Original subtitles

[upbeat intense music]

- [Narrator] Since the invention of the wheel,

humans have pushed the boundaries and possibilities to go

faster, higher, and deeper than ever before.

The engineering evolution of cars, ships, planes, trains,

submersibles, and rockets has been a monumental journey

of inspiration, innovation, sometimes failure and success.

[people cheering]

So how did we get to where we are now

and where are we going next?

[upbeat intense music]

[train honking]

No other form of transportation

has barreled through mountains,

plunged underwater, and connected continents like trains.

- Trains are crucial to our modern day society.

They're pivotal in human history in delivering goods,

and getting people to where they need to go.

- [Narrator] Further advancements in technology

and engineering promise to continue the long legacy

of rail transportation while transforming trains

to fit the needs of the future.

- We can literally automate the entire train system

of the world.

- [Narrator] Before cars or planes, trains blazed a trail

for the future of travel and technology.

How will our ever shifting landscape and rapidly changing

technologies shape the future of one of the world's oldest

forms of transportation?

- At a thousand kilometers an hour on a train,

you will be approaching the speed of sound.

- [Narrator] From the high speed transport of a bullet train

to slow luxury trains winding their way through vistas,

to the hustle and bustle of metro systems

throughout the world's cities.

It has taken centuries of trial and error,

groundbreaking innovation, and a desire to push past

the limits of what seems possible to reach a point

where trains are literally floating right off the tracks.

Soon single train autonomous tracks

will be a thing of the past.

Metro systems will be well-orchestrated symphonies

of multiple carriages,

each running constant safety checks and analysis from their

own internal intelligence systems.

The next generation of trains coming around the bend promise

to go further, travel faster, and reduce risk in emissions.

But to do so, engineers have had to constantly rethink

and reimagine how trains operate.

Going as far as to question, if the future of rail

should involve tracks at all.

- Trains will evolve over time.

They're going to get faster and faster.

This is a fixed system that's really easy to control

from an engineering point of view.

- [Narrator] All good inventions come from the desire

to solve a problem.

In the case of rails, it has always been

to move mass amounts of people and things

with minimal effort.

One of the wildest train concepts that exist today is the

TransPod FluxJet Transportation System.

This novel idea has the potential to be a major innovation

in the world of high speed train travel.

TransPod is laying the groundwork for their ambitious plan

to connect the Canadian cities of Edmonton and Calgary,

using an incredible high speed train,

traveling a thousand kilometers an hour.

It is estimated this 300 kilometer journey

will take just 45 minutes.

- When you're reaching a thousand kilometers an hour,

you're near the speed of sound.

- [Narrator] TransPod does not use train tracks,

nor does it rely on a vacuum like Hyperloop.

A concept that uses low pressure tubes

to propel passenger pods at near sonic speeds.

To achieve their far reaching goal,

the TransPod system will use moving electromagnetic fields

to propel their vehicles using stable levitation

from the top surface.

Their space age vehicle called the FluxJet

is super aerodynamic, like a trackless flying bullet train,

but this ultramodern system may still be light years away.

Initial construction has yet to begin.

Although this futuristic concept seems

like total science fiction,

its DNA carries the remnants of the origins of railways.

- So if we go back to the ancient world,

it will surprise you to know that we did have trains.

But at that time,

trains were really where roads had dug in specific tracks.

- And basically you could hook your oxen to a cart,

put the cartwheels in the track

and the oxygen couldn't pull the cart out of the track.

And you could essentially let the oxen walk your goods

all the way to its destination.

And that's really the idea of a train,

is we have a fixed track system and a wheeled vehicle

that sits on that.

- Now we look at the trends we have today

and the concept still hasn't changed.

- [Narrator] While Oxcarts served their purpose

in early societies,

their success kickstarted a global demand

for goods at higher volume and much faster pace.

One of the most innovative and exciting times in history,

the industrial revolution, brought the solution

everyone was waiting for, the steam train.

- But with the invention of the steam engine,

we suddenly were able to harness power that we never had

access to before,

allowing us to pull much longer and much further,

and much more powerfully than we could before.

- 'Cause all we need to make steam,

we need to boil water, kettle on the stove.

We had coal stoves, so we just thought, okay,

we'll make a big stove in a train.

- When steam expands and contracts, it can move objects.

And when we figure out how to make and control that movement

in a way to spin a wheel,

we suddenly figured out how to harness that work

that that steam is doing to push a rotor

that would then propel an engine forward.

- We use coal to create heat.

Heat boils water.

The water produces high pressure steam.

The steam is allowed to flow into a cylinder

with a piston in it.

The steam expands pushing on the cylinder,

the cylinder's attached to a shaft.

That shaft is connected eccentrically to a wheel

causing the wheel to turn as the shaft moves in and out

with the piston.

- [Narrator] The first steam powered locomotive

hit the rails in the 1800s,

and from then on it was full steam ahead.

This initial innovation inspired generations of engineers

to keep pushing mechanical and physical boundaries.

Around the same time,

a concept for what would become the world's wildest version

of a train was also invented, the pneumatic system.

This is the foundation of Hyperloop.

