TOKYO - A JAPANESE rail operator said on Wednesday it plans to introduce the world's fastest train by the 2025 financial year, a next-generation maglev built at a cost of US$45 billion (S$65.4 billion).

'Maglev,' or magnetically levitated, trains travel above ground through an electromagnetic pull. The only maglev train now in commercial operation is in Shanghai.

Central Japan Railway (JR Central) plans to build a maglev linear-motor train between Tokyo and a to-be-determined area in central Japan at a cost of 5.1 trillion yen (S$65 billion), a company spokesman said.

'It will be the fastest train ever - if it beats the one in Shanghai - with a velocity of about 500 kmh, travelling a distance of 290km,' he said.

The Shanghai train, launched in 2002, travels at 430 kph for a 30.5 km distance from Pudong airport to the financial district, according to the Shanghai Maglev Transportation Development website.

JR Central's magnetic-levitated train hit 581 kph in 2003 in a trial run on a test course in Japan's central Yamanashi prefecture, the spokesman said.

The company's board approved the plan this week estimating an accumulative long-term debt of up to five trillion yen when the train goes into service in the financial year to March 2026.

The company projects the train will bring in five percent additional revenue in the first year, shrinking JR Central's debt to the current level within eight years of operation, a statement said.

JR Central initially had waited on the plan in hopes of government subsidies.

'The reason why the plan has not moved a bit is because the government isn't able to bankroll it,' JR Central president Masayuki Matsumoto said, as quoted by the Nikkei business daily. -- AFP