Information

Advantages of maglev:

The maglev is a high-tech floating train and is much more superior to the traditional steel rail on wheel railways. As the train floats on the track, there is no contact with the ground and no need of any moving parts, making the train a low maintenance affair. Also there is no possibility of any parts wearing out.  Secondly there is less noise because there are no steel wheels running on steel tracks. The only noise occurred is by air resistance. Third advantage is the speed of up to 300 mph or 500 kph. These speeds are possible for conventional trains but not viable economically.

Is maglev environmentally friendly?

Maglev trains run on electricity and do not emit carbon dioxide. The trains use electricity from thermal or any other power plants, but the resulting carbon dioxide emissions is much less than that from trucks, buses and aircrafts. Maglev is much more quite and energy efficient than the traditional means of transport, making it a better option for urban and suburban areas. The narrow beam elevated highways used by the maglev are much smaller than highways, rail tracks and airports.

Maglev in the United States:

The most promising projects of maglev in America are the Las Vegas, Anaheim, Victorville line connecting the states of Nevada and southern California and, Pittsburg to Greensburg and Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania. Both these projects will serve as a major employment generation centre and also improve the economies of these states. The grants for the planning and pre engineering work for these projects are already sanctioned. The projects are inspired by the shanghai maglev train and will revolutionize the transportation in America by making it fast, efficient, clean and also reduce the congestion on the highways.

The other proposed projects in the country include Baltimore- Washington D.C. maglev; Honolulu maglev in Hawaii; Atlanta- Chattanooga maglev, and the San Diego maglev.

Japanese maglev:

JR-maglev is a magnetic levitation train system developed by the Central Japan Railway Company and the Railway Technical Research Institute. JR- maglev MLX01 is one of the latest designs of the train. Maglevs are being developed in the country since 1970s. On 2^nd December 2003, a 3 car train set reached to a top speed of 361 mph. (581 kph).

The current high speed railway in Japan is the “Shinkansen” with a minimum speed of 130 mph (210 kph). The total network of Shinkansen is 1528 miles (2459 km) long throughout the country. The train can speed up to 186 mph (300 kph). Test runs have reached 275 mph (443 kph) in the year 1996.

The proposed maglev in Japan will run between Tokyo and Osaka and the existing test track in Yamanashi prefecture will be a part of it. 2027 is predicted as the year of completion of this project. The distance is about 450 km and the top speed will be 581 kph. This will reduce the traveling time to a little less than 1 hour if the plans come into existence.

Shanghai maglev:

The Shanghai maglev train or Shanghai Trans-rapid is the first commercial magnetic levitation line in the world. It runs between Pudong international airport and Longyang Road station in Pudong. The construction began in March 2001 and was completed in January 2004. This journey requires 7.2 minutes to complete a distance of 30 kms, with a speed of 350 kph (220 mph). The maximum operational speed is 431 kph (268 mph). This train service is 99.85 % accurate.