- For those of us that are of a particular age, well,

I'm sure we've seen those pneumatic tubes

from either commercials or maybe some old TV shows

where you drop in a little cylinder

and something sucks it away.

- [Narrator] But there were practical limitations

and safety concerns that would see the idea

of using low pressure tubes shelved for hundreds of years

as steam trains and engines become

the vanguard of 17th century technology.

- The problem with steam trains is

that their engines were very greedy.

And with coal, they were very expensive

and very labor intensive.

- It would take quite a long time for a steam engine

to even build up steam,

so you would have crews of people working for hours

ahead of even taking a journey.

In 1912, Switzerland developed

the first diesel powered train.

This was game changing for trains.

Previously we went from having people having

to shovel coal into a steam engine,

but now you could use a contained fuel source

that was easy enough to refill to have an engine

that was putting out a consistent amount of power

for the duration of your trip.

- When the diesel engine was developed for trains,

it became almost overnight the most dominant

method of choice to propel trains.

And even to this day, a lot of how freight

is moved is through diesel engines.

The reason why this became the dominant force

is just mainly due to its efficiency and its power output.

- Why don't we use gasoline in trains?

Why do we use diesel?

It's a simple, accessible heavy fuel,

easily transportable, very stable,

doesn't burn up like gasoline.

It's a slow mover because it's compression engine,

it doesn't spark, in gasoline you have a spark every time,

you got a power, bam, bam, bang, bang.

It's good power.

Diesel develops power through time, so it starts slow,

it pulls it, and it has far more energy output.

So for volume of diesel burnt, I can pull more.

- Yeah, so diesel technology definitely

made train transportation, much more efficient,

longer distances, lower fuel costs,

and higher speeds all coupled together.

- [Narrator] Diesel engines are a step up from steam,

but they still wreak havoc on the environment

and max out at a top speed of 238 kilometers per hour.

That's nothing compared to some trains out there today.

Inventors and engineers look to an avant-garde power source

to push trains to speeds and distances

that were once unimaginable, electricity.

- While electric train vehicles sound relatively new,

they've actually been around way longer than we think.

In fact, the first electric train

predates the first diesel train.

In 1837, Robert Davidson invented the first galvanic cell.

The problem with this battery is

that it was incredibly heavy and had a limited range.

- When we go back and look at the first electric trains,

there wasn't the electrical infrastructure

that we have today to support them.

And batteries pose a few problems.

They don't hold a lot of charge.

We can't get a lot of power in a small area,

and they're also really heavy.

The earliest batteries were lead acid, again,

a very heavy material.

So the first electric trains that ran on batteries

were limited to very short distances

and didn't have a lot of capability.

- [Narrator] Batteries nowadays have made massive strides

from the galvanic cell.

2021 saw a major push for companies to explore

and test battery powered train systems

after a dramatic decline in battery prices made the tech

much more appealing.

- You can imagine a scenario now as batteries have advanced,

going back to some of the original concepts

of using batteries to electrify trains,

and this would really help cut down on emissions.

For the train industry

we've moved away from lead acid batteries,

which were very big and took a long time to charge,

and now the industry standard

is sort of a lithium ion battery,

which is pretty common in most electrified transport,

and it's lighter, smaller,

and offers a much faster charge up.

- N700S bullet train in Japan in 2020

was one of the first examples of using

the lithium ion batteries in the trains.

So it was used as a fail safe system in case

the power was not available,

then the train could switch to the battery.

- [Narrator] Early battery technology

could not hold enough power to move locomotives fast,

far, or very long.

Innovation in battery power and charging technology

are working to get batteries to the point where they can.

To keep these electric trains powered up on the rails,

new ideas around charging stations are emerging.

- You could imagine something like battery swaps

or you could have dedicated fast charging stations.

You could do things like regenerative braking.

- Especially in cargo trains, we have a huge mass.

We have thousands and thousands of tons of mass moving.

This mass has a huge amount of kinetic energy

associated with it.

When we use conventional brakes,

we actually convert all that kinetic energy into heat

and simply waste it.

So with regenerative braking,

what we actually do is we put generators on our locomotives

or in our rail cars and we instead of wasting

that energy as heat, we convert it back

into electrical energy and recharge batteries.

So part of electrifying trains with batteries

is using regenerated braking systems,

which helps save some of that energy,

which otherwise would be wasted as heat.

- [Narrator] But batteries do not come

without their own challenges.

Mining the materials needed for modern battery technology

has serious environmental impacts.

We need to continue to develop mining techniques

that are environmentally friendly,

but there may be limits to how sustainable mining can be,

but for trains, there might be an even greener alternative

that doesn't use batteries at all.

- Another potential future for a greener train system

would be to not use batteries,

but to instead use a hydrogen fuel cell.

In concept, a hydrogen fuel cell is going to be much cleaner

because we actually get the hydrogen from water

and then after the chemical reaction that allows propulsion,

the byproducts are not some kind of carbon emission,

but instead water vapor that just reenters the air.

Hydrogen fuel cells are also much more efficient

than a lithium ion cell would be.

The more we can electrify systems

or rely on things like cleaner technologies

like hydrogen fuel cells, the greener the industry can be.

