26with a commuter-friendly 320 kilometres per hour.
30:30Although that's almost half its stripped-down, souped-up top speed,
30:34no one is complaining,
30:36as this is still the fastest long-distance railway anywhere.
30:40But in pole position, a unique super train.
30:43Its track is only 30 kilometres long,
30:46but in that short distance, it hits an amazing 431 kilometres per hour
30:51on every single journey,
30:53making the world's fastest operational passenger train
30:56China's Maglev Transrapid.
30:59The Maglev is, without a doubt, the most reliable train on the planet.
31:03They have an on-time record of 99.97%.
31:08That is phenomenal.
31:149.30am in Shanghai, China.
31:18It's the busiest time of the day at the Maglev terminal
31:21on the outskirts of the city.
31:23Passengers are arriving to take a cutting-edge,
31:26super-fast train to Pudong Airport.
31:32But this is no ordinary train.
31:36As we've seen,
31:37the Maglev is the fastest long-distance train in the world.
31:41As we've seen, it has no wheels and no engine.
31:46Yet even at peak times, crammed with passengers,
31:49it maintains an operational speed of 431 kilometres an hour,
31:54faster than Concorde's take-off speed.
31:56And it's all down to magnets.
31:59The trains are light, built of high-strength aluminium alloy.
32:03Batteries provide power to generate the magnetic field
32:06keeping the Maglev afloat.
32:08And to make sure it doesn't come crashing down,
32:10on-board computers monitor the gap between train and rail
32:14100,000 times every second.
32:18It's cutting-edge technology,
32:20and this man, Engineer Professor Hsieh
32:22of Shanghai's Science and Technology Centre,
32:25has dedicated 10 years to making the already super-fast Maglev
32:29go even faster.
32:38So, how does it work?
32:40Levitation arms underneath each side of the train
32:43wrap around the edges of the track.
32:46When a current passes through the super electromagnets on each arm,
32:50a powerful magnetic field is generated,
32:52which attracts the arm to the underneath of the track.
32:55The magnetic field is then transferred to the train,
32:58and the train is then powered by the super-fast Maglev.
33:01The super-fast Maglev is then powered by the super-fast Maglev.
33:05Once the train is floating,
33:07electric three-phase coils, or stators,
33:10on the underside of the track are powered up.
33:14Powerful propulsion magnets in the train's levitation arms
33:17then kick in.
33:19This creates a travelling magnetic field
33:21which pulls the Maglev forward.
33:23The Maglev is then powered by the super-fast Maglev.
33:26The super-fast Maglev is then powered by the super-fast Maglev.
33:30The super-fast Maglev is then powered by the super-fast Maglev.
33:34The Maglev is then powered by the super-fast Maglev,
33:37which pulls the Maglev forward.
33:42The more current flowing through the magnets, the faster the speed.
33:46To slow down, the magnetic field's polarity is reversed.
33:51The Maglev is fast, reliable,
33:53and uses far less power than an average family car.
33:57track it runs on makes it hugely expensive.
34:02Originally developed by German company Transrapid,
34:06China was the only country to buy into maglev technology.
34:14The 30 kilometer line out to Pudong Airport alone
34:17cost an incredible $1.4 billion to build.
34:22With that sort of price tag,
34:24it's not surprising that Shanghai's Transrapid
34:27remains the world's only operational high-speed maglev.
34:31Floating trains are intriguing.
34:33Because there's no contact with the track,
34:35there's no friction or rolling resistance
34:37that you associate with normal rolling stock.
34:40And not only does this make for a very fast train,
34:43it also makes for an uncannily smooth ride.
34:49Coming up, which of our super trains
34:51shifts the most passengers in one go?
34:55And decision time,
34:56which of them is the ultimate world's top train?
35:09Five super trains,
35:11but which is the world's best of the best?
35:14Counting down in five key categories,
35:17which will be revealed as the ultimate winner?
35:20With Japan's bullet and the French TGV
35:23battling it out for supremacy,
35:25will our final category throw a spanner in the works?
35:30Passenger capacity.
35:32Just how many people can our super trains shift at one time?
35:37In at five.
35:39With a remarkable zero passengers
35:42and just the one locomotive engineer, the QNSL.
35:46With no company, staying awake can be a problem.
35:49So an onboard warning system alerts the operator
35:52to other trains on the line.
35:54If there's no response,
35:55an emergency braking system kicks in.
35:59Fourth place goes to the super fast, super light,
36:02but also relatively super small, Maglev transit train.
36:07Even though it has no engine or mechanical brakes,
36:10there's still only room for 562 passengers.
36:15China also takes third position with the Qingzhang train,
36:18this time with a much more crowded 900 passengers.
36:22The literally breathtaking route is the world's highest,
36:25so the passengers are given free oxygen.
36:28Every train's got a doctor on board.
36:30As a passenger, it's pretty much train riding
36:32at its most extreme.
36:34And the silver goes to the TGV.
36:36The high-speed people shifter
36:38holds an arena-filling 1,020 passengers.
36:42The duplex carriage is effectively double
36:44the amount of passengers this Gaelic giant can carry.
