Japanese Train Sets A Speed Record Of 581 kph

Azuma writes "Last night, on December 2, a high-speed Japanese train set a new record of 581 kph, breaking its own previous record. The new Maglev high speed had real passengers on board this time. They proved that the distance between Osaka and Tokyo can be covered in one hour's time. However, we wouldn't see real trains for a while now since the cost is prohibitively expensive at this time. However, they expect that the cost would come down over the next 20 years. This seems to be the future of transportation, at least in Japan. Here is a detailed article from The Japan Times."

361MPH

[sakusha (441986)]

for those of us who don't use that artificial metric crap. I mean, really, if God wanted us to use the Metric system, he would have made the distance between the King's nose and his thumb to be exactly one meter.

Re:361MPH

[mattjb0010 (724744)]

for those of us who don't use that artificial metric crap.

Have you considered a job working for NASA or the JPL?

Re:361MPH

[javiercero (518708)]

Too bad god made his penis exactly 1 inch long... a lot of repressed feelings and wars due to massive inferiority complexes could have been avoided if God had been more generous with the King!

But then again, if God did not want us to use the metric system then how come s/he gave us Ten fingers? :) Rather than using the kings shortcommings, other people decided to use"standard" equipment.... unless you are one of them crab people, then you must be restricted to binary counting I guess.....

Yeah it is late and I have been coding 2 days straight....

Re:361MPH

[by Anonymous Coward]

Actually, 10 fingers is a base 11 system, not base 10 (because 0 is usually represented by not raising any fingers, and than you have 10 numbers left, 10 + 1 = 11)

Re:361MPH

[pubjames (468013)]

for those of us who don't use that artificial metric crap.

Yes, for those of us with twelve fingers, imperial measurements are much more natural.

Re:361MPH

[pavon (30274)]

Everyone should have 12 fingers! I mean really base ten is such a pain in the ass. People natually work well with common divisions and multiples of things, like half an hour, 1/3 a cup etc. Look at all the natually developed measuremnent units: 360 degrees, 24 hours / day, 60 minutes per hour, 12 inches per foot. All nicely divisable by all sorts of numbers. But ten is divisible by what, 2 and 5. Like that sucks. Think about how cool it would be if all the common fractions had simple decimal notations as well. In base 12: 1/4 = .3, 1/3 = .4 1/2 = .6 etc. None of this infinite repeating digit crap.

Oh, and every time you hear about alien sightings they have 6 fingers on each hand. Is it a coincidence that those base-12 civlilizations are advanced enough to cross the galaxy, while we base-10'ers are still groveling in the dirt? I think not!

Forget metric - it is cumbersome in its ten-ness. And imperial is out of sync with our numbering system. What we need is a base-12 metric system. And it all begins with genetically engineered 12-fingered children! Who's with me?

352.99407 cubits per second.

[zhenlin (722930)]

God measured in cubits.

Also, 581 kph = 116.5050712 microparsecs per century.

Re:352.99407 cubits per second.

[plastik55 (218435)]

Er, "20,000 leagues under the sea" does not mean straight down... it means a voyage of 20,000 horizontal leagues, done in a submarine.

Of course, this is Slashdot, I can't expect you've actually read the book.

Re:361MPH

[Goth Biker Babe (311502)]

The degree minute thing probably came from the Sumerians who actually used base 60 for their counting systems. It is postulated that they regularly traded with another race and so came up with a base which could be used equally to translate from their 'old' units and those of their fellow traders.

Base 60 makes it easy to divide values by common fractions, a half, a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth. Hence 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an degree and 6 x 60 degrees in a circle. The sumerians also gave us positional notation (ie. that the same symbol in different positions in a number means a difference value) which is where our hundreds, tens and units comes from. Some even believe that they invented 0 (in which case it was lost for some thousands of years afterwards) and it's shape comes from drawing () with a stylus in a clay tablet (their write once memory). You can find out more here [stlawu.edu].

Totally off topic but never mind.

Too bad the US doesn't invest in more trains

[Maestro4k (707634)]

The one thing I came to like the most when I visited Japan on vacation a few years ago was the train service. Not having a car truly didn't feel like a loss when you could easily hop on a train and be where you wanted faster than you could drive there. (Especially in Tokyo.)

I just wish the US would invest in more passenger trains. They don't have to be super fast (like the one in this article), but imagine how much fuel/electricity we could save if we could all easily commute by train. And hey, you can always sleep on the train on the way to work, something you can't do while driving. (Or rather, something you shouldn't do, I'm sure someone's tried it.)