- [Narrator] In September, 2022,

the world's first hydrogen fuel cell powered passenger train

traveled a record breaking 1,175 kilometers

across Germany without refueling.

Making barely any noise and creating zero emissions,

this success is paving the way for greener trains

to own the future.

In June, 2023, the Coradia iLint train made its debut

in Quebec, Canada, the first hydrogen powered train

in North America.

Boasting a top speed of 140 kilometers per hour,

its acceleration and braking are comparable

to a standard diesel train.

Only 1% of North American rails are electrified,

but this environmentally friendly vehicle

doesn't require electrified rails,

which could make it the perfect choice

for a greener way forward.

It took over 100 years for battery technology to develop

enough to power trains, but in the late 1800s,

innovators sought new ways of achieving connectivity

on the rails.

- In 1879, Werner Von Siemens

developed an electric locomotive that actually drew

its power from the rails that it was on

rather than from batteries stored in the train.

The whole system worked by having looped copper wire

placed on the rails of the track itself

and then the train would roll over this

and actually conduct electricity through the wire.

This was a really big development

and it worked very well to power the trains,

but it presented a huge safety issue

that now you were working with a train track

that was lying on the ground that was electrified

and could harm people who walked over it.

- Once we start getting a large scale electrical system

around the world, we start realizing

that we can power trains with electricity.

We can use electric motors and use some type of conductors

around the tracks to provide the power to move the trains.

This is ideal.

We don't have to carry the weight of the diesel engine,

we don't have to carry the weight of the fuel.

It can be done with much cleaner power sources

like hydroelectric power and it can be done

with more efficient energy generation means.

So there's a lot of desire

to produce electrification of rail systems.

- About 30% of modern trains today are electrified.

That represents about 375,000 kilometers of train track.

- You have to be able to conduct the electricity

into the train itself to power the motors.

That's not that easy to do.

If you electrify the rails themselves,

steel rails aren't that conductive.

You lose a lot of power.

On top of that, if anything bridges between the two rails,

say a person, they get electrocuted.

So you either have to use some type of external system

either above or below the train.

- [Narrator] After the invention of the electric powertrain,

three cutting edge contact systems were developed

that are still being used to power electric trains today.

- Modern rail systems either use a third

or a third and fourth rail below the train

or an overhead wire system.

- [Narrator] As overhead wires become common in cities,

it was an obvious choice for innovators

to utilize them to power trains.

- Trains use a device called a pantograph,

which is attached to the train

and outstretches toward the catenary or the overhead lines.

And when these two things connect,

that actually completes the electric circuit

that allows the train to derive its power

from the overhead lines.

- And that wire system actually doesn't run parallel

to the tracks, it actually zigzags.

- You could imagine that if the lines

were perfectly straight and constant,

that means that the pantograph system is always

on the same contact with the power lines.

After a while, just through wear and tear,

you could foresee the power lines breaking apart

and causing some sort of catastrophic behavior.

And so having the system kind of broken up

in these exact shapes is a way of trying to prevent

or the very least delay a process like that from occurring.

- [Narrator] The famed Albula Line in Switzerland

is a stunning example of how overhead power systems

can work in extreme environments.

Borrowing concepts from electric cars,

a sustainable energy system allows this 1.9 kilometer train

to travel 25 kilometers

through the spectacular Alpine landscape.

As its breaks are applied during the dramatic descent,

a regenerative energy recovery system kicks in,

feeding electricity back to the overhead power lines.

- If you're not using an overhead wire,

the most common system then becomes the third rail.

- [Narrator] Third rails are used

in underground subway systems

where trains are operating in confined spaces.

- [Robert] Basically this is a system of conductors

that's located either under the tracks or beside the tracks.

- [Narrator] A pneumatic shoe attached to the train

makes contact with the third rail

to complete the power circuit.

To prevent people from making contact with the live line,

a protective cover is used on the third rail

and in some high traffic areas,

the third rail may be removed completely

for a portion of the track.

In this case, the train runs on its existing momentum

and reconnects to the third rail further down the track.

Even though the third rail is safe for the public,

in underground systems, we sometimes need

an additional safety element, the fourth rail.

- One of the problems with electricity

is we can get straight current.

In underground systems that can be a big problem.

What happens is if we don't have a good ground

to dissipate our electricity,

that electricity can build up

on metallic objects in and around the subway,

and that's a big problem when you have steel lined tunnels

or iron line tunnels.

Because steel and iron can corrode,

when we apply a current to it

we can actually rapidly accelerate the corrosion

and cause failure of the steel line tunnel.

For this reason, in specific applications

we use a fourth rail.

In the London underground we need a fourth rail

because many of the tunnels are very old

and lined with cast iron.

We use the fourth rail to conduct away any stray currents so

that we don't get corrosion happening on our tunnel lining.

- [Narrator] An additional benefit of the fourth rail system

is that isolated currents allow a train's position

to be detected.

Train detection is a critical element of signaling systems,

which are essential for railways to operate.

Knowing the location of a train can be life or death

for both passengers and train maintenance workers,

especially in underground tunnels.

The London underground can reach 80 kilometers per hour,

which is impressive, but it's not nearly the limit

for ultramodern electric trains.

