MAGLEV Trains

[wawaweewa]

I think this is pretty solid evidence of just how far our infrastructure has fallen. 
The US built a vast railroad network. Then a great interstate highway network. Since that, we haven't built ++##. 

I realize this is expensive tech but do we not blow hundreds of billions on other junk? 

Imagine NY to Chicago in under 3 hours by train or NYC to Miami in under 4. Intranational tourism would boom and workers could be better connected with more employers. 

We rely on aircraft and personal cars but that's already changing  with rising carbon sourced energy costs and the squeeze on Airline margins. 

It's sad that our politicians and industrialists didn't have the foresight to begin work on this early. 

Maglev (derived from magnetic levitation), is a system of transportation that suspends, guides and propels vehicles, predominantly trains, using magnetic levitation from a very large number of magnets for lift and propulsion. This method has the potential to be faster, quieter and smoother than wheeled mass transit systems. The power needed for levitation is usually not a particularly large percentage of the overall consumption; most of the power used is needed to overcome air drag, as with any other high speed train.

The highest recorded speed of a Maglev train is 581 km/h (361 mph), achieved in Japan in 2003,[sup][1][/sup] 6 km/h (3.7 mph) faster than the conventional TGV wheel-rail speed record.

The first commercial maglev people mover was simply called "MAGLEV" and officially opened in 1984 near Birmingham, England. It operated on an elevated 600-metre (2,000 ft) section of monorail track between Birmingham International Airport and Birmingham International railway station, running at speeds up to 42 km/h (26 mph); the system was eventually closed in 1995 due to reliability problems.[sup][2][/sup]

Perhaps the best-known implementation of high-speed maglev technology currently operating commercially is the Shanghai Maglev Train, an IOS (initial operating segment) demonstration line of the German-built Transrapid train in Shanghai, China, traveling 30 km (19 mi) to the airport in just 7 minutes 20 seconds, achieving a top speed of 431 km/h (268 mph), averaging 250 km/h (160 mph).

A vactrain (or vacuum tube train) is a proposed, as-yet-unbuilt design for future high-speed railroad transportation. This would entail building maglev lines through evacuated (air-less) or partly evacuated tubes or tunnels. Though the technology is currently being investigated for development of regional networks, advocates have suggested establishing vactrains for transcontinental routes to form a global network. The lack of air resistance could permit vactrains to use little power and to move at extremely high speeds, up to 4000–5000 mph (6400–8000 km/h), or 5–6 times the speed of sound at sea level and standard conditions, according to the Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering program "Transatlantic Tunnel".

Theoretically, vactrain tunnels could be built deep enough to pass under oceans, thus permitting very rapid intercontinental travel. Vactrains could also use gravity to assist their acceleration. If such trains went as fast as predicted, the trip between London and New York would take less than an hour, effectively supplanting aircraft as the world's fastest mode of public transportation.

Travel through evacuated tubes allows supersonic speed without the penalty of sonic boom found with supersonic aircraft. The trains could operate faster than Mach 1 (at sea level) without noise. Also supersonic travel requires a large increase in propulsive power as one enters the near-sonic region. Again with reduced air pressure the speed of the onset of this effect will also increase, allowing faster speeds with lower energy requirements.

However, without major advances in tunnelling and other technology, vactrains would be prohibitively expensive. Alternatives such as elevated concrete tubes with partial vacuums have been proposed to reduce costs.

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering are currently working on a vacuum tube train project which is set to reach speeds up to 1,000 km/h (620 mph) and "technology could be in daily use in the next 10 years."[sup][color= rgb(6, 69, 173)][[/color]1[color= rgb(6, 69, 173)]][/color][/sup]

[sup][color= rgb(6, 69, 173)][/color][/sup]

The Chinese are at the forefront of implementing this. 

Japanese MAGLEV

 

[chiqga]

rode on the shanghai maglev @ 430 km/hr. fastest i ever been on ground 

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering are currently working on a vacuum tube train project which is set to reach speeds up to 1,000 km/h (620 mph) and "technology could be in daily use in the next 10 years."[sup][1][/sup]
i don't know if i would even want to ride on that.

 

[based mod]

we'd rather spend $100B on fighter jets that never get built