Maglev?

Interesting question...here's one suggestion for an answer: someone will only spend time and effort promoting maglev in the UK if they think there's a potential business opportunity.  For that to happen they have to consider that there is a need, or at least a potential market, for a stand alone system that moves people broadly from point A to point B without interacting with existing infrastructure (e.g. unlike Crossrail which runs over existing lines either side of London). Which practically means having enough people that need moving to justify the investment in a point to point stand alone system, whilst at the same time there being enough space to allow for the installation of a stand alone system. And so quite probably anyone potentially interested has looked at the UK and thought "errrr...no".


I'm not claiming this answer is based on any expert knowledge! (Other parts of the company I work for have been involved in maglev projects but I haven't.) I'll be interested to see any other thoughts.


Good article here https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/29/maglev-magnetic-levitation-domestic-travel


Cheers,


Andy

Yes, a good read although undecided and vacillating (too expensive, not profitable, but green, fast and long term investment etc,). It should be considered as a long term investment linking Europe with London, Birmingham, Manchester/Liverpool and Glasgow.!  IMO, a better solution than HS2. By the time HS2 is completed it is likely to over run, be over budget, and generate greater pollution making it likely to be outdated before it gets off the ground.. At least the first two negatives will happen regardless but the third will benefit future generations.


Legh

I can see two problems:

1. It's over-complicated, when compared with a couple of steel rails bolted to wood or concrete sleepers.  Unless the advantage of a new system is considerable, it may make no economic sense.

• It's completely incompatible with the rest of the rail network.  At the moment, a diesel-hauled train can go pretty much anywhere on the network.

There seems to be an opportunity to develop superfast high speed link between Europe and Scotland.- however there's no guarantee that it will be efficient, that's up to humans to behave.  HS2 track will have to be laid. At this point a hybrid track could be laid that takes advantage of existing rail designs and a futuristic maglev design. I suppose somebody has thought about this and rejected it for various reasons?


Legh

I wonder how significant the advantages of maglev really are? If you built a conventional rail 'EMU' of similar dimensions to the carriages on the Shanghai Airport maglev (think sports car rather than bus) and ran it on a dedicated (non freight) line how different would the performance and energy consumption be? Conventional passenger railways contain a lot of compromises to allow working together with freight (maximum axle weights, buffer and coupling loading etc).

The last mile (or km) will always be a problem. When I take the high speed train into Shanghai I have to use the very overcrowded Metro or a Taxi to get the the maglev station for the trip to the airport. Even the Chinese govenment could not knock down enough buildings to get the maglev to the main station.


Best regards


Roger

Roger,

I absolutely agree with you. I used the Shanghai Maglev to see what it was like, but the Chinese locals I was asking for metro directions from couldn't understand why I wanted to get off a metro train already on its way to the airport in order to use a more expensive option, which due to the time taken for the change was not a great deal quicker.

The Chinese also run the Maglev substantially slower in off-peak times due to the power consumption. I am not sure that it is a financially successful project, though it is definitely a politically successful one.