Trial run of a maglev train
Posted on 09/22/2016 1:37:34 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pitching Japan’s maglev technology for the railway system in the United States.
Speaking in a meeting with US business leaders and financial experts in New York on Wednesday, Abe said that in the late 2030s, a maglev train linking Tokyo to Nagoya in central Japan will take just 40 minutes - an hour shorter than currently required for the shinkansen bullet train. The two cities are about 260km apart, as the crow flies.
“The distance between Tokyo and Nagoya is almost the same as that between New York and [Washington] DC,” he said. “You could do the same thing here with the maglev technology.”
Abe noted that the planned train in Japan would reach Osaka station in an additional 20 minutes, making it only an hour’s ride from Tokyo, 400km away.
In the speech, the prime minister said Japan will continue to serve as “an engine for free trade,” and expressed determination to implement a pending Pacific trade pact and to conclude a free trade agreement between Japan and the European Union “as soon as possible.”
Abe called for Washington’s leadership in putting into force the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact despite opposition by both Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and business mogul Donald Trump.
“Please do ratify the TPP,” Abe said, requesting that Congress approve the deal he said “is good for free, fair and open trade.”
“The Asia-Pacific should be much, much better off with the US fully being a TPP member,” he said. “We are simply waiting for you to take a leadership role.”
Trial run of a maglev train
Holy Toledo!! A Japanese man named Abe? I clicked to find out if this was a company named after Lincoln. Well, Abe, lovely, lovely idea. However, who will pay for it? Mr. Huntington? No, he’s long gone. Mr. Amtrak? No such person. Maybe you’re thinking if Trump wins the two of you can cut a deal? Just wondering.
Build a NY-DC maglev transport system?
We could no more do that now, than we could build the Hoover Dam.
With all due respect to the Prime Minister, we will wait until a real President is sworn in - sworn in on a Bible, that is.
Nobody’s opposed with doing business with the rest of the world. We the People are just not interested in selling America down the river in the process.
Phone call for Mr. Willie Green, please pick up the courtesy phone .
The Japs could license or sell us the tech...we’ll do the building, make the materials and staff the lines... American “jobs-jobs-jobs!”!
Hogwash! Just like everything that made America great before, we can and will do again. Much better, less expensive and on time. The talent and the people with it are ready if we can just get the friggin government out of the fargin way.
Does Wall Street really need all that many quick dashes with cash to Capital (sic k) Hill?
Map below shows current Amtrak rail stops, from Washington DC to Boston.
Note that the DC-NYC run spans six political divisions, DC, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, each with it's own political representatives subject to pressures by various interest groups, a situation not present in Japan.
Eight stops between start and end points. With TSA governing entry points to the system, five minutes at each stop, boarding and unboarding, eats up the entire 40 minutes Mr. Abe envisions for transit.
Highly unlikely that the five minutes can be reduced as our inhomogeneous population cannot yet be herded and pushed into trains in the manner in which the Japanese are accustomed.
Various high speed rail solutions have been tried over the years for the BostonWashington corridrightirst the Metroliner, then the current Accela, none of which achieved the hyped initial proposals. All attempts to limit stops have failed to deliver on the promises. In fact, additional suburban stops have been added to service the urban fleeing suburban jobs market. Few inner city workers use the trains to commute.
Unmentioned are the burdens Unions and minority set aside contracts impose on the implementation of any rail system.
The Eastern DC-NYC air shuttle achieved the approximate 40 min flight time, airport to airport at a reasonable cost, although at double or so the train fare at the time. It remains to be seen what the eventual MagLev real final cost would be and how that would translate to ticket prices, barring Federal subsidies, that old socialist porkbarrel money laundering scheme.
Finally, does anyone detect the smell of Elon Musk behind the curtains. This one is right up his alley
be cool if they paid for it and lost money running it for thirty years..
You’d be surprised. The Acela (Boston to DC “high-speed” train) is one of the few profitable Amtrak lines.
It might be a profitable venture for private investment.
The government's biggest role in a project like this is its power of eminent domain, which would be used to force property owners to sell their property to the government in order to assemble the right-of-way needed for a high-speed rail line like this.
Was this a pitch for maglev, or a maglev-camouflaged pitch for TPP aimed directly at the Beltway elites?
>>“The Asia-Pacific should be much, much better off with the US fully being a TPP member,” he said. “We are simply waiting for you to take a leadership role.”
Yes, but the question for Congress should be whether AMERICA would be “much, much better off” with the US fully being a TPP member. That nuance always seems to get lost on these elitists.
The infrastructure is mostly there along with the R/W buffers. Does it ever dawn on some people this whole thing could be built elevated over the existing R/W?
I was making a point about the upcoming election but am not polyannish about it happening overnight. There is a lot to be done to overcome the establishment and that is the key. Get it back into the hands of We the People and it will get done.
I'd be willing to bet that no private company would ever get involved in such a project, even if the government gave them the right-of-way at no cost. I don't think this service would have enough riders to justify the enormous cost of building and operating it.
All it needs is a nuclear power source and viola, Supertrain.
How about a high speed train from DC to the Atlantic Ocean...one way and free passage for all politicians and K street lobbyists.
Thank you!
I actually miss the Willie Green Happy Choo Choo threads.
I’d like to see this done in a big way, nationally, rather than stuff like the Mission to Mars foolishness. They only chase these space fantasies in search of something that might help them deny Special Creation and push atheism. IMHO.
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