Los Angeles Approves $500,000 Study on Maglev Train Line

Miami Herald ^ | Wednesday, March 17, 2004 | Lisa Mascaro

[Willie Green]

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

Mar. 17 - Despite skepticism over bringing a maglev train to Los Angeles, the City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved spending more than $500,000 to join a regional study of a line from West Los Angeles to Ontario Airport.

The council voted 14-0 on what many members called a traffic solution for future generations.

"We have an opportunity to exert leadership in the region," said City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, chairman of the council's Transportation Committee. Villaraigosa said he, too, still had questions about magnetic levitation.

"Unfortunately, Los Angeles has been missing in action. It's time for us to be part of the debate. It's time for us to be part of the solution."

The city is the last of three regional bodies to support the Southern California Association of Government's efforts to pursue a first $5.5 billion segment of a regional maglev system with the 55-mile line between West Los Angeles and Ontario Airport.

SCAG was seeking $1 million from Ontario, San Bernardino Associated Governments and Los Angeles to match $2.5 million in federal funds secured by Sen. Dianne Feinstein to further study the line's feasibility.

It also wants to create a Joint Powers Authority with those bodies to oversee the process.

SCAG says the 112-mph line would be built through a public-private partnership with government loans that would be paid off with ticket revenues of about $10 per one-way ride.

Lockheed Martin, which already has a SCAG contract to help with the engineering work, wants to design, build and operate the system.

The environmental study is expected to take two years, with the route possibly operating before 2015.

"This is the technology for the 21st century," said SCAG executive director Mark Pisano after the vote. "The time has come for us to start using it."

But transportation advocates like Friends of the Green Line and The Transit Coalition said in letters to City Hall the money should be spent on practical solutions like expanding Metrolink or Metropolitan Transportation Authority routes.

Also, Councilman Alex Padilla wants the city to consider the state's efforts to bring a high-speed rail line through the area, while Councilwoman Wendy Greuel questioned where the study money would come from -- the city plans to have Los Angeles World Airports or city transportation funds pay the $563,000 toward the study.

Greuel also urged the council to promote short-term fixes like those along the Ventura and San Diego freeways that can be done "in our lifetime."

Councilwoman Janice Hahn supported looking at maglev.

"Unless we do something now to make way for the growth that is coming to Los Angeles, we will make a gridlock situation," she said.

[Willie Green]

Related thread: Should we build a maglev?

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Magnetic levitation (Maglev) is an advanced technology in which magnetic forces lift, propel, and guide a vehicle over a guideway. Utilizing state-of-the-art electric power and control systems, this configuration eliminates contact between vehicle and guideway and permits cruising speeds of up to 300 mph, or almost two times the speed of conventional high-speed rail service. Because of its high speed, Maglev offers competitive trip-time savings to auto and aviation modes in the 40- to 600-mile travel markets–an ideal travel option for the 21st century.

Both the Pennsylvania and Baltimore-Washington plans utilize maglev technology developed by Transrapid International. The German design is based on a conventional non-superconductingelectromagnetic/attractive magnetic configuration, and has received extensive testing at a full-scale test track in Emsland, Germany. The latest design represents over 20 years of design evolution and 15 years' testing of full-scale Transrapid prototypes, including safety certification by the German government for passenger-carrying revenue service at speeds of 250 mph or higher.

Highlights of the Transrapid system are:

• High cruising speeds of 200 to 300 mph (320 kph to 480 kph)
  

• Fast acceleration and braking with outstanding passenger comfort
  

• Can climb 10% grades at full speed
  

• Safe operation on dedicated grade-separated track, or guideway
  

• Vehicle wraps around guideway to reduce risk of derailment
  

• Low electromagnetic field emission and interference potential
  

• Standard superelevation, or tilt, of 12 degrees (max. up to 16 degrees) to navigate curves
  

• Proven and tested automatic operations control system
  

• Minimal guideway maintenance with small footprint
  

• High system capacity
  

• Guideway energized sequentially for dynamic vehicle "block" control and reduced power demand
  

• Improved aerodynamic vehicle design for minimal turbulence
  

• Multiple levels of redundancy built in for safe operations at all speeds
  

• Final safety approval anticipated in Germany for commercial operations
  

• Prior evaluation and safety analysis by the US Department of
  Transportation accepted Transrapid for deployment in Orlando, Florida in 1992

The Transrapid is suitable for transporting goods as well. For high-speed cargo transport, special cargo sections can be combined with passenger sections or assembled to form dedicated cargo trains (payload up to 18 tons per section). As the propulsion system is in the guideway, neither the length of the vehicle nor the payload affect the acceleration power.

If you would like more information about Maglev, visit the Transrapid International website or Maglev of Pennsylvania or the Baltimore-Washington Maglev Project

[Fierce Allegiance]

How far is it from West LA to Ontario airport

[Robert357]

I sure hope that they take a "system approach" and include the needed power plant, electric power transmission lines and electric distribution substations to go along with the MagLev system, as usually it is impossible to extremely difficult to get permits to build such facilities in California.

While maglev is a neat idea, I have seen Blackouts in California because, various types of power facilities can't be built. Adding new electrical loads will only make things worse.

[So Cal Rocket]

[Simmy2.5]

Is a $5.5 billion (before the expected overbudget price increase) 200 mph train worth it go a whooping 55 miles?