- After World War II,

Japan sought to alleviate congestion

by developing the world's first very high-speed train.

They developed the Tokyo to Osaka Shinkansen bullet train.

When it opened in 1968,

the train could reach 210 kilometers per hour,

and it did this by incorporating

what were sort of the modern choppings of the day,

continuously welded rail design,

streamlined shape, and electrified rails.

But today we're able

to reach speeds of 310 kilometers per hour.

- [Narrator] The rapid evolution of railway transportation

pushed trains beyond their capabilities.

To outpace trains in the past,

new innovations in engines, shape, wheels, and rails

were a major necessity.

- High-speed rail is really something

that's become important.

It really helps us move people

around continents relatively quickly.

To have high-speed rail, we need welded rails.

- By using continuously welded rails,

we could do away with unwanted points of friction.

- So when you're rolling along a continuous rail,

there's really nothing stopping you from rolling further.

But now imagine you have this rail broken up into sections

and they all flex just a little bit.

As you approach one of those sections,

if the other section is maybe a little bit higher,

now you've got used energy to climb that little step

and that energy has to come from somewhere

and it comes from the energy

that you're using to roll the train along.

So if we can get rid of all those little steps,

all that extra energy goes directly into powering the train

and making it go faster.

The continuous rail also adds a factor of safety.

You're moving along at a high speed and if you can eliminate

any vibrations or motions of that train

that could at worst derail it,

you've gone towards making that train much safer

for the occupants inside.

- [Narrator] But even with continuous rails in operation,

operators have to ensure that the present railway systems

remain as safe as possible.

MXV Rail in the United States

is applying cutting edge technology from other industries

to train tracks across the country.

Electromagnetic field imaging or EMFI was first used in

the oil and gas sector to monitor corrosion.

Recent trials indicate that EMFI technology

is able to determine the surface condition of the track,

giving rail employees valuable information

about when track maintenance is needed.

This awesome discovery could seriously reduce

the amount of worldwide rail accidents,

since this tech allows rail infrastructure

to be monitored more thoroughly.

When trains are carrying passengers or cargo,

well-maintained tracks are absolutely essential.

However, what's been traveling on these tracks

has seen immense change down the ages.

As new systems come online,

engineers have had to rethink the very shape of a train.

- Trains needed to become more aerodynamic

and that made the switch from more bulky trains

to more streamlined design trains.

- Early trains weren't shaped like bullets.

They were flat in the front

and they would displace a bunch of air as they moved along.

But because the drag force is exponentially proportional

to the velocity, as we increased velocity,

the drag forces became exponentially higher.

So while they didn't matter for the steam trains

that went relatively slowly,

when we wanted to increase our speed,

we suddenly had to take those drag forces into account

and we had to shape those trains in a way

to limit those forces as much as possible.

- [Robert] So you see a lot of high speed trains

being called bullet trains because they really have a shape,

especially in the front that makes them look like a bullet.

- A lot of that work was done early on by trial and error.

So that would involve both making prototypes,

but also making scale models

and testing them in wind tunnels, for example,

where you can actually mimic the conditions

that you see under operating conditions.

But more and more these days,

of course we use computer models and there's much less need

for wind tunnels to be part of that thinking,

although at the end of the day still use wind tunnels

to be able to test out

and make sure the models are operating correctly.

- [Narrator] With less drag holding trains back

the speed of trains rapidly increased,

getting commuters and passengers

to their destinations in record time.

- Where we primarily see high speed trains

being used is between areas

of relatively high population density.

So we have big cities that are in relatively close proximity

that we can build really direct train tracks in between.

With high-speed trains, you really can't be going over

other tracks or stopping for level crossings.

These have to be very highly engineered systems.

So they're used primarily in places in Asia

where you have very high population densities,

Japan and China.

In certain parts of Europe, again,

where you have very high population densities.

They don't translate well to North America

because we have much larger distances

between our major population centers.

- We don't have the means or the economics

or the drive to lay down tracks

that can take these high speed rails,

which are significant economic capital cost.

- Right off the get go, the Japanese decided

to develop dedicated lines for the Shinkansen.

So they were separate from not

just the freight railway line,

but also the conventional passenger railway line.

In contrast to what happened in Europe,

that separate line covers the entire system,

so right into the stations.

That means you can operate these speeds at high speed

until very close to the stations

and then just break as you're coming

into the individual stations.

- [Narrator] With trains reaching high speeds,

they provide an excellent alternative

to other methods of traveling between cities.

- If you're looking to take a couple of hour flight,

then trains become very competitive

as a form of transportation.

The plane will ultimately fly

faster than the train can travel,

but aviation comes with a series of obstacles

that you have to encounter before and after the flight,

whereas trains have made this much easier.

- Trains take you right into the middle of the city,

planes deposit you somewhere outside the city

and you've got to find your way in.

So that adds additional cost and time and so on.

So trains can often be, even if the actual length

of the train trip is a bit longer,

trains can be more efficient than planes.

- [Narrator] Before a train can pick up passengers

and hit the rails,

all the moving parts must be in perfect shape

and one of the most critical elements

is the wheels.