Re:Too bad the US doesn't invest in more trains

[Judg3 (88435)]

I think the reason the US as a whole doesn't invest more in trains is the fact that the country is A. Pretty big and B. Pretty Empty.
There's a lot less people per square mile here then in Japan and the like.
Personally, I love the Chicago transit authority. I've lived as far away as Milwaukee and still commuted into Chicago every day (in fact, living in Milwaukee the commute was shorter then a lot of other train lines - the train made 2 stops and went 80mph most of the way there, about 45 min commute). And t

Re:Too bad the US doesn't invest in more trains

[pubjames (468013)]

I think the reason the US as a whole doesn't invest more in trains is the fact that the country is A. Pretty big and B. Pretty Empty.

That actually sounds more like a reason why it would be sensible to have a rail system to me, rather than a reason it hasn't got one.

OK, lets privatize the roads then too

[maynard (3337)]

Seriously, if you're not willing to pay tax dollars for rail infrastsructure, why also pay for roads and bridges? And while you're at it, why not dismantle the education system and courts as well? When private enterprise performs all of these civic functions, will "freedom" have been expanded or will we simply have seen a net transfer of power away from voters into private hands? Just asking. --M

So right and So wrong

[WindBourne (631190)]

While I do not fully agree with your assesment of Chicago->LA, the most important route to build would be NY->Pit->Det->Chg->Mil.
These 4 cities have more traffic between them than any other route in the USA. In fact, most airlines make all their profits doing cargo between NY/Chg.
As to Chi->LA, well, I would argue for 3 East-west high-speed maglevs with stops every 1000M. Likeiwise, 4 North-South (W, Rocky, Missisppi River, E coast) to carry cargo.

Re:Too bad the US doesn't invest in more trains

[pdjohe (575876)]

I think the reason the US doesn't have a better train system is...

1. In the past, Ford wanted automobiles to be affordable enough so that every American family could own one.

2. Gasoline is much cheaper in the US than in Europe and other parts of the world.

3. In many parts of the US, it is impossible to get by without a car.

4. Americans generally prefer privatization (own a car) over mass/public services.

You forget about the NCL conspiracy

[DABANSHEE (154661)]

GM, firestone & Philip's Petroleum created a front company that purchased over 400 suburban railway & tram systems in the US, then ran them down & replaced them with buses. They even got a $10,000 fine when the govt prosecuted them under the anti-trust statutes. Yep they destroyed infrastructure that today would cost millions or billions to replace for a then $10,000 penalty.

If it wasn't for that fact, many US cities today could [b]potentially[/m] have suburban railway systems as extensive as Sydney's suburban & inter-urban Cityrail system [cityrail.info]

Really AFAIC railways systems should be publically run & financed through consilidated revenue, just as roads are. Public transport will never reach it's full potential while it's expected to make a profit (or break even), while there's no equilivent expectation in regards roads

Re:Too bad the US doesn't invest in more trains

[dbleoslow (650429)]

I live in Tokyo now and if there's one thing you can almost always count on, it's the train system. I know that if my commute is 30 minutes, it will always be 30 minutes, except for the rare exception, whether it's rush hour or late at night. I go back to the DC and I'm stuck on the Beltway during rush hour for 3 hours for what is normally a 30 minute drive.

I don't think passenger trains will ever catch on in The States. The population is just too spread out right now. Japan is roughly the size of California but with half the population of the US (If I recall correctly.) You just can't fit all those people on the roads at 1 or 2 people per car. And besides, how will all the salarymen molest the school girls if they're in a car and not crammed into a train :)

Re:Too bad the US doesn't invest in more trains

[fruey (563914)]

Too bad most places don't invest in more trains. However, investment usually implies a return, and most train companies lose money. The more captalistic a country is, the worse this becomes... note in the article " Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) and the government-affiliated Railway Technical Research Institute." that it's a state sponsored initiative getting these things going.

The French TGV is one good example of a system that works, but it's not easy to replicate economically in a country like the UK where there is public outcry at any possible addition of rail links or something close to where they live (and population density is three times higher than France, so routing around people isn't as easy). The Eurostar now has high speed track for part of the link in the UK, shaving 20 minutes off total journey time, but the route is incredibly inefficient and could have been much more direct. Also, it was way off schedule!

The US gave up on trains long ago. Flights and cars are all there is, Amtrak is a joke. Ironic that the rail revolution made the US what it is today, and it has to be the major economy that has turned its back on rail the most. High speed services coast to coast would undoubtedly be too expensive though. I think there must be a magic ratio between average distance travelled by passengers, total country size, train running cost and so on which the TGV manages to get close to. The TGV rocks.