A cheaper conventional HSR would be MUCH better then this boondoggle. Heck, even light rail would do the trick. All this supposing that even GOING to Ontario Airport with such a system is a smart idea in the first place.

Somehow, I believe this $500,000 could be better spent. But thats my fiscal conservative reasoning coming in.

[Willie Green]

55 miles

[You Dirty Rats]

At $10.00 for a one-way ticket this is a toy for the elite, not transit for the masses.

Fish farming in the Mojave Desert would have a stronger business case.

[Willie Green]

At $10.00 for a one-way ticket this is a toy for the elite, not transit for the masses.

By taxi, the same one-way trip would cost at least $50 and take longer.

[daviddennis]

By private car, which is what most people already have, with gas at $2.50 a gallon, more than it is now, it would cost about $10 for me to drive that far with my 14mpg car. With a 30mpg car, it would cost less than $5.

If I took the Maglev, and I wanted a car at my destination, it would cost about $30 a day to rent, so a day trip would cost $20 for a round trip ticket plus $30 to rent the car, or a total of $50.

Driving, even in my Mercedes 420SEL, would be significantly cheaper and would not require terrifyingly expensive capital costs and subsidies. It would also be significantly more comfortable and pleasant, with the leather seats, my own music on the stereo, and so on. And I would have a car at my destination at no additional cost to me.

This kind of project just doesn't make any sense. If you want to blow billions, double-deck the freeways, and let all car owners take advantage of the improvements, not just the very small numbers that would ride this boondoggle.

D

[Simmy2.5]

From Riverside to Ontario Airport, it cost $40 one way for 20 miles by taxi. Time, 24 minutes in good traffic. Even if this boondoggle is built, it won't help me any.

That still doesn't mean Maglev is the way to go. Like I said, lightrail or conventional HSR would be much better. This of course, is supposing that going to the AIRPORT is a smart idea in the first place. There are a lot of places to go that would be better then Ontario.

[UNGN]

Why do you need MAGLEV to go 112 mph? My neon will do that.

Sounds like perfect application for a Bombardier Turbine Train (for about 1/10th the price and operating cost)

[pogo101]

Los Angeles Approves $500,000 Study on Maglev Train Line

Yes. And in other news today:

Los Angeles Approves $0 To Bloody Do Anything To Improve Existing Roads And Infrastructure

[DManA]

$10 is what they'll charge. What will a ride cost?

[heleny]

Yes. And in other news today:
Los Angeles Approves $0 To Bloody Do Anything To Improve Existing Roads And Infrastructure

Exactly the problem with public transportation! They spend a lot of money studing stuff without actually improving the most important things: roads.

$500,000 is about the same as two months of subsidies for the LA MTA or 10 lane-miles of freeway.

[Rebel_Ace]

[ErnBatavia]

Los Angeles and surrounding areas are too spread out for any sort of mass transit to be workable....ask 20 people in your office building where they live, and you'll get 15 to 18 separate compass readings.

It's too spread out, with bedroom communities on all sides and - most important - there is nothing close to a central employment area.

If carpooling won't work there (and it does not), some snazzy choo-choo train that goes from Point A to Point B isn't going to either.

[heleny]

$10 is what they'll charge. What will a ride cost?

They'll probably have to study that, too. It depends a lot on the ridership levels, which are usually highly inflated to justify the project.

The LA MTA budget was $2.8 billion, and either had about a million passenger trips or cost $6000 per passenger, depending on the source. The MTA serves a lot of short-distance commuters as well as light rail.

The annual subsidies for the MTA are enough to build 68 miles times one lane at the price of the most expensive CA freeway (Century freeway, I-105). Obviously, one lane of freeway is used by many more than 1 million cars per month (let alone per year).

[heleny]

This kind of project just doesn't make any sense. If you want to blow billions, double-deck the freeways, and let all car owners take advantage of the improvements, not just the very small numbers that would ride this boondoggle.

I agree. Freeways are definitely the way to go.

Anyone who has ever used public transportation knows the inconvenience of driving through traffic to get to the station, finding parking (and possibly paying for it), waiting in a line to buy a ticket, waiting for the next train, getting from the station to your final destination, and scheduling your life around inconvenient train schedules.

It's incredibly noisy (the Maglev operation itself could be quiet, but you wouldn't be the only passenger on the train or waiting for it, and there would be announcements over a loud PA system), nearby passengers sneeze/cough/odorize the air you breathe, and you can't run errands or go back if you forgot something.

Public transportation is very vulnerable to terrorist attacks, and it's illegal to carry a firearm or knife on public transportation even for self-defense.

[pogo101]

Hey, how about a link to that "Simpsons" episode with the "Monorail ... Monorail ... MONORAIL!!" parody of both maglev/monorails and of "The Music Man"?

[Smartass]

The City of Los Angeles is one of the most corrupt
municipal governments in the United States
Having some knowledge of the mind set of how
the City of Los Angeles operates ... The money
is already earmarked for ten consultants ...
That will kick back to dozens of higher officials
in the form of campaign contributions.

The City has already p***ed away Fifteen billion
U.S. tax payer dollars on a eight mile subway ...
in a high earthquake zone. The same money, could
have been spent, on a fabulous ground level public
transportation system.