Name: Learn to talk about the future of transport in 6 minutes!
Uploaded: 2018-02-09T13:22:15.000Z
Duration: 6 min 39 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Rob: Hello I'm Rob and this is 6 Minute English -

the show that brings you an interesting topic

authentic listening practice and some vocabulary

to help you improve your language skills.

Neil: And hello, I'm Neil. Our topic today is transport.

How do you think you'll be travelling to work

Rob: Well, not only will home working be more prevalent,

that means common - but I hope I won't be working

Neil: Good answer! But if we look back and

see how transport has changed in the last

30 years, it makes you wonder what the future holds.

Rob: Yes, we've seen how air travel has become

commonplace for many people. Commonplace means

not unusual. And there's been the development

of high-speed train travel. But the main priority

Neil: That's true, and we'll be discussing some ideas

But let's not waste any time and speed on

Rob: Ah yes, time waits for no one, not even you Neil.

According to Guinness World Records, in which country

has the fastest ever train been recorded?

Is it in... a) China, b) Japan or c) France

Neil: All these countries have fast trains

but I've heard that Chinese trains go particularly fast.

Rob: Well, you'll have to wait until the end

But let's talk more now about the future of transport.

One development we hear much about is automation.

Neil: Automation means using machines to do work

that humans normally do and in terms of transport

It won't be too long before we become the

Rob: Scary! And the French train engineering company,

Alstom, is planning to test automated freight trains

later this year. The automated train prototype

without driver intervention. A prototype is the first

tested before it is produced in large quantities.

Neil: Of course some trains are already driven

by computers but there's an exciting plan

Rob: Come on Neil. That sounds a bit far-fetched -

like flying cars that we see in sci-fi movies -

it's difficult to believe because it's unlikely to happen.

Neil: Well you say that but it's already being tested

in Nevada in the USA and has a name - Hyperloop One.

Neil: The idea is, you get loaded into a pod

then you're pushed through a metal tube at high speed,

taking you to your destination in minutes

Anita Sengupta is the lead systems engineer

and says there's nothing scary about it...

Anita Sengupta: The Hyperloop is a maglev train

in a vacuum system - or in a vacuum tube -

and so you can also think of it as an aircraft

flying at 200,000 feet so people don't have any issue

flying in aeroplanes and people don't have any issue

going in maglev trains. This is simply combining the two

and allows you to be more energy efficient.

Rob: So Anita Sengupta explained the type of

that's a short way of saying magnetic levitation.

Neil: It's when trains travel on magnetic track

Rob: And then she mentioned a vacuum system -

So the tube these pods travel in have no air

And these technologies are more efficient

This sounds like a great way to travel but will it take off?

He thinks it will be quite challenging to convince

governments to allow long metal tubes to be built

Neil: But we have to try these new technologies Rob.

Rob: A good point Neil - and we wouldn't have been able

country has the fastest ever train travelled?

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Learn to talk about the future of transport in 6 minutes!

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