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I know maglevs look cool and all, but there are quite practical reasons why they didn't pan out. One thing people tend to overlook is that regular rail lines ar
by mangecoeur 10y ago
I know maglevs look cool and all, but there are quite practical reasons why they didn't pan out. One thing people tend to overlook is that regular rail lines are much more versatile. Regular rail can handle a variety of loads - the French high speed rail system also handles postal mail for instance. If you are building rail lines you already have a ton of kit that can use them - such as all the service machinery. Build a maglev and you can throw away all your expensive line maintenance vehicles.
- seanos 10y agoMagLev did pan out though, just not in Britain. For example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Maglev_Train https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Maglev_Train
- wnevets 10y agodid it really pan out if there are so few of them?
- randomusr883 10y agoDepends on what you mean by "panned out". The tech works, but society isn't interested in trains since it was developed and matured. We pushed cars, freeways, etc. Not just in the US. Other countries followed along for their own reasons. It's like nuclear; the tech can work fine. We just don't have the interest. I blame lobbying against public utilities, personally. Decades of pro-privatization rhetoric, getting people to buy-in on their own vehicle, versus pub-trans.
- Chathamization 10y agoThe Shanghai Maglev isn't much more than a novelty at this point. Originally it was a somewhat useful way to travel to the airport instead of a bus, but now that the metro runs there that seems to be the better option (you don't have to deal with the maglev transfer or with buying another ticket). They had planned to extend it to Hangzhou, but the high speed rail between Shanghai and Hangzhou ended those plans.