Re:Too bad the US doesn't invest in more trains

[tekunokurato (531385)]

You do realize that the subsidies that Amtrack and most local train utilities recieve are less than half of what similar road spending requires, right? Think of roads as direct subsidies to the car companies; boston (used as an example because I live there, not because it's an extreme case) subsidizes about 60% of the MBTA's budget, but spends more than that every year on roads even discounting the fiasco that is the big dig. The MBTA serves over 700,000 people daily, and the central artery will serve less than 300,000 drivers, as per Mass Highway Department estimates). Other cities are the same, so citing subsidies to public transport but NOT citing road costs depicts a situation only the car companies would claim is true.

Re:Too bad the US doesn't invest in more trains

[tekunokurato (531385)]

The fuel taxes collected have been more than enough to pay for the roads.

Maybe in Europe with high gas taxes, but not over here. The United states has artificially low gas prices that definitely do NOT reflect the actual cost of gas use.

In Boston, the T system moves 700,000 people on an average day, and costs are bare minimum compared to the big dig, which is estimated by the Mass highway department to positively affect about 190,000 (those who are sped by it during rush hour and other heavy-traffic times; those who drive in low traffic could care less for the improvements). Though the big dig makes Boston a *slightly* extreme example, I was speaking just yesterday with a friend of mine who interned on project approval this summer at the federal DOT, and only a few percent of the budget goes to subsidize public transit, and it's NOT covered by gas taxes. This is likewise true for state DOTs.

Re:Too bad the US doesn't invest in more trains

[BenjyD (316700)]

>Exactly: most countries screw the taxpayer, who probably just wants better roads to drive their car on

And where are you going to put these better roads? Through all those taxpayers house? More roads -> more traffic -> more congestion -> more roads ->....

It's an endless cycle.

Re:Too bad the US doesn't invest in more trains

[Epeeist (2682)]

> Hardly: it should be no surprise that the nation that's quickest to abandon uneconomic technology is the most successful. If only Britain had the same attitude, rather than some Luddite desire to keep trains running no matter how bad and inefficient they may be.

Manchester to London is about 2 hours 30m, even on Virgin trains. Driving takes anything from 4 hours upwards, dependent on when you start. So if I have a London meeting I can do it in a day by train. If I go by car I can`t.

As far as I am conc

Nowhere close to max speed

[raahul_da_man (469058)]

The maximum speed for a maglev train is considered to be around 580 kph due to limits in electrical facilities for the train, the engineers said.

We haven't seen nothing yet. It seems the more juice, the higher the speed. I for one hope to see mass production of Maglev trains. They will be vastly superior to planes at less cost.

I can't help thinking that maglev train development will help achieve cheap spaceflight as well. Imagine a spaceplane taking off from a maglev hitting 1000+ kph.

Vegas to LA

[The-Pheon (65392)]

Living in Las Vegas, I would love a high speed rail to LA. It is all desert, plenty of room for a right of way! I'm sure the casino's would love getting people from LA to the city in an hour as well!

Just remember in ten years, it was my idea :)

A friendly SI usage reminder

[by Anonymous Coward]

kph parses as kilo*pico*hour. It makes no sense.

You probably mean km/h.

No need to bastardize a fine international standard.

Impressive

[pubjames (468013)]

If you are going to visit Japan, there is a special travel pass you can get, which is only for tourists. It allows you to travel on any train in Japan over one, two, three or four weeks. It is well worth it.

Having spent three weeks travelling around Japan on their trains, I can confirm that they are very impressive. Many of the trains have the kind of luxury fittings that you'd expect to find flying first class. But they are expensive.

Although I believe that Europe is currently developing a Europe-wide high-speed rail system, Japan has had one for years. Why is it only Japan that has such an advanced train system? Travelling by train is great - much more environmentally sound and safer than travelling by car, and of course you get to use the travelling time productively, especially when the trains have plugs for laptops and network connections/WiFi.

Re:Impressive

[EmagGeek (574360)]

I wonder if moving that fast causes problems with train-land wi-fi and cell networks due to the doppler effect? Imagine you're screaming toward a cell tower at 167 m/s (600 km/h) - that's a doppler shift of 500Hz at 900MHz, which I imagine could cause some problems.

