Could an underwater maglev from Miami to Key West be sustainable?
No.
Nah, I don’t think the paying customers would like to hold their breath for the length of the trip but maglevs are pretty fast, I am told.
Although Key West is a big tourist destination. A little over 2 million person-trips (visits) were made by recreating visitors to Key West. About 53.6 percent came by auto, 7.4 percent by air, 35.2 percent by cruise ship, and 3.8 percent by ferry in 2008. That is hardly enough to to justify the enormous expense of a Maglev for the 159 mile distance. I’ve ridden the Shanghai (Pudong) - Pudong International Airport line and it is only 18.6 miles, but cost $1.2 bil.to build 10 years ago. Imagine the cost to build what you propose. That airport handles 40 million passengers annually, 20X the Key West potential.
When you say, “Underwater maglev,” what, exactly, do you mean? A maglev train in an underwater tunnel or tube? A maglev train running through salt water like a Disney World submarine? (Yeah, right!) Or were you thinking of something else.
One basic fact, learned the hard way by the Florida East Coast eight decades ago. Miami - Key West is wide open to the Atlantic, and right in the heart of Hurricane Alley. Not a good place for expensive infrastructure that isn’t armored like a battleship - and battleship armor wasn’t cheap.
Chuck (Experienced hurricane rider)
Also, underwater takes a pounding in a Hurricane if the depths are shallow.
That is a question for Elon Musk…
Why not a Maglev in the air? Powered by hydrogen. Oh, the humanity!
I drove to Key West at the end of January and had an opportunity to see the bridges and viaducts built by Flagler for the FEC Extension. Very impressive considering they are over 100 years old. I read ‘Last Train to Paradise’ by Les Standiford that tells the story of building the railroad and the eventual demise in the 1935 hurricane. The builders experienced multiple hurricanes during the construction phase and had to rebuild parts of the line after each one. The 1935 hurricane damage was principally to the Middle Keys section in the form of roadbed destruction on the keys. The major bridges and viaducts suffered minor damage. A 40 foot surge combined with 200 mph winds caused the damage. The cars of one passenger train sent to rescue a government road building crew were knocked over and many of the passengers were drowned. The locomotive stayed upright and was eventually recovered. The economy was in depression and the FEC was bankrupt at the time of the hurricane. The line never made a profit so the accountants sold the railway for a pittance and it became the infrastructure for the original highway. If the hurricane had not destroyed the line I think it would have been closed eventually like many other railroads. Traffic wasn’t sufficient to sustain operation without competition from air travel. Passengers to Havana and agricultural crop freight were very important and those would have disappeared after the Cuban revolution. Cars, planes and ships provide all the transportation that the Keys require - no need for a maglev.