Maglev trains: The future of high-speed travel?

Can you imagine riding a train that goes more than 350 miles per hour? That's faster than current high-speed trains, and a cheaper ride than in an airplane (think about the money you save if you don't have to check in a bag or pay for peanuts).

What's so great about these, you ask? Well for starters ... they FLOAT (yes, float!) on tracks and use magnets to guide them along, creating less friction which makes for a faster ride. How can you not get excited about that?

There are three magnetically levitating trains (or maglevs) in existence, but only China has the first working system. The other two are either a test track or still in planning phase (as evidenced in the photo above).

As for the United States, there are several proposed routes in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and even Atlanta. There was even a proposed route in Florida back in the late 1990s, linking Port Canaveral to the Kennedy Space Center and eventually to Orlando, but the project is stalled due to a lack of fundraising.

And finally, there's even a site dedicated to putting a maglev in the country.

But the problem is they cost so much to build — try billions of dollars — because of new tracks. But we may be closer to getting our first maglev, since a proposed Los Angeles-Las Vegas route got a huge federal grant this summer.

Take a look at this Sunday's News Illustrated to find out more about how maglevs work and where these routes could take place.

Meanwhile, to wet your appetite, check out this wire graphic that compares maglevs to other existing high-speed trains.

Comments

Please build the MAGLEV now! and connect all the big American big cities together! Let's say 100 years from today, all oil is used up or oil prices will hit 1000$ per barrell, then who can afford to travel by plane? or driving?

Look at the bullet train connections map in Japan:
Link: http://www.h2.dion.ne.jp/~dajf/byunbyun/graphics/routemap.gif

Posted by: Mark | September 19, 2008 8:09 PM

Maglevs cost billions of dollars? So what?Bridges, highways and runways cost billions of dollars. Wars and Wall Street bailouts cost trillions.

However maglevs ARE NOT prohibitively expensive as some would have you believe, but they are fast, safe, incredibly reliable, and most importantly, have extremely lost costs for operations and maintenance due to their non-contact technology.

Another correction: the "concept maglev" listed above is actually the German Transrapid system sold to the Chinese in Shanghai - soon to be extended 100 miles to Hangzhou.

And, last but not least, you have omitted the other working maglev (the low-speed Linimo) in Nagoya, Japan which has been in operation since March of 2005. It has on time reliability of 99.97%.

Doesn't anybody in the media do their homework anymore?

Posted by: Kevin Coates | September 20, 2008 6:50 PM

Besides the Japanese HSST Linimo "urban maglev", which has passed muster with the US Federal Transit Administration for US applications, there are important developments in this maglev category also in Korea (Daejeon and Incheon) and a fast-paced program in Tangshan, China.

ref. www.urbanmaglev.org

Posted by: Ed Brighton | September 21, 2008 4:32 PM

The French TGV set a world record for "normal" high speed trains of 357mph - who needs MagLev? High speed trains have the crucial advantge they are cheaper and can use exsisting, normal track through urban areas to reach city centres.

Posted by: Tom West | September 23, 2008 8:28 AM

The maximum speed of the Acela is 150mph not 200mph. And it only goes that fast for 18 out of 456 miles.
Alstom's new AGV distributed traction articulated high speed train is capable of 225mph.

Posted by: Paul B-G | September 23, 2008 7:38 PM

Building separate tracks for passengers (MAGLEV) and freight trains (normal tracks) can definitely reduce congested railroads and chance of having passenger and freight trains collisions... E.g. the metrolink accident would never happen if a passenger train and freight train was using different tracks. Link to Metrolink news: http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/wireStory?id=5828539

You probably spend billions of dollars at the beginning for building MAGLEV but the reward is huge over time (e.g. low maintenance cost per mile VS conventional train, high reliability ~99.97% in MAGLEV Shangai, decrease cost of having an accident with a freight train, people can take MAGLEV instead of airplane travelling from one big city to another, reduce oil consumption, etc.)

Posted by: Victor | September 24, 2008 11:01 PM

@ Tom West:

The TGV train used to achieve that speed record was specially modified and did not carry any passengers, for safety reasons. Normal, passenger-carrying TGV trains cannot go that fast.

Posted by: anon | October 7, 2008 6:45 PM

best page i have been to so far!!!

Posted by: Jacob Gayne | November 5, 2008 11:18 AM