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Posted Jun 25, 2008, 6:39 PM
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zzzzzzzz
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Portland area
Posts: 2,276
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From MSNBC.com... Mentions a pricetag of $12B for construction. Seems like a low estimate to me, but I'm not a Maglev expert... who knows.
Quote:
America’s fastest train moves ahead
Funding boost propels maglev, which still faces headwinds
By Jasmin Aline Persch
updated 8:43 a.m. PT, Wed., June. 25, 2008
Could America’s fastest train whisk us away from $4-a-gallon gas guzzlers?
Neil Cummings thinks so. He heads the American Magline Group, a private partnership championing a magnetic levitating train, or “maglev,” that would soar at a maximum speed of 310 mph — 180 mph on average — from Disneyland to Las Vegas.
The Los Angeles-based American Magline Group has faced fundraising issues for the speedy, yet extravagant, venture. The group spent 20 years getting it off the tracks, and now it seems that America’s fastest train will move forward — thanks to a $45 million infusion from a transportation bill, signed by President Bush in early June.
As spiking gas prices and traffic pinch both nerves and wallets, and flight costs and delays hamper air travel, the maglev joins the list of alternatives to the nation’s transportation tribulations.
“With our gasoline prices and everything else going on, people and government are ready to make a commitment,” Cummings said. Until now, “we haven’t committed to high-speed trains in this country — at all.”
Planes, trains ...
America’s fastest train could compete with air travel. Flying from Anaheim, Calif., to Vegas on a passenger jet cruising at about 550 mph could cost upward of $150, while a ticket for the same route on a maglev would cost $55, according to the American Magline Group.
Plus, the maglev doesn’t pollute. It’s energy efficient. And it's low-maintenance because the train levitates — thanks to magnets — avoiding wear-and-tear on the underlying “guideway.” That’s what propels the vehicle through a magnetic field established by the electrical grid. Upping the current accelerates the train. Lowering the current slows the train. And reversing the current stops or pushes the train backwards.
While Americans may have received the first patents for maglevs, the engineering behind America’s fastest train was developed and perfected by the Germans. The Japanese separately developed maglev technology that spawned the world’s fastest train, which runs at up to 361 mph.
San Diego-based General Atomics, a partner of the American Magline Group, plans to use the technology of Berlin-based Transrapid International, with a branch in Washington D.C., to realize the California-Nevada Maglev. The 270-mile guideway would be the longest in the world for a magnetic levitating train.
“The system is built on solid electrical engineering and physics,” said Mike Reed, senior vice president at General Atomics, which is also developing its own maglev technology.
What’s slowing down America’s fastest train, however, is the hefty cost of crafting the infrastructure — including the guideway — from scratch, because the fastest train can’t run on ordinary steel tracks. The $45 million from the federal government will only cover pre-construction obligations, including environmental testing in the Mojave Desert, where the line would be laid.
Biggest crossroads
After the research phase is complete in about three years, the American Magline Group comes to its biggest crossroads, obtaining the funding for construction: $12 billion. Cummings believes that the California-Nevada maglev could run as soon as 2015.
“If we had the money tomorrow, we’d build it in five years,” he said.
Not if the Federal Railway Administration gets its way. The branch of the U.S. Department of Transportation maintains that government monies should aid America’s current public transportation system. The railway administration, which asked for $100 million in funding from the federal government, only received $30 million under the recent transportation bill.
“It’s great to have a train that goes 200 mph from Disneyland to Las Vegas, but that money could improve things in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, New York ... Seattle,” said FRA spokesman Steve Kulm.
While the California-Nevada maglev has scored the most federal funding to date, two other lines, from Pittsburgh International Airport to downtown and from Baltimore to D.C., are also competing for federal dollars for construction.
‘Potential future transportation form’
The two East Coast lines make sense to many, and Cummings of the American Magline Group said the Disneyland to Vegas line is more than what critics have dismissed it as: a “gamblers’ express.”
While the Western line aims to relieve traffic on the congested Interstate 15 highway which leads to “Sin City,” the first two segments, which would connect Las Vegas to Primm, Nev., and Orange County to Ontario, Calif., could shoot commuters to work and back home, he said.
“It’s an exciting alternative if you want to live in the suburbs, outside the main city,” Cummings said.
Paul Saffo, a Silicon Valley technology forecaster, said the lure of Las Vegas might just be what it takes to turn a profit with the maglev. The world’s first maglev, a 19-mile line in Shanghai, China, doesn’t garner enough traffic to offset the initial investment, but plans to extend the route come with hopes of attracting enough riders to reach critical mass.
In America, Amtrak ridership, although hitting “record” highs in recent years, has remained the same — 25 million a year — since the 1970s, said Kulm of the Federal Railway Administration. The question remains: Would enough Americans ride a levitating train to make it worthwhile?
“Nobody has designed a commercially viable maglev,” said Saffo. “It’s a potential future transportation form. The only question is, ‘How long does it stay in the future?’ ”
© 2008 MSNBC Interactive
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25265682/
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Last edited by Sekkle; Jun 25, 2008 at 7:10 PM.
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