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It’s a Swedish word, meaning ‘flight shame,’ and it’s all the rage at the moment thanks to the activism efforts of teenager Greta Thunberg, who has started a worldwide movement.

Instead of flying, Thunberg travels by less-polluting methods – train or boat. She’s helped spark renewed interest in train travel across Europe, with an increase in the number of people making journeys across the continent by rail instead of flying. There’s been a rise in the number of passengers taking overnight trains, for instance, and the Caledonian Sleeper – which runs from London to Edinburgh – recently underwent a multi-million-pound refurbishment.

Since 2000, the European Union has invested €23.7bn in the development of high-speed rail infrastructure, and the number of passenger miles travelled on high-speed trains has skyrocketed. Much of that growth has been in China, which has built 1,200 trains and more than 20,000km of tracks since 2008.

But for trains to truly rival planes as a method of long-distance travel, they’ll need to become a lot quicker, and that’s where engineers come in. In Japan, they’re testing ALFA-X – which stands for Advanced Labs for Frontline Activity in rail eXperimentation. It will be capable of speeds of up to 250mph (402km/h) – 50mph faster than the current generation of Shinkansen trains.

However, although the ALFA-X has impressive speed, it won’t actually be the fastest train in the world. That record is held by Shanghai’s Maglev train, which is capable of running at 267mph. However, ALFA-X will become the world’s fastest bullet train when it comes into service in 2030.

Nose job

To achieve this speed, engineers had to make some modifications to the train’s iconic kingfisher-inspired nose: namely, make it even longer. The ALFA-X is being tested in three years of night-time trials, during which engineers are experimenting with both a 16m and 22m-long version of the beak.

It’s designed to combat the ‘piston effect’ caused by trains pushing air through tunnels when they enter, and which can cause an unwanted sonic boom at the other end, which has been known to smash windows. The unusual-looking nose helps to reduce the cross-section of the train, and thereby cuts down on the piston effect.

It could also make train journeys more efficient, by reducing drag and the effect of sidewinds – music to the ears of the environmental activists who are switching to train travel to cut their carbon footprint.

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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.