Speed
The maglev train is the future of twenty-first-century transit. Why won't we
see it in the U.S. anytime soon?
By Peter Hall
January 2004
It's eight o'clock on a crisp morning in New York. You settle into a large
reclining seat inside a spacious cabin resembling an aircraft interior. The
cabin makes a slight shudder to indicate that it has assumed a traveling
position a fraction of an inch above a steel guideway, then begins a rapid
acceleration, easing into a comfortable glide at 270 mph. An hour later you
pull into Union Station in Washington. By noon you are walking through downtown
Atlanta, 870 miles away--and your feet haven't left the ground.
This is not science fiction: magnetic levitation, or "maglev," trains
are running tests as we speak, in Germany and Japan, and most recently in
China, where the first commercial route is expected to begin full operation
this month. But in the United States supporters of maglev can still only speak
wistfully of a day when high-speed tracks will stitch together the country,
when journey times between cities shrink dramatically and travel becomes calm,
even fun, again. No lurking paranoia of a terrorist hijacking; commuting will
be an effortless transition between city centers, all achieved without burning
fossil fuels midair. "It's a spectacular form of transportation,"
says Alex Washburn, principal at New York--based W Architecture, who rode
the maglev Transrapid in Lathen, Germany, in 2000. "There are no
pollutants, and it's low maintenance because there are few moving parts. In
terms of post-9/11 concerns, it's safer as it cannot become a missile."
Ironically maglev is one of those technologies that was pioneered in the United
States and then unceremoniously dropped. In 1968 researchers at the Brookhaven
National Laboratory, in Long Island, New York, developed the idea of using
electromagnetic propulsion to lift and move a train along a guideway, thereby
overcoming the speed limitations of wheel-based transit. After a brief bout of
government enthusiasm, including construction of a test track in Colorado, the
project was abandoned for two decades. Working prototypes were subsequently
built in Japan and Germany. The German "electromagnetic suspension"
method (also used in China) requires the bottom of the train to be wrapped
around a steel-and-concrete guideway, with electromagnets on the undercarriage
directed up toward the guideway, raising the train by a third of an inch. The
vehicle is propelled along the guideway by electromagnetic waves, eliminating
the need for a fuel tank or a drive motor, which reduces weight and increases
efficiency.
In 1998 the U.S. maglev dream was revived when Congress passed a transportation
"equity" act, making available up to $950 million for construction of
a maglev track. Seven competing projects were selected to take part in a
preconstruction planning phase, and in January 2001 the Department of
Transportation (DOT) picked two finalists: a 47-mile link between downtown
Pittsburgh and the airport, and a 40-mile route between Baltimore and
Washington. But the same year the economy went sour and administrations
changed. The selection of a winner has been "indefinitely postponed,"
according to Warren Flatau, a DOT spokesman. "Given the fiscal situation
in Washington, it's not clear whether Congress will appropriate the $950
million. We believe that magnetic levitation technology still holds some
potential as an efficient alternative high-speed ground transportation
system...[but] this type of development is captive to the political
process." The concern among some maglev proponents is that selecting one
winner would reduce maglev's support in Washington. "It comes down to how
many supporters you have in Congress," says Suhair Alkhatib, an engineer
and project manager for the Baltimore-Washington project. "You need more
than just two senators and a few congressmen for a project of this magnitude to
happen."
Alkhatib was one of the U.S. officials who traveled to China last fall to ride
the new $1.2 billion Transrapid maglev between Shanghai's financial district
and its international airport. The 19-mile route was built in just 22 months.
Alkhatib describes the system as offering a "very roomy" train
interior split into first- and economy-class--the former offering wider leather
upholstered seats--and a smooth, quiet ride. "There was a little bit of a
hum, not total quietness, but definitely smoother and quieter than a train. No
jerking, you don't feel the switches or crossovers, and none of that mechanical
contact noise." However, a few kinks have to be ironed out. Alkhatib
noticed that some of the required precision was lacking. The guideway sections
for the system must be rigid and aligned precisely, or the train will tend to
"bounce" a little to the side. Precision engineering adds to capital
costs but is crucial to maglev's uniqueness. "The whole system is built on
the concept of ride comfort and smoothness. If you lose that edge, you lose the
edge that maglev provides."