500 Hz @ 900MHz 1ppm

[wowbagger (69688)]

500 Hz at 900 MHz is less than 1 ppm.

The TCXOs (temperature compensated crystal oscillators ("X" being the industry standard abbreviation for crystal - get over it)) used in moble equipment are usually rated about .5 ppm, so a 500 Hz shift isn't that much.

The more important aspect is the timing skew - GSM and CDMA require the mobile and the base station to have a VERY accurate idea of the time of flight delay between them, so as to keep the transmissions in their allocated time slots (IIRC GSM requires something like a 5 microsecond accuracy, but not being at work yet I can't get the specs right now.)

Moving that fast means the timing skew is going to shift significantly between bursts.

However, most high speed trains are moving to having a cell on the train itself, which then links to the landline system via a dedicated link from train to land.

Re:Impressive

[Zog The Undeniable (632031)]

The French TGV system is pretty good too, but it is expensive. They have the speed record for real trains, as opposed to maglev vaporware.

Re:Impressive

[TonkaTown (186808)]

Yep, a TGV recorded 515.3 km/h (320.3 mph) back in May 1990, not bad at all.

Details on TGVWeb [trainweb.org].

Germany, France do

[Goonie (8651)]

Whilst I haven't ridden on the 300 km/h French TGV, I have ridden on the German ICE trains, and they are insanely great. Power sockets, big comfy chairs, good food, beer, and coffees in the restaurant, even (cellular, not wifi) net access. It's not cheap, but it's very, very good. Not to mention frequent and bloody quick.

Whilst there are inter-country trains, it's still a damn long way between, say, Hamburg and Rome, and planes would be quicker than the current generation of very fast trains. 600 km/h

Re:Impressive

[divide overflow (599608)]

>If you are going to visit Japan, there is a special travel pass you can get, which is only for tourists. It allows you to travel on any train in Japan over one, two, three or four weeks. It is well worth it.

You are talking about the Japan Rail Pass [japanrailpass.net]. It doesn't allow you to travel on ANY train in Japan, ONLY the trains on the JR Group lines including all Shinkansen (bullet trains) EXCEPT for the ultrafast JR "Nozomi" bullet trains. None of the many private (Non-JR) train lines accept the Japan Rail Pass. Note however that the Japan Rail bus and ferry lines DO accept the Japan Rail Pass. See this page for information on where the Japan Rail Pass is valid [japanrailpass.net].

If you are eligible to get a Japan Rail Pass and are planning on doing much rail travel in Japan then you will almost certainly want to get one.

Japan is linear

[reignbow (699038)]

This is obviously very impressive. Maglev trains are very expensive (especially the track), but they reach enormous speeds. It gets even better if you let them run in a depressurised tunnel, allowing them to reach speeds of several thousand kilometers per hour. Of course, that costs lots of extra moolah, but its an upgrade possibility once maglevs have become more commonplace.

Concerning the question of why other countries don't have trains as cool as Japan - well, several reasons. The US just aren't interested. Appearantly, the American Way means having two cars per family and getting stuck in a traffic jam at least once a week. Besides, there are geographical concerns. America, as well as my home country (Germany) are definitely two-dimensional, rather than a linear strip of settlement like Japan, meaning that one requires a grid of synchronised train lines. Trust me, that's hard.

Also, for the US there's the problem of population density. Sure, in the cities, public transport has customers. But in the rural regions, there isn't enough demand to make narrow-interval trains profitable. And the broader the intervals (say, twice a day?) the lower the interest. After all, why wait two hours for the next train, when you can jump in your car now?

Re:Japan is linear

[Bagels (676159)]

Of course, there may be a sort of a "last mile" problem in the US too - once you arrive at your destination, it might take almost as long or longer to make the second half of the journey from train station to final destination (because of car rentals, traffic, etc.).

Build your own!

[valentyn (248783)]

As we've seen home built roller costers and rockets on /., now is the time to build your own Maglev train. All you need is posterboard, foamboard, or cardboard, 20-30 square or rectangular magnets, masking tape. Then follow the instructions [fsu.edu]. Have fun!

Twenty Years ago...

[Crass Spektakel (4597)]

Twenty Years ago the first maglevs were build in Germany. Increadibly fast and very quiet. For Testingpurposes. Since then ... nothing happened. Oh, yes, they sold the whole stuff for a piece of bread to china which also build the first "german maglev" for public use. Well, in germany we still have no public maglev.

At least in central europa (germany, france, benelux) we have conventional trains running at speeds of 150-300kph since decades. But then europa has a highly incompatible trainsystem. Western Europa (except once Great Britain) uses one type of track, eastern europa another one and while the british system closely resembles western europas tracks its not safe for high speeds.

