Maglev Trains Could Get U.S. Transit Back on Track

Los Angeles Times ^ | June 27, 2004 | Kevin C. Coates

[Willie Green]

During rush hour in Shanghai, China, recently, I traveled 19 miles in 7 1/2 minutes. I wasn't flying, exactly. I was aboard a high-speed magnetic-levitation transportation system. Ever since, I can't help but ponder more efficient ways of moving people into, between, within and around American cities; especially when I am stuck in traffic jams.

Let's face it, American transportation problems result from our love of private automobile ownership and the government policies that enable our oil addiction. Driving cars in cities is like using a pair of pliers to bang a nail into a wall — the wrong tool for the job. It is analogous to entering the lobby of a high-rise and waiting for an elevator that only one person at a time can ride because everyone wants their private space.

Subways and light-rail systems, typical U.S. alternatives, are basically 19th century technologies. As wheels meet tracks over years of use, these systems wear out. They are slow, bouncy, expensive to maintain and prone to frequent breakdowns. Mostly manually operated, they require high labor costs.

Maglevs, on the other hand, float — propelled and supported by electromagnetic waves. They're not free of maintenance, but logic dictates that by eliminating sources of friction from traditional propulsion and braking, much higher system reliability and fewer repairs will result. They're not cheap to build, but in low-speed versions they can cost less per mile to install than some light-rail systems now being constructed in the United States.

[Willie Green]

.

Magnetic levitation (Maglev) is an advanced technology in which magnetic forces lift, propel, and guide a vehicle over a guideway. Utilizing state-of-the-art electric power and control systems, this configuration eliminates contact between vehicle and guideway and permits cruising speeds of up to 300 mph, or almost two times the speed of conventional high-speed rail service. Because of its high speed, Maglev offers competitive trip-time savings to auto and aviation modes in the 40- to 600-mile travel markets–an ideal travel option for the 21st century.

Both the Pennsylvania and Baltimore-Washington plans utilize maglev technology developed by Transrapid International. The German design is based on a conventional non-superconductingelectromagnetic/attractive magnetic configuration, and has received extensive testing at a full-scale test track in Emsland, Germany. The latest design represents over 20 years of design evolution and 15 years' testing of full-scale Transrapid prototypes, including safety certification by the German government for passenger-carrying revenue service at speeds of 250 mph or higher.

Highlights of the Transrapid system are:

• High cruising speeds of 200 to 300 mph (320 kph to 480 kph)
  

• Fast acceleration and braking with outstanding passenger comfort
  

• Can climb 10% grades at full speed
  

• Safe operation on dedicated grade-separated track, or guideway
  

• Vehicle wraps around guideway to reduce risk of derailment
  

• Low electromagnetic field emission and interference potential
  

• Standard superelevation, or tilt, of 12 degrees (max. up to 16 degrees) to navigate curves
  

• Proven and tested automatic operations control system
  

• Minimal guideway maintenance with small footprint
  

• High system capacity
  

• Guideway energized sequentially for dynamic vehicle "block" control and reduced power demand
  

• Improved aerodynamic vehicle design for minimal turbulence
  

• Multiple levels of redundancy built in for safe operations at all speeds
  

• Final safety approval anticipated in Germany for commercial operations
  

• Prior evaluation and safety analysis by the US Department of
  Transportation accepted Transrapid for deployment in Orlando, Florida in 1992

The Transrapid is suitable for transporting goods as well. For high-speed cargo transport, special cargo sections can be combined with passenger sections or assembled to form dedicated cargo trains (payload up to 18 tons per section). As the propulsion system is in the guideway, neither the length of the vehicle nor the payload affect the acceleration power.

If you would like more information about Maglev, visit the Transrapid International website or Maglev of Pennsylvania or the Baltimore-Washington Maglev Project

[FreedomPoster]

Because transportation planners always know where I want to go, when I want to go there.

[JZoback]

They're not cheap to build, but in low-speed versions they can cost less per mile to install than some light-rail systems now being constructed in the United States.

Thay may cost less to install, but can they pay for themselves?

Fix this problem and Willie Green will see his trains go.

[Arkinsaw]

300 mph expensive train carrying lots of people that runs over long distances on tracks that can't be guarded 24-7.

No thanks, I like our current distributed system a lot better.

[smonk]

anything the germans and french want to do MUST be smart, right?

whatever.

[balrog666]

How fast can they go if they have to stop every three blocks?

