It is my retrospective from a travel on the Shanghai maglev train. It is not a review but my experience with tips on how to get the most out of it.

Key takeaways if you don’t bother to read

This should be on your bucket list if you enjoy travelling by train.
Currently, the Shanghai Maglev train travels at a top speed of 301km/h. It does not travel with a designed top speed of 431km/h anymore, but the experience is still mind-blowing.
There is no need to book the first class on it.

Travelling on SMT was on my bucket list for a long time, and I was sad when I could not do it the first time I was in Shanghai in 2012.

During my last annual trip to China, I wanted to travel to Shanghai to experience a maglev train.

My plan was simple.

Take a high-speed train from Tianjin to Shanghai, which takes 5 hours.
Take the metro to Longyang station.
Travel on the Maglev train to Shanghai Pudong International Airport and back.
Take the metro back to Shanghai H.
Take the high-speed train back to Tianjin.

Easily doable in one day.

However, the rest of the family was, to put it mildly, less enthusiastic about that epic adventure idea.

We had a fierce negotiation. We settled on a trip to Shanghai for a few days.

Maglev? What is it?

Many great articles and videos on the internet cover how it works. Instead of me, copy, modify a bit and paste. I will share links to these articles with an academic explanation of the Maglev; the second talks about the basics of maglev trains, and the last one is a standard wiki link to the Shanghai Maglev train.

TD;LR

Maglev’s name is derived from the word magnetic levitation.

A Maglev train is a train vehicle that uses levitation (generated by electromagnets ) to move.

Shanghai maglev train

It was built by a joint venture of a few German companies. They built 3 of them, and 4th one was built in China. It can reach a top speed of 431km/h in operation, but it has been limited to only 301km/h since 2019. The top speed record is 501 km/h.

When this train was introduced in 2004 to the public, the top speed of 431km/h sounded spectacular and still is. These days, they limit top speed to 300 km/h, and for some, it looks slow compared to the Fuxing CR400, which can reach 350km/h, and the upcoming CR450 is planned to operate at 400km/h. However, remember that China had a few generations of high-speed trains; this was the first and only generation.

The train looks like a futuristic train with a ‘futuristic’ passenger information display from the 80’s.

Sadly, the seats weren’t futuristic. They were inspired by modern British train seats that I will call premium church pews covered with some cheap material. They were comfy enough to enjoy a trip.

There are two classes on the train: First and Second. We travelled in second class as we didn’t see any value in spending double the price for first class for this very short journey. I was so excited that I forgot to check what the first-class seats looked like, so I cannot comment.

Route

The Maglev train runs between Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Longyang Station. The total distance is just above 30km. When it runs at full designed speed (431km/h), it takes just 7 minutes and 20 seconds. As I wrote before, sadly for me, these days, it travels only 300km/h, which extends the journey to 8 minutes and 10 seconds. I know it sounds like an eternity.

My Trip

We arrived at Longyang metro station.

There is a quick way to go out and walk to Maglev station.

I was surprised as It is a very short change compared to the usual interchange in the Shanghai metro, where you can (it feels like ) walk for hours.

When you arrive, you must go through a security check, scan your ticket, and be at Planform.

The first thing that surprised me was that the end of the track looked like there was no buffer at the end of the track, and the train would fail if it did not stop.

The second thing is the lack of tracks. It is just concrete blocks.

As trains run every 20 minutes, It only takes a short time before your train arrives.

After disembarking, passengers on one side. The doors to Narnia. I mean the train, open on our side.

While I am usually patient, I want to take a few thousand pictures without other people.

We sit on the train. When they finish boarding passengers, I suddenly feel like the train is floating, and then I go.

The sensation of “levitating” while tilting at 301km/h blew my mind. This is the best way to describe the experience I had. It was sublime. It reaches top speed in … 2 minutes.

I wasn’t aware that this train did not reach its designed speed of 431 km/h any more, so I felt sad for a microsecond as I was enjoying cruising on the levitating train.

It is an unforgettable experience that I wish I could experience on a few hour’s trip, but I am grateful to enjoy it for 16 minutes (as we did a return trip).

For 100 yuan, which is like 12 pounds, it is worth it.

It’s a shame you can’t keep a ticket after using it.

When we finished our return trip on the way back to the metro station, I discovered they had a museum, but sadly, we needed to rush to meet my wife’s friend, so we skipped.

Conclusion

The sensation of “levitating” while tilting at high speed is something that I recommend trying for everyone who likes to travel on the train.

I am grateful to be able to experience a Maglev train and tick this item off my bucket list.

I hope to live long enough to experience a few hours’ trip on the Maglew train.

Sadly, after an initial experiment with Shanghai Maglev, China decided to go ahead with a conventional high-speed railway system. They didn’t abandon Maglev completely. In 2016, they started working on CR600, a new long-distance maglev train. In Japan, they are building a track for the Chūō Shinkansen Maglev line at the moment, too. It means I have a chance.

It is an amazing and sadly underutilized technology. I don’t think it has a chance of becoming more popular due to the lack of space in the cities in developed places.

Until next time, I hope you will have an ordinary trip and an epic experience!