Thank goodness china desided to use western-europa tracks which will more or less force eastern europa and russia to adopt or wither away.

Re:Twenty Years ago...

[BenjyD (316700)]

>and while the british system closely resembles western europas tracks its not safe for high speeds...

or if it's hot, cold, snowing, raining, autumn, or if Jarvis has been within a mile of it.

Real passengers

[leoboiko (462141)]

The new Maglev high speed had real passengers on board this time.

From the article:

The three-car maglev train reached a top speed of 581 kph with technicians on board[...]

You see, they haven't tested it with real people, only with technicians.

Re:Ouch...

[by Anonymous Coward]

It's hard(er) for a mag-lev train to derail sincehte 'wheels' wrap around the track. For it to derail it would have to rip the track apart. Not saying it's not possible but it's less likely to happen than on conventional trains.

Re:Ouch...

[Walterk (124748)]

Please take a look at a Maglev [ga.com]. Notice how it wraps around the track? It is extremely unlikely for one of these suckers to derail, and physically impossible for these things to crash into each other.

I for one welcome our Maglev overlords. At 581kph it should limit my 43 minute train time to school to roughly 8 minutes. Cross country [utexas.edu]? At most 30.

Re:Ouch...

[shione (666388)]

He was trying to make the point that at higher speeds the train would be more likely to derail. but he's wrong anyway as the bottom of the train wraps around the track. In order to derail the mag-lev train would have to rip the track apart. Additionally, since the train is wrapped around the track and doesnt just sit on it like conventional trains do, its possible to superelevate the track (track rises on one side as it turns). Superelevation is used to counteract the centrifugal forces as a vehicles makes a tight turn at fast speeds.

Re:Ouch...

[tiger99 (725715)]

Remember the monorail crash in Germany a few years ago. That also wrapped around its track. http://danger-ahead.railfan.net/features/schwebeba hnungluck/home.html That happened at a very much lower speed. It is impossible to physically construct a train which will remain attached to the track in a high speed derailment. Even if something did not break, the resulting huge deceleration would kill the passemgers anyway.

Safety is only obtained by rigorous track maintenance and inspection. In Japan they have the earthquake hazard, nothing they can do about that. If the track buckles, at that sort of speed, disaster is inevitable.

One good thing is that this particularly fine piece of engineering is not maintained by either Balfour-Beatty or Jarvis, who between them are responsible for quite a few disasters and near-disasters in the UK. Basic things like not putting a piece of track back, and not telling the signaller it was not there (Twice!)

The Japanese are more meticulous than most when it comes to carrying out regular inspections, even so this is fairly risky.

Re:Ouch...

[by Anonymous Coward]

In France , the TGV derailed at least two times in 20 years. Each times at more than 250Km/h (150mph) No injuries, No deaths.

Because the train is linked upon boggies.

That's not the reason

[by Anonymous Coward]

Every post-1870 train is using boggies.

What made the TGV survive its derailments are:
1. it's designed so that the train sets, once the cars are attached one to the next, is very rigid, so if it goes out of the track, you have a long big dildo slipping through the country until it stops
2. so far, it encountered no overpassing bridge during a derailment (the track is designed to overpass as much as possible, but sometimes it's not possible)

The ICE at Eschede didn't have the luck of point 2.

I really

Re:Ouch...

[BiggerIsBetter (682164)]

And much less hassle as well.

Train:

• Arrive 5 minutes before departure.
• Get on.
• Travel, with passport check on the way.
• Get off.

Airplane:

• Arrive 3 hours before departure.
• Check in.
• Passport check.
• Security screening.
• Departure lounge.
• Flight delayed.
• Get on.
• Travel.
• Get off.
• Baggage.

I, for one, welcome our new super-fast trains. I've used the 300kph trains (TGV,Eurostar,etc) and they are a really nice way to get around. For travelling within continents, these will a far better alternative than flying.

Re:Ouch...

[SpaghettiPattern (609814)]

You're forgetting that you can even take a comfortable night train and sleep while you travel. I do this with my family when we need to cover a "one night's distance". We loose less "wake time" and we arrive in a better shape.

Re:Ouch...

[penguin7of9 (697383)]

I don't think so. There have been terrorist attacks on trains (e.g., Carlos the Jackal's bombing in 1983). They just haven't been very successful and haven't led to cumbersome security measures.

From a terrorist point of view, I suspect that a building is a better target than a train: easier to get to, easier to get away from, and more likely to kill lots of people.

