{"id":435041,"date":"2026-05-22T19:20:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T09:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.railwaymuseum.org.uk\/?p=15145"},"modified":"2026-05-22T19:20:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T09:20:54","slug":"london-to-york-in-40-minutes-scmaglev-and-railway-park-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=435041","title":{"rendered":"London to York in 40 minutes!? SCMAGLEV and railway park partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, the\u00a0National Railway\u00a0Museum was delighted to\u00a0sign\u00a0a sister museum\u00a0agreement\u00a0with the SCMAGLEV and Railway Park in Nagoya, Japan, owned and\u00a0operated\u00a0by Central Japan Railway (JR Central). The\u00a0partnership\u00a0further strengthens our ties with Japan\u2019s rail and cultural sectors, building on existing relationships with\u00a0The Railway Museum in Saitama and Kyoto Railway Museum.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I was fortunate enough to be part of the signing ceremony, which took place\u2014as you may have already guessed\u2014on board one of only two preserved bullet trains outside of Japan, <\/span>our Shinkansen power car<\/span><\/a>. We were honoured to welcome\u00a0a number of\u00a0special guests, including\u00a0Mr Hitoshi Okabe,\u00a0Director\u00a0of the\u00a0SCMAGLEV and Railway Park, who travelled 6,000 miles to join us.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Hitoshi<\/a>
Hitoshi Okabe, Director of the SCMAGLEV and Railway Park (Left) and Craig Bentley, Director of the National Railway Museum (Right).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What makes the SCMAGLEV and Railway Park so exciting is its focus on high-speed rail. Japan is widely recognised as a forward-thinking, technology-led nation, and a key reason for this reputation is its early commitment to high-speed rail at a time when many countries were in favour of expanding road networks and air travel instead.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The world\u2019s first high-speed rail line, the\u00a0T\u014dkaid\u014d\u00a0Shinkansen, opened on 1 October 1964. Travelling at speeds of up to 210km\/h (130mph), services linked Tokyo, Nagoya,\u00a0Kyoto\u00a0and Osaka, helping to drive enormous economic growth between the cities. For anyone interested in learning more about this remarkable story, I thoroughly recommend\u00a0<\/span>Bob\u2019s deep dive into the bullet train<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>on our YouTube channel.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
Map of Shinkansen lines (2024) by Hisagi under CC BY-SA 4.0 license | Image Source<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Since then, the Shinkansen network has expanded across\u00a0almost the\u00a0entire country. Now, Japan is once again pushing the boundaries of railway technology with superconducting magnetic levitation, or\u00a0SCMAGLEV.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is\u00a0the technology behind the fastest train in the world,\u00a0the L0 Series, which set an eye-watering\u00a0speed record of 603km\/h (375mph) in 2015.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Carriages are equipped with powerful superconducting electromagnets made from coils of wire cooled to \u2212269\u00b0C (\u2212452\u00b0F) using liquid helium. In this superconducting state, the coils have zero electrical resistance, allowing\u00a0very large\u00a0currents to generate intense magnetic fields. The guideway is also equipped with two types of coils: one for propulsion and another for levitation and guidance. Magnetic forces between the train and the guideway lift, propel, and keep the vehicle stable at incredible speeds.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But why travel at such high speeds?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

The museum we are partnering with is based in Nagoya, which will become a major stop on the new\u00a0Ch\u016b\u014d\u00a0Shinkansen line when it opens in 2035, initially connecting the city with Tokyo before later extending to Osaka. Nagoya is 285.6km (177.5 miles) from Tokyo,\u00a0roughly the\u00a0same distance as London to York.\u00a0Today, travelling from London to York takes just under two hours by rail. On the\u00a0Ch\u016b\u014d\u00a0Shinkansen, that same distance will be covered in only 40 minutes!\u00a0That is potentially transformational.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When we think about\u00a0railways being built\u00a0en\u00a0masse\u00a0in nineteenth-century Britain, we often focus on how dramatically\u00a0they\u00a0compressed time and distance, reshaping people\u2019s understanding of travel,\u00a0work\u00a0and opportunity. In many ways, high-speed rail continues that story today. It takes me around 45 minutes to walk from my house to my local station. The idea that\u00a0you could travel from Tokyo to Nagoya\u00a0in the same amount of time\u00a0is genuinely astonishing.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So\u00a0what does this partnership mean for our\u00a0museum?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

This agreement marks the beginning of a long-term collaboration between our two organisations. Together, we will share research,\u00a0stories\u00a0and best practice in how we engage audiences.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As Lead Curator of\u00a0Railway Futures: the\u00a0Porterbrook\u00a0Gallery<\/em>,\u00a0a major new exhibition space under construction at our museum in\u00a0York,\u00a0I am\u00a0delighted to share\u00a0that we will be displaying a 1:20 scale model of the L0 Series. Manufactured in Japan and kindly loaned to us by Central Japan Railway, the model will help visitors explore the engineering behind the world\u2019s fastest train while also encouraging discussion about the future of transport. What role should maglev technology play in the decades ahead? How might\u00a0high-speed rail\u00a0reshape the way we travel and connect our cities?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Our role as a museum\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0to tell people what the future will look like. Instead, we will use objects like this to encourage visitors to imagine different futures and consider what\u00a0it is that\u00a0they really want to see.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"<\/a>
The L0 Series 1:20 scale model.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is, of course, a long and fascinating history of collaboration between the British and Japanese railway industries. Japan\u2019s first locomotive, the JGR Class 150, was built in Newton-le-Willows. Kaichi Watanabe, one of the first Japanese engineers to study in Britain, contributed to the development of the Forth Bridge in the 1880s. Hideo Shima, Chief Engineer of the Shinkansen project, visited the Railway Technical Centre in Derby in 1963. More recently, Adrian Shooter,\u00a0a hugely influential figure in Britain\u2019s privatised\u00a0railway industry,\u00a0established\u00a0the UK\u2013Japan Railways Exchange Programme, which continues today.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Our new partnership with the SCMAGLEV and Railway Park is the latest chapter in this remarkable shared history. I\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0wait to see what we achieve together.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The post London to York in 40 minutes!? SCMAGLEV and railway park partnership<\/a> appeared first on National Railway Museum blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What exactly is SCMAGLEV? How and why can Japanese trains travel so fast? What does this new sister museum agreement mean for our museum? Curator Rob Scargill explores Japan\u2019s rail past, present and future as we celebrate this exciting new international partnership.<\/p>\n

The post London to York in 40 minutes!? SCMAGLEV and railway park partnership<\/a> appeared first on National Railway Museum blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[136,20290,9771,20291,20292,2543],"tags":[16756],"class_list":["post-435041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-scenes","category-futures-gallery","category-japan","category-japanese-railway","category-scmaglev","category-york","tag-shinkansen"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=435041"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":435042,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435041\/revisions\/435042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=435041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=435041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=435041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}