36:48But at number one, setting the gold standard
36:51is the train with a world-beating maximum
36:54of 1,323 passengers.
36:59With up to 391,000 satisfied customers a day
37:03on the Tokyo to Osaka line alone,
37:05the award for passenger capacity goes to the bullet train.
37:10Over the last 40 years,
37:11bullet trains have carried the equivalent
37:13of the entire population of the world.
37:15So when it comes to passenger capacity,
37:17well, that quite literally is everybody.
37:20It just can't get any more.
37:26Tokyo is the world's most populated metropolitan area,
37:30and its mainline station, one of the busiest.
37:34The only train capable of coping with all these passengers
37:37is the super sleek bullet train.
37:40Every year, more than 141 million people
37:43ride the bullet on the Tokyo-Osaka line alone.
37:47To keep the hordes of commuters moving,
37:49there are 3,800 train arrivals and departures here every day.
37:54If the bullet train stops,
37:55the whole of Japan grinds to a halt.
37:57This phenomenal piece of engineering
37:59doesn't just run like clockwork.
38:01It runs to the digital microsecond.
38:0628-year-old driver Hideki Matsushita
38:08must keep it accurately on track.
38:17HE SPEAKS JAPANESE
38:37Hideki's a relative fledgling.
38:39At least seven years' experience is the norm
38:41before being considered for one of the most sought-after jobs
38:44on the railways.
38:46Once accepted, drivers undergo 591 hours of lectures
38:51and 571 hours of technical training.
38:56And the training doesn't stop there.
38:58Like all fully qualified drivers,
39:00Hideki must undergo a simulated emergency situation
39:04every month.
39:05BEEP
39:06HE SPEAKS JAPANESE
39:15Every bullet train driver is responsible for more passengers
39:18than any other high-speed train in the world.
39:22Each 16-car bullet train can carry 30% more people
39:26than a TGV duplex.
39:29Their secret weapon, the Electrical Multiple Unit, or EMU.
39:34Most trains rely on heavyweight locomotives pushing or pulling.
39:38But the EMU system that propels the bullet train
39:41consists of traction motors built into each of the bogies
39:44supporting every carriage.
39:46The result, carriages can power themselves
39:49so more can be added without losing speed.
39:51It's this sheer number of carriages
39:53that allows bullet trains to carry so many people.
39:58The bullet train first revolutionised
40:00the Japanese rail network in 1964.
40:0550 years on, the N700 is the newest bullet train on the tracks.
40:10It cost a whopping $2.1 billion to develop.
40:14It's the fastest, quietest, sleekest bullet train yet.
40:19And its design solved one big passenger problem.
40:23Older models had to slow down for bends,
40:25otherwise excessive G-force meant people would topple over.
40:31Using a high-tech simulator,
40:33our specialist rolling-stock engineers came up with the solution.
40:38A state-of-the-art body-inclined system.
40:59Other speed-enhancing improvements
41:01include a brand-new nose cone, which creates less drag,
41:06couplings between cars that are covered,
41:09and a skirt that shields the wheels,
41:12all of which makes the new N700 20% more aerodynamic
41:16than its predecessor.
41:18A super train whose drivers are fully aware
41:21of their super responsibilities.
41:32It's a phenomenal work of art.
41:34It's referred to as a duck-billed platypus for obvious reasons,
41:37but that is actually for one specific reason,
41:40and that is all to do with the aerodynamics.
41:42And it's all about chopping through the air,
41:44particularly upon entering a tunnel,
41:46because it's a case of cutting through the air
41:48and passing through it without actually pushing the air out at the other end.
41:52Five incredible trains.
41:54Five miracles of engineering.
41:57Each of them a world leader in key categories.
42:00But which is the overall best of the best?
42:05In identifying the single train which dominates the pack,
42:08all-round performance is the key.
42:11The N700 20% is the fastest train in the world,
42:14and the N700 20% is the fastest train in the world.
42:18In identifying the single train which dominates the pack,
42:21all-round performance is the key.
42:24So we've totaled the rankings for speed, weight, capacity and range,
42:29and here is the final result.
42:37In fifth place, it's the beast from the Canadian wilderness,
42:41the ultra-strong QNSL.
42:45It delivers warm toilet water
42:47and journeys to high altitude with the Qingzhang.
42:52Floating into third place, our old friend,
42:55the levitating Chinese Maglev.
42:58In silver medal position,
43:00the high-speed train everyone wants to live next to,
43:03it's Japan's N700 Bullet.
43:10But the world's number one super train,
43:13the la crème of railway innovation, is the TGV.
43:18This is French engineering at its best.
43:22Its double-decker configuration has revolutionised train design.
43:27Little wonder this is the high-speed train of choice
43:30for 70% of the world's rail networks.
43:33And when it's really given its head and tested to its limit,
43:37it's the fastest train ever devised by man.
43:40I filmed on board the Paris-Lyon TGV,
43:43and it was so fast, literally a kilometre every 11.25 seconds,
43:47that we hardly had a chance to get any filming done
43:49before we reached our destination.
43:52There's no doubt that this train is a true vravoon.