Using high-tech machines, highly specialized workers

create different sized wheels

to attach to locomotives and wagons.

Wheels must pass through inspections

before moving on to the next stage.

Once the initial manufacturing process is done,

wheels are put through lathe machines

to ensure a smooth ride across the tracks.

Lathes aren't only used on brand new train wheels,

they also recut damaged wheels

that have been worn down or compromised.

But when it comes to travel in the train world,

a new type of train that does away with wheels completely

has sparked major excitement.

- Railway innovation has come so far

and there's so many new exciting designs,

and one of them is the maglev.

This is where the train levitates above the railway track.

It's something out of a science fiction movie.

- The maglev train, which stands for magnetic levitation,

is actually replacing the wheels of the train.

So the train isn't sitting on tracks,

but rather using electromagnets.

It is levitating above the track.

This essentially cuts out all friction

and a tremendous amount of rotating parts,

and it allows the train to travel much faster

than a wheeled train ever could.

- [Narrator] As innovative and new

as this technology may seem,

the first patented train system

to use magnetic levitation dates back to 1937.

In the 1890s, French engineer and inventor Emile Bachelet

began working on a system that harnesses

the power of magnetic forces

for the use of electromagnetics.

- If you consider two magnets,

if you put the magnets in the same direction

like N pole opposite to the N pole,

they would be a repulsive force

that somehow floats the other magnet.

- So, we put electromagnets inside of the rail

and inside of the train,

make those two repel from one another

and we can levitate that train on a very long track.

- [Narrator] Maglev trains don't just use the magnets

to levitate above the tracks.

They also use magnets to turn the tracks into a motor,

pulling the train forward.

- You're not relying on the wheel turning

to be able to move the trainer forward.

- Within a motor, basically,

we're attracting and repelling the north and south poles

attached to a shaft to cause rotary motion.

If we take that and flatten it out,

we can actually make a linear motor.

So we actually have north and south pole electromagnets

buried in the track,

and as the train moves these poles push the train

along the track and give it its speed.

- [Narrator] One magnetic field is used

to levitate the carrier

while the other is used to make it move.

- The magnets, which cause this levitation,

are superconductor materials.

- The concept of superconductivity is a material

that has virtually no resistance to conducting electricity,

and we can harness that property

to produce very powerful magnetic fields.

Unfortunately, most of the materials that are available

to us today that have that property only have

that property at very, very cold temperatures.

So we first have to cool those down to those very cold,

cryogenic temperatures before

that material actually starts acting like a superconductor.

That same material at room temperature does nothing,

but suddenly you cool that material down

to what its transition temperature is,

towards being a superconductor, and suddenly

that material loses any resistance to electric current

and can now become a very good magnetic levitator.

- [Narrator] Liquid helium is used in maglev trains to cool

superconductive materials to

within 30 degrees of absolute zero.

The theoretical lowest temperature possible

where all vibration stops and no heat is generated.

- That's a technology which didn't exist

until 30 or so years ago,

and the development of that technology is still developing.

- The more interesting thing

with superconducting materials though,

is to be able to get that same behavior at room temperature

because if we could save the energy to cool these things

and we could still access these properties,

it will revolutionize not just how trains are moved,

but where else we could actually employ some

of these materials and their superconducting capacity.

- [Narrator] Maglev trains in the Chinese city Shanghai

use electromagnetic suspension

to stay levitated off the track.

Electromagnetic suspension uses the attractive force

between magnets located beneath the train, on its sides,

and on the guideway.

The train levitates above a steel rail

while electromagnets attached to the train

are oriented toward the rail from below.

Electromagnets use feedback control to maintain the train

at a constant distance from the track.

maglevs eliminate a key source of friction.

There are no up and down jolts,

which you get when you have wheels on steel.

- What are suspension's doing?

It's basically you're pushing down

and you go on a bump, right?

You're going to bump, and what your suspension does

is cancels the energy that is created by these bumps

and nonconformities in your path.

So for it to keep you suspended,

there needs to be a force that is balancing it off.

So balance force can come from electromagnetic,

which is a current passing through a wire and a magnet,

and it keeps you floating.

- [Narrator] Newer maglev trains have been developed

using powerful electrodynamic suspension,

which allows for the train to stay higher off the track

and travel faster.

- Maglev is is definitely a game,

I think it's just a precursor to massive things

coming in the train sector, especially.

- [Narrator] The Shanghai maglev

goes 430 kilometers an hour,

twice as fast as a conventional commuter train.

It holds the title of fastest operating train in the world.

At full speed, from Pudong Airport to Longyang Road Station,

it takes seven minutes and 20 seconds

to complete the 30 kilometer journey.

While maglev technology is exciting and promising,

very few are currently operating around the world.

Many countries suspect they won't be adopting

this new technology for decades.

One of the biggest deterrents

with maglev trains is profitability.

It is incredibly expensive to build,

costing several times more

than any conventional rail.

Passenger trains are notorious for operating

at a loss worldwide,

which makes investing in brand new infrastructure

and rail vehicles extremely unattractive.

Currently, maglevs are less than ideal

for cargo transportation due to the huge amount of energy

needed to move heavy loads.

