While you’re sitting in traffic or stuck on a pokey commuter train consider this, a train in Japan just clocked in at 374 miles per hour–a world record. Japan first introduced its bullet trains in 1964, but those earlier bullet trains, even as recently as 2013, topped out at 200 mph. The upgrade that made this giant leap possible is the maglev technology. The word is a combination of magnet and levitation, and it enables the trains to travel without touching the rails. Friction becomes fiction.
The record-setting train at one point traveled 1.1 miles in 10.8 seconds, according to a Japan Railways spokesperson. The previous record was 361 mph, also set by a maglev train during a 2003 test.
