Rendell urges U.S. aid for 2 maglev projects

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | Thursday, May 08, 2003 | Karen MacPherson

[Frankss]

An "elevated guideway" is a continuous bridge, that's big money. It must support 1000's of tons of speeding train,and it's own weight, massive concrete and steel footings the whole distance would be needed. The "track" weighs much more than the train. This track will certainly need maintenance just like a bridge does.They promise speeds in excess of 300 mph. Promise lower maintenance,promise greater reliability. Thats a lot of promises, government and politicians promises have a bad reputation. For you, Willie,even the wind will shovel the snow off the track,or the mag-lev will "float" right over it. Think about 3 ft. of snow and ice on the track, shorting electrical connections,built up debri, rotten kids putting rocks on the track, low bid contractors,faulty footings,ect.

[Frankss]

Willie, it's interesting, I just don't want to pay for it.Let private bussiness build it and run it, if it's such a good idea. Just saw an add for a plane flight to Florida from Washington DC., $69.95 one way. 600 mph. Cheers

[Willie Green]

As the images illustrate, the necessary elevated guideway is much less "massive" than you envision.

And as you can see, safety is actually enhanced by elimination of hazardous ground-level railroad crossings. There's not even much of a chance of a collision with animals such as deer or stray dogs.

[Willie Green]

ping

[Dad was my hero]

So let me see...The $3 billion, 45-mile Pittsburgh maglev project would connect Greensburg, Monroeville, Downtown and the airport.

45 miles to connect up 4 stops, before they get this thing up to 90 mph, they'll have to begin breaking to slow down. A big waste of money, of course when Rendell is involved what does he care, it isn't his money.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

Big bump! Thanks for the ping.

[Frankss]

They look small in the picture. Are they real pictures or artist rendition? In reality they look to be about 30 ft high and 50-60 ft wide on the surface.What you do not see is the massive footings that must go down 40- 100 ft or more depending on soil conditions. The train is shown in the first picture spanning 2 massive piers, each of these piers is 100 tons or so. Each train length is supported by 100's of tons of concrete and steel. Is that train in the picture 120 ft long more or less? It looks like one massive pier every 80 ft.There are 5,280 ft per mile, divided by 80= 66 such piers per flat mile! More in marshy sections. How much do you think each pier would cost? How much for the section between piers?Train tracks are also built for 2- way traffic so 2x everything. This is an extremely expensive proposition! Conventional train tracks cost a fraction of mag-lev tracks. We have tracks and we have trains, the trouble is that people don't use them (very much). If it wasn't for government support Amtrac would have died a long time ago. It is a proven money loser.With a relativly minor investment,convetional systems could be bumped up to the 200 mph range. Do you think this would increase use? I don't think changing to a new type of train is the solution.

[Frankss]

3 Billion for 45 miles. Thats 67 million dollars per mile! And you know it will be more! Mag-lev from DC to Fla. is 1200 miles = 80.4 BILLION.

[Willie Green]

Actually, Mapquest says that the distance from Washington, DC to Miami is 1061.91 miles, and estimates a drive time of 17 hours, 10 minutes.

I'm not sure why you selected that route to pick on.
I don't know of any proposal to build Maglev connecting those two cities.
And the high-speed ground transportation proposals (including high-speed rail and Maglev) are targetted to fill a competitive niche for trips between 100~500 miles.
Clearly anybody traveling from DC to Miami would more likely select air travel for that much longer distance.

But given that the long term vision is to someday interconnect the different segments, I see no reason why we can't discuss a hypothetical trip from DC to Miami. There are, afterall, many people who are uncomfortable with air travel, and simply prefer the safety and comfort of traveling on the ground. (no painful ear-popping, rough turbulence and/or air sickness.)

If Maglev were to be built the entire distance, it is unlikely that it would maintain its top speed of 300 mph for the entire trip. Allowances would have to be made for stops at various cities along the way, perhaps Raleigh, Augusta, etc. etc. But an overall average of 200 mph is more reasonable. So the 1000 mile trip would take about 5~6 hours or so, which is a heckuva lot better than the estimated 17 hours by car or bus. (Heck, if you'd try that by car, most people would stop in a motel overnight somewhere halfway.)

More probable is that some part of the trip would be on Maglev which would connect to a segment of high speed rail. That would slow the entire trip down somewhat to make the transfer from one system to the other, but it would still be superior to either car travel or existing Amtrak service. BTW, I just checked the Amtrak schedule, and the antiquated technology travels at a snails pace 23~25 hours. So if the newer systems merely cut that time in half, it'd be a vast improvement!!!

$80 billion wouldn't be bad to cover that distance, especially since it would be spread out across the 5~10 years or so that it would take to build. Do you have any idea how much money we've spent building the 42,000 mile Interstate Highway System over the last 50 years? It sounds like a lot, but when you consider that it has a long life span as transportation infrastructure, and the construction costs are spread out over quite a few years, it really isn't that bad.

[Willie Green]

They look small in the picture. Are they real pictures or artist rendition?

Those are actual photos.
The middle photo is of the American Maglev project at Old Dominion University in Virginia.
The top and bottom photos are of the TransRapid system in Germany.

In reality they look to be about 30 ft high and 50-60 ft wide on the surface.

In reality, you're just making up whacknut, obstructionist figures as you go along.

[Frankss]

Selected DC to Florida because your map seems to show a route there called Southeast Corridor.The Cost per mile of 67 million dollars is also from your article.Since you have resorted to name calling twice now in what is a technical disscusion I will not respond to you again.

[jimt]

Why not simply make a pile of the money and burn it?

Greater benefits and less disruption will come from burning the cash instead of these silly boondoggles, NONE of which have ever been profitable.

[Willie Green]

Since you have resorted to name calling twice now in what is a technical disscusion I will not respond to you again.

Thank-you. Your "contribution" to the discussion was disingenuous anyway.