Mag Lev subway

[Suburban Station]

I know this is probably a stupid question, but would mag lev tech work as a subway line if it were straight? would it be substantially faster and require less maintenance than a traditional subway?

[RedLantern]

It would be a lot faster, but with higher speed comes greater stopping distance, so in your average subway line it wouldn't be able to go much faster than the trains already do. In systems like that of New York City, the express trains would see an improvement, but I think the cost of redesigning a system would be prohibitive. In the long run, the ride would be a lot smoother and it may save on the costs of replacing brake shoes, rails, wheels, etc. I don't know how much money would be saved however since maglev trains require massive amounts of electricity. If a city had a renewable power supply which could supply far more power than the city needs, or if there were some way of acquiring liquid Nitrogen at a low cost (for superconducting magnetic levitation) then maybe, but again, on the majority of systems where the trains make every stop, they wouldn't be able to run much faster than they already do because of the stopping distance.

MagLev is far more suitable for long distance runs where the train can reach supersonic speeds and still be able to come to a complete stop at all stations without subjecting the passengers to unreasonable G-forces.

[#5 - Dyre Ave]

Even on NYC express lines and the Broad Street express tracks, maglev still wouldn't be much faster than conventional steel-wheel trains or rubber-tired trains like the ones in Montreal. Maglev is really suited for much longer distances (such as Philadelphia to Pittsburgh - hey, wasn't a high-speed maglev line between the two cities proposed years ago?)

[RedLantern]

Even on NYC express lines and the Broad Street express tracks, maglev still wouldn't be much faster than conventional steel-wheel trains or rubber-tired trains like the ones in Montreal. Maglev is really suited for much longer distances (such as Philadelphia to Pittsburgh - hey, wasn't a high-speed maglev line between the two cities proposed years ago?)

It's actually funny to see how man MagLev proposals keep coming out and getting shot down. Everybody thinks it's a wonderful idea until they see the price tag.

[Suburban Station]

Even on NYC express lines and the Broad Street express tracks, maglev still wouldn't be much faster than conventional steel-wheel trains or rubber-tired trains like the ones in Montreal. Maglev is really suited for much longer distances (such as Philadelphia to Pittsburgh - hey, wasn't a high-speed maglev line between the two cities proposed years ago?)

It's actually funny to see how man MagLev proposals keep coming out and getting shot down. Everybody thinks it's a wonderful idea until they see the price tag.

I was mainly curious because they say it requires little maintenance, which is a large ongoing cost. i hadn't been aware that they use substantially more power which could offset the labor savings. The MagLev proposal in Pitsburgh just doesn't catch anyone's imagination. It's essentially a commuter line. Pittsburgh Philly in less than two hours? that's something I can get behind. I always hear conflicting arguments about Mag Lev so it's hard to make a determination. I was thinking that if maintenance is really so low, maybe it could make sense for a transit line but if it uses more power, then it's certainly not worth the money since you'd see no speed benefits.

[ChrisinAbington]

You're talking hundreds of billions of dollars for Pittsburgh to Philly.
Has Maglev operated sucessfully in a climate such as ours? Would you have to tunnel through the various mountain ranges between the cities?
I agree the idea sounds great and I'd love to see it eventually, but it is a hell of a capital cost..

[Suburban Station]

tunneling will have to occur whether it's mag lev or conventional. sadly, we've lost our appetite as a country for large infrastructure projects despite the enormous advances that have been made in tunneling technology since our current railroad to Pitt was built. not to take this too off topic, since my initial q was really whether there was any application of the tech to subways rather than intercity. to me, for intercity, either it makes sense at a hundred billion dollars or it doesn't make sense as a demonstration commuter rail. less than two hours to pittsburgh woudl fundamentally change the state. Pittsburgh would be as close as washington DC.

[Otto Vondrak]

I know this is probably a stupid question, but would mag lev tech work as a subway line if it were straight? would it be substantially faster and require less maintenance than a traditional subway?

Since this has nothing to do with SEPTA, off to General Discussion we go.

[ExCon90]

I remember reading some years ago about a planned MagLev line in Germany between Berlin and Hamburg which was reaching a point that made Boston's Big Dig look like adding a deck to your house. There were four major backers: Deutsche Bundesbahn (as it then was), Siemens (I think), and a couple of major banks. After several years of development it appeared that no one could predict (a) when the line would be up and running, and (b) how much it would have cost by that time. As I recall, all four backers walked away from it and chalked it up to experience. (Deutsche Bahn has since beefed up the conventional line to achieve higher speeds.) It seems that the German experience warrants a great deal of study before any commitments are made to MagLev.

[RedLantern]

The proposed MagLev service from Los Angeles, CA to Las Vegas, NV is the only one I see happening in the (relatively) near future. It would connect two high-profile, highly commercialized cities with limited stops in between. There is currently no rail service to Las Vegas and it's a very long drive through mostly uninhabited areas. Currently the most efficient way to get between the two cities is to fly.

The project could be backed by businesses (namely the hotel/casinos) that would want to draw more people into either city, rather than trying to go through the nightmare of making this an Amtrak operation. This could even be operated by an airline company since they would want to control the competition on this route.

Really, the only major drawback to this proposed system is that the trains would have to stop short of Los Angeles due to the existing tracks. I have seen systems where a MagLev train has conventional wheels which lower down like that of an airplane. On these trains, the train could operate on conventional tracks out of the existing city passenger terminal, and run on to it's own magnetic guideway once the train reaches the most efficient place to build the guideway from. The only problem with this system is that MagLev trains have to be as light as possible, and may meet FRA challenges when running on conventional tracks if the tracks are shared with other conventional traffic.

[george matthews]

I know this is probably a stupid question, but would mag lev tech work as a subway line if it were straight? would it be substantially faster and require less maintenance than a traditional subway?

There used to be one at Birmingham International station to connect with the airport. I used to try it out if I was passing that way. It wasn't very fast but it was smooth. That was about 25 years ago. I think it may have been built 30 years ago. Long ago it was abandoned and a conventional airport shuttle replaced it. They claimed they couldn't get parts as no others had been built. It seemed excellent to me.
Oh, and it wasn't straight but followed curves. It wasn't a subway but in the open. I never saw it during snow.

Clearly a line like that could be used as a subway but all the costs would need to be considered.

[ExCon90]

I know this is probably a stupid question, but would mag lev tech work as a subway line if it were straight? would it be substantially faster and require less maintenance than a traditional subway?

There used to be one at Birmingham International station to connect with the airport. I used to try it out if I was passing that way. It wasn't very fast but it was smooth. That was about 25 years ago. I think it may have been built 30 years ago. Long ago it was abandoned and a conventional airport shuttle replaced it. They claimed they couldn't get parts as no others had been built. It seemed excellent to me.
Oh, and it wasn't straight but followed curves. It wasn't a subway but in the open. I never saw it during snow.

Clearly a line like that could be used as a subway but all the costs would need to be considered.

I tried to use it on two occasions but both times it was down with some sort of ailment; I don't know whether that happened often.

[george matthews]

I was studying in Birmingham 25 years ago and I used to take the train to Bournemouth every two weeks. Quite often I would get off at the airport to see the magnetic shuttle. I never saw it down but perhaps it degraded with time. Any such installation needs to have a maintenance plan so that one knows what maintenance and repairs would cost. The problem was that it was a prototype and so there was no manufacture of parts.