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.