The troubled Baltimore-Washington run has somewhat larger issues to overcome.
Aside from the funding challenge, there is the problem of where to put the
40-mile track for the proposed seven-train service from Downtown Baltimore to
Washington's Union Station. A provision was made by maglev's great champion
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan to allow the guideway right-of-way along
interstate medians. However, a maglev train runs at its optimum speed on a
straight track. Engineers design interstates with curves to slow motorists down
and keep them awake. "Highways are designed for 75 mph," Alkhatib
says. "This train is designed for 240 mph, but for that you need a
straight shot." In China the government controls all the land and can
build where it likes. But owners of the million-dollar homes in the maglev
"flight path" between D.C. and Baltimore are none too happy about the
proposed intrusion of 16-foot-high concrete pylons and an overhead track.
Maglev's U.S. supporters are hoping that the success of the Chinese route will
goad officials here into action. Baltimore and Pittsburgh are doggedly pursuing
environmental-impact studies; and at least five other schemes are hoping for at
least token federal funding to develop maglev routes in California, Nevada,
Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, and Louisiana. Meanwhile, planners in Germany and
China have discussed extending the Shanghai route to Nanjing in the north and
Hangzhou in the south, covering 180 miles. A more accelerated U.S. push to
adopt the technology may come as a "panicked response" to what's
happened overseas, says Washburn, who formerly worked in Moynihan's office.
"My fear is that it will be too late since the early adopters are the ones
who get to set the standards." But a high-speed maglev network
interconnecting the East Coast would link Boston to Atlanta in a "chain of
industry. We're talking about the future of a region."
Critics of maglev argue that taxpayers' money would be spent more responsibly
on improving the existing infrastructure of roads and regional airports, which
already provide cheap transportation better suited to the geographically
dispersed population of the United States. "I'm not a big fan of trains in
North America in general, and even if they did make economic sense, maglev is
bound to be extremely expensive," says James E. Moore, professor of public
policy and civil engineering at University of Southern California. "We
won't defeat the economic forces of decentralization by building rail systems
and underfunding roads."
China's maglev system cost an estimated $60 million per mile, whereas widening
a highway costs less than $20 million a mile. But as any
alternative-transportation advocate will point out, decades of government
investment in roads and airports have also left us with highway congestion and
a costly dependence on oil. To build a feasible high-speed alternative to road
and air travel would take a considerable amount of planning and public funding.
But the ultimate question is whether a new technology can lure Americans out of
their cars.
Maglev certainly has futuristic appeal. It embodies that exquisite whoosh: that
fleeting moment during which time appears to stand still as we flit
effortlessly from city to city, shaking off the shackles of time and distance
as though we were beams of light or speeding bits of data. And those who have
had the pleasure of maglev's acquaintance seem to emerge from the experience as
if from an epiphany. "Once you ride it you understand that it's the next
form of transportation," Washburn says. "It has the speed and power
of a plane but the point precision and stopping power of a subway." He
adds, as if consciously furnishing some future advertising agency with a
slogan, "To ride it is to believe it." The catch-22 is that until
America believes in it, maglev cannot be built. |
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In the first radical redefinition of railroad technology since its invention
200 years ago, electromagnetic levitation (above) replaces mechanical
combustion and electricity. Support magnets pull the train up the guideway,
while guidance magnets--attached to the vehicle--direct the train forward,
levitating 3/8 of an inch above the guideway. |
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U.S. promoters of the maglev hope that the success of Shanghai's new 19-mile
Transrapid maglev--linking the Pudong airport and commercial district--will
encourage support for the proposed route between Baltimore and Washington.
AP Photo/Xinhua, Li Jiangsong |
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