[Missouri]

Improved aerodynamic vehicle design for minimal turbulence

Not improved enough.

[thegreatbeast]

Get off the pipe, pal. The pols screwed the pooch when they tried to do Acela. In Europe and Asia train travel can be delivered at 2-300mph. Here in the States they screwed it up so badly that they can only achieve something like 150 mph in short straigthaways. This after having spent billions upon billions. Forget it.

[Fishing-guy]

Where are they going to put the new lines in LA? They don't even have enough land to put the new rail tracks now.

[mvpel]

They're not cheap to build, but in low-speed versions they can cost less per mile to install than some light-rail systems now being constructed in the United States.

Given the graft gravy-train that characterizes so many light-rail systems, and the routine understatement of costs and overstatement of benefits by their backers, this isn't really saying much at all.

[Steely Tom]

I was talking to a Chinese engineer about this just last night (June 30). He was telling me about the new Maglev that runs from Shanghai to the Pu Dong airport, a run of about 30 miles. He told me the thing reaches a top speed of 300 mph! I couldn't believe it. I asked him if he was sure it wasn't 300 kilometers per hour and he assured me that no, it was mph!

He said they're having reliability problems. The moving cars use superconducting magnets (he wasn't sure whether they were HTS or conventional). If they are conventional superconductors, this probably explains the reliability problems; guaranteeing a constant supply of liquid helium is a non-trivial problem.

Anyway, what I was thinking was, hey, 300 mph is about twice the speed that a passenger jet is going when it rotates for takeoff. That's the fastest I've ever been going on the ground. Something going twice that fast, I don't care how reliable, makes me very nervous. The magnetic fields this thing develops are very substantial. All it would take would be a couple of large steel bolts tossed on the track, and when that sucker shoots by, forget it. You don't want to be anywhere near it.

He said tickets cost about 100 RMB, or about $12. He said lots of people are taking it just for the ride. He said its really smooth. It was built by the Germans.

(steely)

[DakotaGator]

Here we go again. The author is just mouthing another liberal wet dream; cars bad, mass transit good.

Fact is, no matter what the mass transit mode, it isn't worth spit unless it's profitable as a private enterprise.

[dila813]

While in Japan they are decommissioning their prototype as being cost prohibitive to riders in comparison to the alternatives such as Plane and Automobile.

Can you say bull s+it on the statements quoted in the story above?

[Carry_Okie]

Government control of the freedom of movement.

Great idea.

Fascism always looks good to its promoters.

[RayChuang88]

Looks like I have to throw in my €0.02!

The biggest problem with maglevs right now is that the technology is still vastly too expensive on a per mile basis to be economically viable. The Transrapid system is very expensive because of the need for tight mechanical tolerances, and the Japanese system is too expensive due to the need to cool the train's magnets with liquid helium. But a technological breakthrough was unveiled a few years ago by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) that could make maglevs finally practical: it uses a series of permanent magnets and a guide system that don't need cryrogenically-cooled magnets or extremely tight manufacturing tolerances. The result is a maglev train that could be built at a much more reasonable price, a train that could cruise as fast as 500 km/h (310 mph).

At these speeds, it could supplement air travel on transit corridors under 500 miles in length. Imagine going from Miami, FL to Jacksonville, FL via Orlando, FL in under two hours! Or Chicago, IL to Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN under 90 minutes. Or Chicago, IL to Detroit, MI in just over 90 minutes. It would actually be faster than air travel on a downtown-to-downtown basis since you completely skip out on the time needed to go from downtown to airport at point of origin and airport to downtown at point of destination.

I think long term the US government ought to seriously look at building a dedicated maglev line on the Boston-Providence-Hartford-New York City-Philadelphia-Baltimore-Washington, DC corridor. Imagine going from NYC's Penn Station to DC's Union Station in under an hour! It could make the BOS-LGA-DCA "shuttle" airline service obselete.

Around the world, there are a few corridors where maglev trains make sense: Rio de Janiero-Sao Paulo in Brazil, Singapore-Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Sydney-Melbourne in Australia. This especially in light of maglev trains travelling on the route about four times per hour, with each train carrying 450-500 passengers.

By the way, conventional steel-wheel trains are already starting to approach their limits. At speeds over 330 km/h (205 mph), the physical wear on the steel wheels, rails and overhead wiring becomes a major issue, and due to this wear issue you won't see steel-wheel trains travel over 205 mph on a regular basis.

