[trhway]

You can plasma sheaf the train head. The stability of wheels/rails and other mechanical stuff at say 700km/hour is probably a bigger issue than air resistance.

[bluGill]

Nobody has tested maglev at 700km/h. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_speed_record The conventional train speed record is only 30km/h slower than maglev. The issue with the conventional train wasn't wheels it was the overhead wire contact (though at that speed maglev is more efficient)

[trhway]

>The conventional train speed record is only 30km/h slower than maglev

there is a reason that train is so short https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railway_speed_record#/media/Fi... - in the wheeled train the vibrational modes induced at those speeds and the resulting forces will tear the train apart.

>the overhead wire contact

well, batteries on the train would solve that. That one thing in HyperLoop Musk got right.

[bluGill]

> well, batteries on the train would solve that. That one thing in HyperLoop Musk got right.

Batteries will never have the energy density to solve that. Just basic physics. Even diesel fuel isn't really good enough