The solution my dad always wanted was to put the maglev's in u shaped
tunnels and operate them like roller coasters. They would gradually
fall down the tunnel and then coast mostly up the other side, slowing as
they arrived. Motors would only be used to compensate for friction or
differences in altitude.
Kind of like a huge pneumatic mail system.
- Tom
There's a mag-lev "proposal" floating around california political circles for (take your pick) SD->LA->Riverside->Las Vegas. It's running against several other proposals that affect certain portions of the idealized trackbed.
IIRC, it's somewhere around $1 billion a mile, or about 10x the per-mile cost of a NEW 16 lane freeway.
There are many sticking issues, not the least of which is the lack of horizontal space (even for current rail needs) in the Camp Pendleton->Mission Viejo portion, let alone the right of way needed for mag-lev and rail.
The major proponent is a local san diego real estate investor who bought the rights from the proponent who appeared at transit board hearings that I covered more than two decades ago. It has about a zero chance of getting government funding.
Whatever advantage Mag-lev has in speed, it loses with the significant costs/electrical surge each time a train starts up and stops at a station. I've heard flywheels as a work-around, but that just adds other weight/safety issues.
Wasn't there a fatal crash of a mag-lev in the last few weeks. Something about two trains on the same track. As complicated as things get, it's suprising how often issues arise that were "solved" more than 100 years ago.
John Willkie, a grandson of an Illinois Central railroad engineer with the same name.
-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Schubin <tvmark@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Oct 30, 2006 12:15 PM To: Open DTV Forum <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [opendtv] Mag-lev
As long as it was brought up, there's a commercial mag-lev system from Shanghai's Pudong airport to the Longyang Road metro station. It has been operating for almost three years. The trip takes about seven minutes at a top speed of about 270 MPH (during a test it went about 313 MPH) and costs about $5 for ticketed air passengers. The same trip by road took me about 45 minutes in the middle of the night with no traffic. I note that in "An Inconvenient Truth" Al Gore is shown making the trip in a chauffered limo rather than on the train.
The line is being extended to the Shanghai South railway station, the Expo 2010 site, and the Hongqiao airport.
TTFN, Mark
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