[meatloaf]

Keep in mind we didn't upgrade the tracks for the Acela units. We're lucky to get 150mph. Those units had a lot of problems. When Bombardier, the supplier, asked Adtranz, a competitor they bought from Daimler Chrysler, to help with the startup problems, you know the problems weren't 100% with the politicians.

On units like that when you have components coming from all over the world, problems will happen. If you look at the Bombardier stock price pre-Adtranz purchase and afterwards it's way down even allowing for the effect of 9/11 on Bombardier's high margin aircraft business. By bulking up its rail business, Bombardier locked itself into lower margins. Custom rail stuff is a nightmare to build, deliver and get accepted.

[Cronos]

Because transportation planners always know where I want to go, when I want to go there. well, not always, but most of the time u can use pub transport say in cities like london, brighton UK

[broadsword]

Yeah. One encounter with Koranzilla and that's it for these trains!

[heleny]

Because transportation planners always know where I want to go, when I want to go there.

... and with whom I want to share my seat.

If the tickets are expensive, not enough people will ride. If the tickets are cheap, the riff-raff make the ride unpleasant.

The last time I rode Amtrak, the guy who took the seat next to me clasped his hands around my throat and tried to jerk my head around. Remember, trains prohibit passengers from bringing firearms, so you still can't be armed when you get off the train; if some crazy person follows you or carries you off, it's not the railroad's responsibility to protect you.

[heleny]

tickets cost about 100 RMB, or about $12. He said lots of people are taking it just for the ride.

I heard that, too. Even Chinese people have complained that building that train and subsidizing the operations were too expensive.

[heleny]

Government control of the freedom of movement.

Union-controlled, too. Whenever the unions strike, the trains will have to stop. The Los Angeles MTA strikes every two years or so, since several different unions affect their operations.

[heleny]

Imagine going from NYC's Penn Station to DC's Union Station in under an hour!

That's assuming it were nonstop. If there were any stops, which would be likely for train travel, the travel time would increase significantly.

Given that such a train would be implemented and run by the government, the price (including subsidies) would also be very high.

[mvpel]

[gathersnomoss]

Let's see, $12.00 per rider and Billions to implement. How many passengers does this train hold? What is the return on investment? And tell me again, who is paying for this?

Please give me a vote. I say NO!

[gathersnomoss]

"I think long term the US government ought to seriously look at building a dedicated maglev line..."

Don't you meant the US taxpayer should foot the bill? Again, put it up for a vote, I say NO!

[thegreatbeast]

High speed rail: We tried it and screwed it up. Very expensive. No more.

[meatloaf]

I disagrre. Just because Amtrak picked a loser, doesn't mean that Maglev might one day transform some of the US as did the Interstate system.

[SuziQ]

300 mph expensive train carrying lots of people that runs over long distances on tracks that can't be guarded 24-7.

They would definitely need to be fenced in with some electrified material to keep terrorists, bums, and folks just bent on mischief off the tracks.

I frankly like riding on the train! Just took a trip to Florida with the kids in January.

[RightWhale]

Let's face it, American transportation problems result from our love of private automobile ownership

City planners made the automobile a necessity. On purpose.

[Mulder]

As others have noted, thousands of miles of rails will need to be guarded against terrorist attacks.

And there will be the Soviet-style sekurity for any American that wants to get aboard.

A much better solution is to spend the money on doubling the capacity of the US interstate system. Make all 2-lane roads, 4-lanes, and increase the 3-lane highways to 6-lanes.

[RS]

"Where are they going to put the new lines in LA?"

Considering that traffic will more then double in the next 30 years,
where will they find the room to widen the existing 8 lane highways to 16 lane ones ?

The same mentality that did not find a way to get the metro green line actually into LAX will find a way to screw up any good idea...

[RS]

"A much better solution is to spend the money on doubling the capacity of the US interstate system. Make all 2-lane roads, 4-lanes, and increase the 3-lane highways to 6-lanes.
"

Here in CA, the existing 8 lane highways ( 4 each way ) are packed ( many of them newly widened from 6 )

I don't think we could begin to calculate the amount of money it will take to condemn and aquire the land to widen them to 6 or 8 each way...

[antaresequity]

Here we go again.

I will not pay for your choo choo train Willie.

I drive a truck or a jeep. I have no use for government largesse transportation systems.

It is always a failure.

Get your private buddies together, and do a cost-profit analysis.

If it was worth it, they would build it.

JUST SAY NO TO GOVERMINT WASTE