Passenger Trains > Baltimore-DC Mag-Lev gets a lift

The Wall Street Journal reports that the proposed <ag-Lev train between the District of Columbia and Baltimore has cleared another hurdle.  The US DOT has already given the firm $28 million for engineering and environmental work, now the Japanese government has given an additional $2 million (whoa, boy! now we're cooking).

The article notes that the proposed fares will be higher than the current Acela fare (now $64 round trip for a 40 mile distance). That's extremely deceptive, as the one way fare in the morning (when the woman introduced in the story is traveling) would be $75 one way on the Acela, and about the same for an evening return.  Or, $140 for a round trip. The $64  assumes off peak Acela, but you can do a regional for $17 each way... All are preferable to driving in her car, which is their comparison.



Subscription site - search maglev-train-project-to-link-baltimore-and-washington
 

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Wall Street Journal reports that the proposed
> <ag-Lev train between the District of Columbia and
> Baltimore has cleared another hurdle.  The US DOT
> has already given the firm $28 million for
> engineering and environmental work, now the
> Japanese government has given an additional $2
> million (whoa, boy! now we're cooking).
>
> The article notes that the proposed fares will be
> higher than the current Acela fare (now $64 round
> trip for a 40 mile distance). That's extremely
> deceptive, as the one way fare in the morning
> (when the woman introduced in the story is
> traveling) would be $75 one way on the Acela, and
> about the same for an evening return.  Or, $140
> for a round trip. The $64  assumes off peak
> Acela, but you can do a regional for $17 each
> way... All are preferable to driving in her car,
> which is their comparison.
>
>
>
> Subscription site - search
> maglev-train-project-to-link-baltimore-and-washing
> ton
>  
​Without any doubt this will be the most ridicules waste of money ever for public transportation.  I hope that the citizens of Maryland strongly oppose this waste of money as it will NOT work.  The distance between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. is too short for this type of travel, about 37 rail miles.  And the most important thing to remember is that all of the travelers who currently ride the MARC Commuter Trains do NOT ride between Baltimore and Washington.  For example on the Camden Line (former B&O owned by CSX) commuters board at St. Denis, Dorsey which is a very heavy used station, Jessup, Savage, Laurel, Muirkirk, Greenbelt, College Park, and Riverdale.  A Mag-Lev is not practical since it would hardly start and it would be stopped to pick up and discharge passengers.  Put the Mag-Lev out west, for example between Los Angeles, California and Las Vegas, Nevada.  If there is money for this boondoggle, let's use it to upgrade our existing passenger train service as Amtrak could surely use this money.
John



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/16 14:04 by ClubCar.

So what we have here is a 100% grade-separated one-city-pair high speed transit system.

Such a two-point elevated system for conventional steel-wheel vehicles would presumably be cheaper.

Ordinary steel wheel on steel rails vehicles of familiar type can run almost as fast (at top speed) as maglev, and more efficiently, given differences in drag, because a conventional train has a higher "hull speed" than the rather stubby maglev vehicles (and at really high speed the main energy requirement is simply pushing whatever vehicle through the air).

But that level of efficiency would be academic, since neither conventional TGV-type trains nor maglev would be at top speed, for such a run, for more than a few minutes. (A conventional, non-TGV, train accelerates at 1.5 mph per second; TGV vehicles with powered axles throughout the train accelerate much more quickly, and I understand that maglevs do, too. But the point remains.)

There are interconnectivity issues, too; a new single-purpose rail line could very easily be grafted onto the existing rail network; a totally different technology, not so much. Terminating at an airport is rather easier to imagine than terminating at an existing train station (the Shanghai maglev runs between nowhere in particular and an airport).

To give a new technology its due, a maglev between D.C. and Baltimore wouldn't have to thread its careful way through coach yards and puzzle-switches while departing or approaching the end points. 

If the Japanese are in the game, presumably they're pushing for the Japanese system maglev technology. That wouldn't necssarily be the case, but it's worth bearing in mind that the Japanese technology is rather less well tested than the German system, which the Germans themselves have sort of given up on, at least I understand that they've cancelled the Berlin–Hamburg project, the only real-world regional system planned.

All of this reminds me, unpleasantly, of the much ado about monorail transit, once upon a time, whose main appeal (so far as I could ever figure it out) was novelty. And perhaps that such an elevated system in urban areas wouldn't suffer from the well-known demerits of elevated conventional rail transit, or anyhow in much lesser degree. If that's unfair, then once a test line or two was built (as in Seattle), a new technology with significant real advantages would rapidly proliferate. That certainly isn't the monorail story, and frankly doesn't appear to be the maglev story, either. 

badgerexpat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If the Japanese are in the game, presumably
> they're pushing for the Japanese system maglev
> technology. That wouldn't necssarily be the case,
> but it's worth bearing in mind that the Japanese
> technology is rather less well tested than the
> German system, which the Germans themselves have
> sort of given up on, at least I understand that
> they've cancelled the Berlin–Hamburg project,
> the only real-world regional system planned.

I'm not disagreeing with the ridiculousness of a Maglev line between Baltimore and D.C., but I'm disagreeing with the Japanese technology being "rather less well-tested." It weakens your credibility in opposing the Maryland Maglev. I've made various posts about it throughout the years.

That doesn't change the fact that the biggest proponent, Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland, went to Japan on taxpayer's dime, got a Maglev joyride, and got addicted. I think TO members can agree that his advocacy is based solely on emotion, than an actual will to solve a real problem.