In fact, even when it comes to airline security, Americans seem to be going from one extreme to another without ever getting it right: prior to 9/11, airlines just didn't want to inconvenience passengers even though even simple measures could have prevented 9/11. Post 9/11, US airlines seem to be working hard to make their passengers' lives as miserable as possible (without necessarily improving security much).

Re:Ouch...

[rpjs (126615)]

Eurostar has airline style security because the Channel Tunnel is deemed to be a potential target. You can't just turn up and go, but the check-in closes only 30 minutes ahead of departure, so it's still faster than at an airport, and unlike Heathrow, Orly etc, the stations are right in the hearts of the cities they serve.

MOD DOWN, Please

[WindBourne (631190)]

This is so wrong.

SWITCHES? [calmaglev.org]

Nothing deployed? The Germans and chinese will be very upset that they do not exist [transrapid.de]
Then the mention of lack of land, all the while ignoring that the train is elevated.
Earthquakes? well, since the train is elevated, the supports are designed to handle earthquakes. It is LRT and Heavy Rail that has problems due to the fact that they are heavily anchored to the earth through every inch of the rail. This allows for the rail to be moved from underneath the train while it is moving.
BTW, In japan, the monorails have had NO problems with earthquakes/Typhons, etc, while LRT has to be stopped and adjusted after each item.
Cusion of air for aerodynamics???? It is a "MAGLEV"; it is supported by magnetic force, not aerodynamics.
As to evironmental impact, give me a break. The amount of force is FAR less than an MRI.

Re:Maglev has been promised for 50 years

[Animaether (411575)]

But other than test units, none have been deployed.

Actually, the one in Shanghai, PRC, has been 'deployed'.

but also in the cost to power the trains.

Of course the maintenance on regular trains is a wee bit higher - unless you think replacing those big steel wheels and the brake systems due to wear and tear is something that's cheap.

Once you have maglev, you are restricted to long-distance trips because there is no maglev track feature similar to a "switch"

Really ? So what, exactly, do you call this thing then ?
http://www.transrapid.de/en/medien/praesentatio n/1 1.html

Given the lack of developable land in Japan, where do they expect to put the tracks, since they would have to serve the existing stations which feed regional, metro, and local rail? Would they replace the existing bullet trains?

Maglevs can easily operate on levitated tracks above existing tracks if so needed. Of course replacement would be a better option, but disrupting commuters is likely not a viable option, so alternative transportation would have to be introduced for as long as construction would last.

High-speed rail demands extremely precise rail alignment and a continuous maintenance program

Rail, yes. But this is maglev. Rail doesn't give you an inch leeway. Maglev does. Maglev gives you way -more- than an inch leeway. Slight disruption of the guideways won't be much of a disaster.

Speaking of which - maglevs can't derail. You don't happen to know the -main- cause of rail incidents is, would you ?

But if the segment does get destroyed, you install a new segment. Yes, it'll be more than a bit of steel and welding, depending on the maglev construction (i.e. linear motor in carriage, or linear motor in segments). But either which would not take much longer than replacing a segment of steel rail.

Rail trains can even run efficiently at low speeds, as opposed to maglev

Moot point. These things are meant to go fast, not slow.
When do regular trains ever go slow ?
1. When going through neighborhoods to prevent too much noise from being generated.
- Maglevs are MUCH more silent, not an issue
2. When leaving a station
- Maglevs accellerate much faster, not an issue*
3. When entering a station
- Maglevs decellerate much faster, not an issue*

* where they do go too slow, no worries - the levitation is generally not handled the same way, but rather by batteries in the carriages. They can levitate just fine without external power. Should they run out of internal power as wel, they generally 'land' on plain rubber wheels, and can be collected by another maglev.

There is also the environmental/health impact of intense, uncontained magnetic fields.

You're talking about te type of system where the linear induction motor is inside the track. The track segments get switched by the passing of the train. The magnetic field is directed upwards and does not extend a lobe of more than 10 meters at best.
Which means that you have to be standing on the track, when the train passes over it, to be affected. I *think* you would have other worries at such a time :P
Even if you think a bird may be affected, though, a track section's length is up to 62 meters in length. Even if travelling at 'only' 400km/h, that's passed in 1.79 seconds, with the length of the segment decreasing over that time as the train passes over.
Inside the train the magnetic field is negligable - less than a CRT monitor.

And of course, kids can't put coins on the rails any more!

Kids these days put their coins in Tesla coils anyway :)