Maglev vs high-speed rail: Should we change trains?

Building.co.uk ^ | Friday, September 3, 2010 | Thomas Lane

[Willie Green]

The Brits really should take a closer look at the Maglev option.

Maglev's elevated guidedway has a smaller "footprint" than steel-wheel on rail technology, and can traverse much steeper grades and curves. This gives it some enormous construction cost advantages compared to HS2, which will requires significant tunneling/trenching for the high-speed right-of-way.

Additionally, Maglev will not only provide Britons with faster operating speeds, but also lower maintenance costs because there are less mechanical components to wear out.

[Mr. Lucky]

Wow. Just think of how much more money we could piss up a rope with Maglev over conventional government rail boondoggles.

[dinodino]

Gee, maglev is an economic failure in China, so let’s try it in the West! GREAT PLAN!

If it’s so great, Willie, how about starting a company yourself to profit from high speed trains? Just think of the money you could make!

[mountainlion]

We really can't afford to be giving costly gifts to minority traveling groups when we are so recently bankrupted by the administration. Lets get some debt payed down before we pay for buy some big chunk of pie in the sky.

Willie, are you a paid shill for railroads?

[cripplecreek]

The Brits can do as they wish but I really doubt they’ll be so irresponsible at this point.

[darkangel82]

9am and already a train thread from Willie. I guess the trains really do run on time.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Just think of all the minority union jobs and affirmative-actioned bureaucrats this will create!

Anybody who is against this is a RACIST!!!

[benewton]

That cover the situation so far as I can see.

[muawiyah]

Sorry Willie, you're still out to lunch with this stuff. The best course of action is to fundamentally change the automobile from a driver controlled device to just a node in a system operated by computers.

Once you work out the "NO ACCIDENTS" standard, the technology for proceeding to full implementation is there.

The aggregate transportation cost savings that can be achieved by eliminating accidents are ENORMOUS and beat the advantage of steel on steel coefficient of friction advantages.

Plus, best of all, once you get to where you're going you can pull it in the driveway yourself. No need to rent a car to get around town.

[Paladin2]

Here it is already:

[darkangel82]

LOL, that looks like a kiddie ride at our county fair.

[mountainlion]

All ABOARD!!!

Willie, I ain’t going with this, Just steam power for me.

[Fresh Wind]

And Britain … well, as usual, we’re just the ones who invented the thing. Readers of a certain age may recall Eric Laithwaite’s Christmas lectures to the Royal Institution in which he demonstrated how a linear induction motor (which he invented in the forties) could supply both lift and movement.

A flat out lie. The real pioneers in maglev technology were Robert Goddard, an American, who proposed a maglev rail system in 1904, and Emile Bachelet, a Frenchman living in the US, who applied for a patent on a maglev rail system in 1910.

[Paladin2]

Concept demonstrated here:

[Willie Green]

This article is about high-speed passenger rail in Britain,
but your off-topic bigotry against minority travelers in our own country is duly noted.

[Paladin2]

Heck, forget the rails. Just shoot yourself to where you want to go.

http://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,14632,Soldiertech_RailGuns,,00.html

[jimt]

Ah, the old “world class city” crap used to pimp the toy train in Houston has been converted to “world class country” crap by the Maglev pimps in the UK.

The UK’s rail system was soundly based (for a while) on a system that made a profit. With greater and greater goobermint control of, course, that slipped into the bottomless socialist pit.

“Look Mommy, I’ve got the fastest choo-choo” is not a rational basis for a transportation system anywhere.

[Republic of Texas]

Don’t kid yourself Willie, this thread is all about beating up on socialist boondogles, and you. And business is good.

[muawiyah]

Great stuff ~ one of the other travel-time saving advances available with these new technological applications will be the ELIMINATION OF STOP LIGHTS and STOP SIGNS.

Again, the objective here is aggregate travel time and cost for the entirity of society ~ not just the convenience of a handful of rich guys who want to go to "downtown" locations.

[cripplecreek]

The best course of action is to fundamentally change the automobile from a driver controlled device to just a node in a system operated by computers.

I could live with that but only if it were on the interstates alone. I still want to do the bulk of my own driving.