Another major issue is scheduling.

Having freight trains share maglev infrastructure

with passenger routes is a logistical nightmare.

Transporting heavier loads with maglev technology

will most likely require a complete redesign of the system.

One company is heralding their cutting edge technology

as a superior option to maglev trains.

The Canadian TransPod transportation system promises

to use their infrastructure for both passengers and cargo

in their Edmonton to Calgary corridor.

In hours where passenger demand is high,

the line will be full of commuter vehicles.

During off hours cargo shipments will make use

of the infrastructure.

The goal is to keep the line running close

to maximum capacity at all hours,

driving profits in a way that passenger only systems can't.

A seamless connection to an international airport

is the key to making this goal a reality.

In Edmonton, cargo shipments will arrive

at the Edmonton airport station by plane

before being loaded up and shipped out

on this ultra high speed system.

Transpod is hoping a success in Alberta will make this

futuristic transportation viable

in even higher density areas like Toronto,

but not everyone and everything

is comfortable traveling at such high speeds.

Both the maglev system and the Transpod system

are forced to contend with the public perception

around maglev trains.

While impressive, many fear the dangers of reaching

such high speeds.

- In some controlled testing,

we know that the maglev train is able

to reach speeds of 500 kilometers per hour.

But in actual use cases with passengers,

they're capped at about 430 kilometers per hour.

- [Narrator] In 2021, China set the bar

even higher revealing

that their latest maglev train is capable

of a top speed of 600 kilometers an hour.

Though it is not yet operational,

the leader in maglev technology is also said to be testing

something called a Super Maglev train.

- They're trying to achieve speeds a thousand kilometers

an hour or potentially more.

To put this in perspective,

the speed of sound and air is roughly

about 1200 kilometers an hour.

Digest that for a minute,

that at a thousand kilometers an hour on a train,

you will be approaching the speed of sound.

- At some point, mach speeds shall be reached

by trains as well.

There's nothing stopping it.

If we can reach it in air, we can reach it in trains

because we will be still be in air.

I mean, just that we are not that high,

which is little high, but just still moving through air.

- However, there's a lot of ethical concerns around

whether this is actually safe.

The slightest mistake at any of these speeds

would be absolutely catastrophic.

Major changes like the maglev and its increase in speed

similar to something like autonomous self-driving cars.

These are huge paradigm shifts in transportation

and they warrant real public scrutiny.

The battle to actually win over the public

so that these technologies get adopted

is a very big challenge

for the makers of these pieces of transportation.

- [Narrator] With trains accelerating

at nearly unimaginable speeds,

adding new safety features became a critical focus,

and autonomous technology was seen as the ideal solution.

- I think what's remarkable is

that the first development of these high-speed trains

was in a country that is susceptible to earthquakes

and they made that technology work safely despite the fact

that they do routinely have earthquakes in Japan

and it's not been a problem.

I mean, the safety record for high-speed rail

is incredibly good.

The ability of the trains, for example,

in the Shinkansen network to talk to each other.

I know where the other trains are is really critical

because the trains are often quite close together.

So it's a very safe technology.

- When we think about implementing autonomous vehicles

and autonomous vehicle technology,

trains are really a perfect candidate.

The great thing about tracks is that there

are very few things that you can possibly interact with

or crash into.

It's still possible,

it still requires a lot of testing and a lot of examination,

but trains make for the perfect test candidates

for autonomous vehicles.

- [Announcer] Look no engineer,

a successful run by remote control.

- When we talk about autonomous vehicles in general,

we need to teach the vehicle to learn about the path

and predict the action it needs

to take to control the vehicle,

stop it when necessary, take speed,

or do whatever is required for the trains.

If animal, a person, an object, someone comes to the road,

then the train should be able to detect the object

and break ahead of time to prevent any type of injury.

At the same time, calculate the correct acceleration

to make sure the passengers in the train are also protected.

So some of these autonomy is regarding the image processing

and using the velocity sensors

and other types of sensors to achieve this goal.

- [Narrator] Automatic train operation or ATO

describes any technology used to automate

the operation of trains.

This includes small features such as signals

that were once performed by the rail staff.

- So there are less degrees of freedom for a train than,

for example, a car.

A train is sort of bound to the track

and to the environment around that track,

and people generally stay off the track

and if they have to do repairs,

there are procedures in place to make sure

that everyone knows that these repairs are happening.

But as you're driving around on the road,

people walk on roads, people who do construction on roads,

there's a lot of variables

that vehicle automated systems have to factor in

that wouldn't necessarily be a problem

for a train automated systems to consider.

So the the train automation problem is probably the problem

that we'll fix first.

- When we think about more common cases

of semi-autonomous trains that we have today,

the features that are being controlled often

relate to speed and the braking systems,

we don't think of it as taking away any of the complexity

of the human job,

but rather it takes some of the more crucial elements

and removes the error that could be associated

with human decision making.

So an automated system is perfectly capable

of determining how fast it is going

and how fast it should be going.

- Human error tends to play a major role

in train derailments.

For example, if a train is going too fast

for a certain curve, all of a sudden it won't be able

to navigate that curve and its momentum will want

to keep it going forward,

and that'll cause the train to derail.

