The problem of traveling quickly from place to place has something that has been wrestled with since the time of the Roman Empire. The Romans built a network of roads to speed trade and the legions from place to place. More recently, the invention of steam engines permitted the development of train and stream ship travel that further shrank the world. Presently, the quickest way to travel is by air.

Air travel has become more and more of a hassle. Air ports are, by necessity, located far from the centers of cities, making trips to just to get to them long and arduous. Getting onto a plane, because of modern security controls, is another long and maddening process. Because of the economics of plane travel, being on a plane is cramped and uncomfortable. After the plane arrives at the destination comes the process of getting ones baggage and then a long trip to a hotel or some other place far from the air port.

Could a better way be in development? It could be, at least for regional travel. Indeed, the solution could be a “back to the future” move to train travel, but with a high tech twist. These would be trains that run not on rails, but on magnetic levitation at speeds hitherto unobtainable for land travel.

What are Maglev Trains?

The maglev train depends on a principle of magnetism that while opposite poles of a magnet attract, like poles repel. Instead of a track upon which the wheels of a conventional train would run, the maglev train would run over a guideway lined with electromagnetic coils, some designed to levitate and guide the train, others to propel it. The train itself would have large electromagnets on its undercarriage to facilitate levitation and propulsion.

During normal operation, the maglev train would hover at about between 0.39 inches above the guideway. Once the train is levitated, power is supplied to the coils within the guideway walls to create a unique system of magnetic fields that pull and push the train along the guideway. The electric current supplied to the coils in the guideway walls is constantly alternating to change the polarity of the magnetized coils. This change in polarity causes the magnetic field in front of the train to pull the vehicle forward, while the magnetic field behind the train pushes against it to add more forward thrust.