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Posted on 05/04/2010 10:51:02 AM PDT by Willie Green
Korea will operate unmanned magnetic levitation trains in Incheon International Airport from 2013, becoming the latest country after Japan to commercialize the next generation transportation system.
The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said Monday that it will finish constructing a 6.1 kilometer railway by 2012 within the country's main airport and begin running unmanned magnetic levitation trains that will travel at 110 kilometers per hour. The ministry also unveiled a prototype of the train.
As one of Korea's state-funded research and development (R&D) projects, the government decided in 2006 to invest 450 billion won ($400 million) into developing the magnetic trains and railway tracks by 2012. Countries like Japan and Germany have been active in maglev research as an alternative to today's wheeled mass transit systems.
All the technologies have been developed by local entities, including the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials and Rotem. The institute and Rotem, a local subway train producer, have been jointly developing Korea's next generation mass transport system.
Maglev trains, which are suspended in the air above specially designed tracks, are propelled by a linear motor that uses the repulsive and attractive forces of magnetism.
Because there is no physical contact between the vehicle and the track, the maglev system has many advantages ― it can travel at very high speeds with reasonable energy consumption and at low noise levels.
The futuristic transportation system had its debut in the early 1980s, but economic limitations have pose stumbling blocks to its full-fledged commercialization.
``We will continue to work hard to successfully introduce the maglev system over the next two years and launch a trial service in 2013 at Incheon International Airport. If the operation proves to be successful, many municipal administrations will rush to bring in this transport system to improve their mass transit,'' a ministry official said.
He also said the ministry will seek to cut the costs of building the maglev train tracks to as low as 40 billion won per kilometer. ``If so, the transport scheme will be economically feasible. We will then try to export our maglev trains and related technologies to other countries.''
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SEOUL TRAIN BUMP
Hope it works as well as the 2000 Hyundai Elantra. I beat that puppy into the ground!
Did your parents deprive you of a Lionel train set as a kid?
don’t they mean “driverless” rather than “unmanned”? not a lot of sense sending an empty train anywhere...
don’t they mean “driverless” rather than “unmanned”? not a lot of sense sending an empty train anywhere...
I'm sure that's probably what they mean.
Since this has it's own dedicated track, with no interference with other vehicles, it would be pretty easy to design fully-automated without any driver necessary.
they can keep the train and the endless debt that goes with it, I’ll keep my car and deal with occasional traffic jams.
Japan’s national railroad is still paying off the first generation of bullet trains,
I was just through the Toronto airport twice in the last week. They put in an elevated shuttle train to join terminals 1 and 3 and a station that links to mass transit. Looks cool, like a monorail, but it is moved by a cable, and it bumps along on rubber wheels on two “rails” and has a ride quality that I would consider disappointing on a city bus. Definitely not as high tech as it looks, although probably a cost-effective solution.
Well, I won’t be in Korea anytime soon, so don’t let me ruin it for anybody;-)
enjoy!
We call it 'AmTrak'
LOL~! remember the jingle:
“see the country!
travel AmTrak
easy come and easy go...”
I forget ther rest.
bttt
I was just through the Toronto airport twice in the last week. They put in an elevated shuttle train to join terminals 1 and 3 and a station that links to mass transit. Looks cool, like a monorail, but it is moved by a cable, and it bumps along on rubber wheels on two “rails” and has a ride quality that I would consider disappointing on a city bus. Definitely not as high tech as it looks, although probably a cost-effective solution.
Hmmmm... that's interesting!
I just post an article about some guy who's running for mayor of Toronto: Rossi promises subways, not streetcars, for Toronto
Naturally my first reaction was, like on this thread, that while a subway is better than streetcars, an overhead monorail would be cheaper.
But then, perhaps with Toronto's nasty winter weather, going underground would be best.
Now I'm beginning to wonder how a subway might tie-in to the elevated shuttle that you say they have.
Well, it’s not really a monorail, since it runs on two of them, with rubber wheels on the top and sides. It’s a lightweight low-speed solutions, and adequate for the task - it just has a rather unrefined ride.
I’m not sure, but I’m guessing maybe, if they ever get around to doing it, that subway trains (which already run above ground on part of their routes) might meet the airport “monorail” at Viscount station, which is at one terminus of the airport shuttle.
Did your parents deprive you of a Lionel train set as a kid?
LOL! No... Santa brought me one of them when I was only 3½ years old...
Of course, Dad had to help me play with it...
I was allowed to push the little red button on the transformer that made the train whistle go woo-woooooo....
but I couldn't touch the little pills that made smoke come out the engine smokestack.
I think Mom must've been afraid I might try to eat them or something. I was still pretty little, you know.
That was almost 55 years ago...
and that Lionel train set is STILL in great shape!
It survived not only my playing with it, but also 3 younger brothers who inherited it after me.
The youngest one still has it, plus all the other track, paraphenalia, engines & cars that were added to it over the years. Probably need to rent a big convention hall somewhere to set it all up. LOL!!!
I think the technology was invented and developed here by Westinghouse years ago. Because of the costs and the other difficulties of actually operating one in this country they sold the technology to Japan, I think. Don’t know what happened after that.
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