If we can automate these decisions

that humans are currently making,

we can definitely increase the speed

and safety of these trains.

- And so whenever we talk about autonomy,

I think one of the things that everyone

has in the back of their mind,

but perhaps doesn't say explicitly,

is that we are trying to remove human error.

Unlike a human being,

a machine isn't going to get distracted

or isn't going to fall asleep at the wheel

or anything like that.

And so autonomy is always fantastic.

- [Narrator] Autonomous systems are only as good

as the information they're programmed with.

The more details about the objects and people in its feed,

the more accurately it will work.

- Making automated train systems

has become relatively common.

We see these all the time in airports around the world.

We see it in subways because it's a closed system.

Even in larger train systems, this is feasible.

We can put geolocators on trains, we can monitor switches,

we can monitor tracks, we can monitor speeds.

We can literally automate

the entire train system of the world.

So that's a likely outcome in the long run around the world

is that trains will become more and more automated.

- [Narrator] As rail networks move towards total automation,

there are four different classifications ranging

from some automation to totally driverless trains.

- When we talk about autonomously controlled vehicles,

there are sort of four levels that we classify them as.

The first level, we have a few different functions

that are being automated, braking, speeds, things like that.

In the case of a level four,

this is a completely autonomous,

not controlled by a human scenario.

In the world today, we actually have a few cases of this

where some trains are performing their trips completely

separate from human intervention.

- [Narrator] Autonomous trains now operate

in over 40 cities, including Copenhagen, Paris,

Singapore, Dubai, and London.

- Autonomous train systems are actually very reliable

because you have the entire infrastructure

of the train being connected by the track.

So not only like other autonomous vehicles,

we've got camera systems and we've got sensors

on a particular car.

You can actually know what is going to happen because you

are connected to any other cars

that are on the same track that you're on.

This gives an autonomous train even more data than any other

form of autonomous transportation.

- [Narrator] Trains that can see, think,

and decide for themselves are well on their way

to becoming a reality.

It's not just the technology itself that's exciting.

It's also the enormous potential of autonomous systems

that are transforming the way railways are run.

The next major leap in public transit

and train schedules is happening now.

In 2020 the stakes got even higher when

the world's first driverless bullet train entered

into service in China.

To ensure this amazing achievement is safe for riders,

this train is run on a dedicated high-speed rail network

spanning nearly 35,000 kilometers.

- I mean, high-speed rail is largely autonomous,

but we always like to have humans there to make sure

that things operate properly.

The same goes for planes.

I mean, autopilots on planes largely take the plane

from one place to the other without the pilot being all

that involved in that.

But you always wanna have a pilot on board

when things go wrong.

I think it will be a while before people

are comfortable with a full level of automation,

but I've been on subway trains in Europe

that have no operators,

and I suspect that high speed rail could be one

of those places where at some point we do

without the train operator entirely

and the whole train is operated remotely.

- Some of the limitations that we have right now

is we cannot have multiple trains operating very near

to each other on the same track

because we have to maintain the safety distances.

But having a fully automated train which provides

or guarantees a crash free operation,

we can have much more trains using the same track.

- [Narrator] Automation in passenger trains

is steadily increasing,

but freight trains have remained resistant

offering unique challenges.

- There's an interesting trend that seems kind of

counterintuitive to other forms of transportation,

where with trains we've been able

to embrace automated passenger trains,

whereas automated passenger solutions for other industries

isn't quite there yet.

On the other side, we've automated

the transportation system in shipping,

for example, but we haven't done that yet in trains.

So a lot of the cargo handling of trains

is still very manual.

It's still being controlled by people.

The actual propulsion systems

are still relying heavily on fossil fuels.

They're not electrified tracks.

It's much more common for older technology

to be used for something very high value,

which is the transportation of goods.

- Cargo trains are a little bit different

than passenger trains.

The problem with cargo trains is we really

don't always have a good idea of how much mass

is on our train,

so we don't know how long we have to start breaking

before getting to a corner or coming to a stop.

It's a very different situation.

So there's a lot more automation and a lot more controls

that need to go into freight trains to make sure

that they can operate autonomously.

However, this is starting to happen.

- [Narrator] In Australia, the mining company,

Rio Tinto now has a fully automated train that brings

materials from a remote site to a port

where it can be unloaded.

- The system this train used was called the AutoHaul,

and it was a series of cameras and sensors

that were continuously monitoring the train as it went.

There were no actual humans on board,

and all the monitoring was being done

from a central location 1400 kilometers away.

- So we are starting to see the automation

of freight trains.

We're starting to understand what systems need

to be in place and automation of train systems

is really something that is going to happen going forward.

- [Narrator] Even though the AutoHaul system is autonomous,

the train still relies on fossil fuels to power it.

Throughout the world,

there still are many rail networks resistant

to full electrification.

- Shipping industries face major costs

and delays when switching from diesel to electric.

Today, transport accounts for a one fifth

of the global CO2 emissions.

- There's a lot of different reasons to stick with

diesel trains over electrification.

Electrification has a huge capital upfront cost.

