Have you ever thought about why a country such as Germany, already with an operational MagLev test/demonstration facility, does not have a commercial application in place? It is because the costs outweigh the benefit. When MagLev was first being developed (here in the US, btw) the current thinking was that conventional steel on steel technology was maxing out around 100-110 mph — which turned out not to be the case. Combine this with the fact that HSR can use existing conventional rail infrastructure, to include tunnels and access to center city, and MagLev essentially became obsolete before it was ever built.

When I was in Munich in Sept of 2007 an all-star consortium has just announced a MagLev line between the Munich Hbf and the Airport — in spite of the fact that there were already two conventional rail lines connecting the two. The consortium included TransRapid, Krupt, Siemens, DB, the German Federal Govt, the state of Bavaria and the city of Munich. They had a MagLev operational unit from the TransRapid test facility in a station mock-up at the airport and a bunch of multi-lingual young ladies explaining how great it was going to be and that it would be operational by Dec of 2008! I was impressed because I knew that when I was back in Sept of 2009 I would get chance to ride it. Well, when I was back in Sept 2008 (I go every year for Oktoberfest) there was no sign of construction anywhere and the mock station with a MagLev vehicle was gone. When I inquired I was told that not too long after I was there that the consortium had decided that they could not justify building it and they had to stuff their national, state and city pride and cancel the project. One explanation I heard was that for about a penny on the Euro the two existing conventional lines could be upgraded to offer a level of service approaching that of MagLev.

However, I do think that eventually there will be a role for MagLev. It will come when our Mega-Regions (see, e.g., Neal Pierce) are all laced with conventional HSR and the need begins to rise to connect the MRs. For those relatively close together, and with significant population in between, it will be more conventional HSR. However, in some of the more distant western MR, it could be MagLev that will connect them. And they will likely built by what we now call the airlines. Of course, the great thing about making such predictions is that neither of us will live long enough to know the outcomes.

If we build a National Maglev Monorail Train System and put low cost rechargable electric rental cars at every station, we would have a new world class transportation system. A system that would transport hundreds of thousands of people each day. A system that would create tens of thousands of career jobs and at the same time have almost no carbon footprint.

The 200 mph record with a dedicated test train occurred 55 years ago, between Bordeaux and Dax, in the Landes…

nevertheless, those posts give me a chuckle…

There’s a place for every type of Transportation Mode; and neither the LV – LA route, nor the SF – LA route would be best served by steel wheel to steel rail HSR

A new public transportation speakers bureau was recently formed; and it’s members “all” believe that there are places for LR, Monorail, HSR and Maglev; but when climbing over steep mountains, of the ones we asked, almost everone agrees that Maglev would best serve those two routes.