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The East Japan Railway Company began Friday's testing of the ALFA-X, the world's fastest train, which is expected to reach speeds of up to 249 mph.

The ALFA-X is a version of the Japanese Shinkansen train, which debuted at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964, according to Japan Station, a Japanese transport guide. The Shinkansen is a high-speed train, the fastest of which can reach 200 km / h. The stops include Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka, among others.

"The ALFA-X train is simply a prototype intended to be used during tests for the development of a possible future train," TODAY Sanshiro Iwamoto, a researcher at the railway company, told TODAY. "The projected speed should be 249 mph per hour maximum, but again, the speed will only be determined during testing."

On May 9, 2019, the ALFA-X test bench of the newly-built East Japan Railway Co., a new-generation high-speed train, is presented in a railroad yard in Rif City, Prefecture. of Miyagi, in northeastern Japan. (Photo: Kyodo)

The ALFA-X began the three-year test on Friday, according to information from Bloomberg and CNN.

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According to Bloomberg, the goal is to commercially introduce the ALFA-X in 2030, noting that the train could help deliver faster services to Sapporo, Japan's largest city on the planet. Hokkaido Island.

The anticipated speedometer of 249 mph would place the ALFA-X in front of the Chinese Fuxing Hao train, which connects Beijing to Shanghai and currently reaches a vertiginous speed of 217 mph.

The elegant nose design, to combat wind resistance, measures 72 feet, has 10 cars and is painted silver metallic with green stripes, reports Bloomberg. The train will be tested between the Japanese cities of Aomori and Sendai, more than 200 km apart.

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