China's £750 Million Maglev Train 'Sinking' (Poor Willy)

scotsman.com ^ | 4/13/04 | scotsman.com

[Diddle E. Squat]

The tracks under the world’s first commercial magnetic-levitation train are sinking, possibly threatening the £750 million Chinese project, a newspaper reported in Shanghai today.

The 270 mph “maglev” began regular operation this year, linking Shanghai’s new international airport with its eastern financial district.

“We have been aware of the sinking of our maglev track,” Xia Guozhong, a spokesman for the company running the project, said.

The Shanghai Daily gave no details of the sinking and it was not clear how it would affect operations.

The tracks are sinking “very slightly,” said Xia.

A spokeswoman for the Shanghai city government said she had no information on the report.

German companies spent decades and billions of pounds developing maglev technology, but had searched in vain for a customer until Shanghai leaders picked the system as a way to highlight the city’s high-tech ambitions.

While a certain amount of settling was normal, too much could harm the project, Shanghai Daily quoted Chinese experts as saying.

“If the track sinks beyond its safety level, managers will have to stop the line’s operation,” Yu Jiakang, a senior engineer with the Shanghai Tunnel Engineering and Rail Transit Design and Research Institute, was quoted as saying.

The 440-seat trains carried an average of just 73 passengers per day last month. At £5 a ticket each way, tickets are considered too pricey for most residents and the train’s station is inconveniently located miles from the heart of town.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Darn, another failed boondoggle.

[Diddle E. Squat]

I've got some bad news...

But hey, aren't you in Vegas? The PRIVATELY-FUNDED monorail project there is about to debut, correct? I am rooting for that project to succeed.

[Petronski]

All they need to do is LEVITATE HIGHER.

[dead]

They just need to flip the tracks over and let them levitate themselves back into position.

[Diddle E. Squat]

For some reason LA wants to squander lots of tax money(fed, of course) on a similar maglev running around their town, and maybe out to Vegas and Phoenix. Of course they could instead spend far less money by using conventional high speed rail, which could be utilized by existing and future commuter trains, intercity trains, and easily expanded via upgraded existing tracks. But that doesn't have the whiz bang image, nor the poor utility of another incompatible technology.

Or best of all, they could upgrade the freeways and airports, which provide the most utility and travel options of all the modes. Make it tollways, and the costs per user are the smallest of all.

[Kozak]

The Shanghai Daily gave no details of the sinking and it was not clear how it would affect operations.

First maglev Subway? Maybe first maglev Submarine?

[Kozak]

I loved the fact that casino's that didn't help pay don't get a stop.

[Diddle E. Squat]

[Dr. Marten]

gee...I guess this project obviously was not Union Made. /sarcasm

[Uncle Miltie]

Gee, only 10 million pounds sterling per passenger? (750M pounds, 73 passengers / day.) A good socialist deal at twice the price. Did it create jobs?

[Willie Green]

Bwahahahahaha!
Shoddy Chinese construction methods!
That's what you get with unskilled, coolie slave labor!
Good grief, they can't even pour an adequate support foundation.
Our experienced construction hard-hats would NEVER slip-up and make a stupid mistake like that!
So now we can still be FIRST and show 'em how to build it RIGHT!

[Willie Green]

Gee, only 10 million pounds sterling per passenger? (750M pounds, 73 passengers / day.)

Gee Grad, a 1-day payback period.
You have all the long-term financial savvy of a daytrader.

[MrB]

That whole "equal and opposite reaction" thing within physics just baffles some people...

(I know you were joking)

[RightWhale]

Settling is not a problem.. Differential settling is a problem. Should be interesting to see what happens next time they get a 6.5 earthquake.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Apparently the Chinese are building an Unleavened Mag.

[Willie Green]

Settling is not a problem.. Differential settling is a problem.

It still boils down to shoddy soil subsidence analysis and inadequate foundation.

Should be interesting to see what happens next time they get a 6.5 earthquake.

It's my understanding that Shanghai is in a relatively stable geologic region, so earthquake risks are minimal. (Never say never.)

[tob2]

The pricey maglev project at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia as been a no go. Seems like there are lots of problems with this transportation endeavor.

[LexBaird]

Our experienced construction hard-hats would NEVER slip-up and make a stupid mistake like that!

Oh, no. They would never cause, for example, Hollywood Blvd. to start to sink into subway tunnels.

see the boondoggle described here.

[Willie Green]

Oh, no. They would never cause, for example, Hollywood Blvd. to start to sink into subway tunnels.

Of course not.
There was obviously no problem with the construction of the foundation for Hollywood Blvd.
If it was subsequently undermined by subway tunneling, that's a different situation altogether.
Not much of an apples-to-apples comparison whatsoever.

[LexBaird]

There have been many incidents of shoddy engineering of LA's Metrorail. Hollywood Blvd. dropping into a tunneling-caused sinkhole is just one. There were, for another example, concrete tunnel walls that were found to be too thin.