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.

Advantages of a Maglev Train

The lack of friction that is inherent in the operation of a maglev train, plus its aerodynamic design, means that such trains can travel in excess of 310 miles an hour, twice as fast as the fastest conventional train and about two hundred fifty miles an hour slower than a Boeing 777. That means a trip between Boston to Washington would take about an hour and a half. A trip between Houston and Chicago would take just over three hours. Los Angeles to San Francisco would take less than an hour and a half.

More important, a maglev train would travel from train station to train station in the centers of two cities, cutting out trip times between air ports and cities. One would arrive at ones actual destination—a hotel or an office—far quicker than if one were traveling by plane. And one can travel in relative comfort and not packed in like cargo. Unlike conventional trains, a maglev train would run on electricity and not on fossil fuels. Power could be supplied by a variety of sources. Operating costs would be lower than with airlines, three cents per passenger mile vrs seven cents per passenger mile. There is also far less likelihood of derailment than with conventional trains.

Maglev Trains in Development

Currently, maglev trains are more popular in and Japan than in the United States. The German company Transrapid is developing a version of the maglev train in which the underside of the train wraps around the guideway. The Japanese have a competing version of the maglev train that causes the train to hover over the guideway. The Japanese system uses super cooled superconducting magnets while the German system uses more conventional magnets. The Japanese train runs on rubber tires until it achieves a “takeoff speed” of about 62 miles and hour.

Maglev Trains in Service

The first commercial maglev train began its service in Shanghai, China in 2004 and is the first operational maglev line. The train, developed by Germany’s Transrapid Company, runs nineteen miles between a station in the city center and Pudong Airport for a trip of less than ten minutes, as opposed to an hours drive by taxi.

Maglev Trains in the Future

Transrapid is planning to build a maglev line between Munich and the Munich Airport. A line linking Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates is being considered, as well as a north to south line in Great Britain, two lines linking cities in Holland, and lines linking the eastern corridor (Boston to Washington), Los Vegas to Los Angeles and then San Diego, Atlanta to Chattanooga, and other routes. The Japanese are looking at a Tokyo to Osaka line for their first maglev train.

One idea being considered for maglev trains would allow long haul trucks to load up on trailers on a train. The train would transport trucks rapidly between cities, in a matter of hours rather than days, and then the truck would unload at the destination city.

Another, somewhat more futuristic idea for maglev train lines, is to run them through tunnels which would contain a vacuum or low atmospheric pressure, thus eliminating wind resistance. Supersonic speeds would be, theoretically, possible. A trip between New York and Los Angeles would take about an hour on such a line.

Cost Problems with Maglev Trains

The factor holding back the development of maglev train lines is the prohibitive expense of building them, somewhere between ten million and thirty million dollars a mile. The development of room temperature superconducting may lower the cost of building maglev train lines to make them more economical.

Researchers hope and expect that with further development, maglev train technology will become a viable transportation alternative in the 21st Century.

Another Maglev Application

NASA and private aerospace entities are looking at maglev technology for another kind of travel. A maglev line, tilted upward, could accelerate a rocket to give it an extra boost of speed to get the vehicle into low Earth orbit. A kind of maglev line could be used to accelerate payload entirely from the surface of the Moon, further cutting launch costs, thus granting easier access to the Moon’s natural resources.

External Links:

• Transrapid International -
• Maglev Systems Development Department - Japan -
• 21st Century Science and Technology Article -
• Baltimore-Washington Maglev Project -
• California Maglev Alliance -