The other problem with electrification is

if the power goes out, your trains don't go anywhere.

In big systems with long distances,

it's really hard to electrify.

In smaller systems, closer proximity,

it's easier to electrify.

- Transforming from a diesel engine to a maglev

for a passenger train was massive,

and there was a need for it because we can save time,

we can spend more time with our families,

more time with what we love to do

rather than what we worked.

Do we need goods to move faster

at this point across the country?

The answer is we don't need to move faster

because you can run many more products at the same time,

and if it takes one week to arrive,

then send one every day, load it every day.

So trains were basically made to move goods from a port.

So going to a ship and ships the slowest of all.

So I really don't need to go supersonic speeds

to go to a ship,

which is going to take this in the next three months

to my destination.

- [Narrator] While freight trains are slow to electrify,

some rail systems might bypass

the whole electrification process altogether.

A controversial yet intriguing new train design promises

massive increases in speed without any rails at all.

The Hyperloop is arguably the most ambitious and talked

about concept for a train of our time.

The idea was propelled into this century by visionary,

entrepreneur and innovator, Elon Musk in 2013,

sparking global excitement.

- So, one of the biggest benefits of the Hyperloop

is it eliminates drag.

The Hyperloop chamber, if you will, is void of air.

It's a near vacuum.

So as that train is hurling

through the track at neck breaking speeds,

it doesn't have to deal with or put up with all

that nasty drag it would have on it otherwise,

When you think of moving an object through space,

that object is encountering a lot of forces

that are preventing it from moving.

So whether it's the friction on the track,

which we can eliminate by having it levitate,

or whether it's the drag by it physically

hitting air molecules as it's moving

and you're trying to move those molecules outta the way

in a more energy favorable way,

it's encountering all these things

that are preventing it from moving fast.

So if we can get rid of all those things,

all those barriers,

then we can make that train go extremely fast.

If we can have it levitate

and go through a large tube that's void of air,

all of a sudden we've reduced or eliminated the friction

between train wheels and the rolling resistance,

and we've also eliminated the actual drag

that it would otherwise see from being exposed to air.

- Ideally, the proper shape for anything

that's going into a pneumatic type tube would be

almost a cylindrical type shape that has curved ends.

The idea behind that is the cylindrical type shape fits

very well within the actual cylinder of the tube,

and then the rounded ends reduces the resistance

as it moves through the tube.

When the concept of the Hyperloop was introduced,

it was argued that use of this method of transportation

would be able to get you from San Francisco to LA

in a matter of 30 minutes.

Just to put that into context, right now,

if you were to get in your car and you live in San Francisco

and you want to drive to LA and the absence of traffic,

that will take you about six and a half hours.

- [Narrator] One of the biggest engineering challenges

facing Hyperloop is that once a near vacuum

is created inside the tube, the pressure inside the tube

becomes significantly lower than the pressure outside.

This creates a challenging situation

for the structure of the tube,

as it must withstand the external atmospheric pressure

pushing inwards while also dealing

with the low pressure conditions inside the tube.

Most materials we currently have

are not strong enough to hold the exterior atmosphere,

which is weighing them down,

and yet in small scale models,

some teams have successfully dealt with the problem.

In 2021, Swisspod unveiled LIMITLESS

Europe's first operational Hyperloop test track

in Lausanne, Switzerland.

This reduced scale facility is a vital platform

for experimenting with new technologies.

Its circular form simulates

an infinite Hyperloop test track,

allowing the Swisspod team to evaluate

the system's performance over long distances.

Hyperloop technology is also

being explored in neighboring Germany.

Team TUM from the technical University of Munich

is a repeat winner

of Elon Musk's SpaceX Hyperloop Pod competition.

In September, 2020, TUM initiated the construction

of a groundbreaking 24 meter long test segment

marking a significant milestone

in Europe's Hyperloop development.

The ultimate goal is to create

a fully functional European Hyperloop track

to revolutionize travel across the continent

from hours to minutes.

- The other challenge of the Hyperloop

is the energy required to void it of air.

We don't think about it,

but air has mass and we have to move that mass

from within the tube to somewhere outside of the tube,

so we have to push it out, and that requires energy.

- [Narrator] There are hopes

that the ultimate high-tech train

will be ready for use by 2050.

As the technology continues to evolve.

- All these things are carrying human beings.

The health and safety of these are super paramount.

If a car takes about 10 to 12 years from a stage of, okay,

I want this car be made like this, according to the drawing,

to actually making a car prototype.

A plane takes about 20 years.

Maglev took a long time.

It didn't happen yesterday.

A concept like Hyperloop, which has just been on the paper,

I'm sure it's going to take 25, 30 years

for you to go sit in and travel.

We need to take the time to make sure it's done right.

It's done here to stay,

and it's done sustainably with thought.

- [Narrator] With each technological stride,

the horizon of train travel expands,

igniting the imagination of visionary inventors.

- So it'll be a future that makes us

even more interconnected than we currently are.

- [Narrator] Taking us on a journey

where trains seamlessly weave together

the fabric of our planet,

a new era of global connectivity,

as rail systems become the catalyst for a world more

intertwined than ever imagined.

[empowering music]

[empowering music]