maglev vs. standard electric

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Hi,

I recently read a thread (on another forum) about a planned German maglev train. Some of the posters said that maglevs are kind of a waste of money. They said that standard electric trains can deliver the same performance at lower cost.

I’d like to get opinions of people in the business.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of maglevs and standard electric trains?

Thanks.

dl

2

Comparing the two is really comparing apples and oranges…

Maglev:

  • Needs special right-of-way that can’t be used with any other kind of equipment.
  • Needs special equipment that can’t operate on ordinary railroad tracks.
  • Potentially extremely fast, but acceleration/deceleration must be tolerable to passengers. This is a limiting factor if distances between stops are short.
  • Requires a massive investment before there is any possibility of return.
  • Still somewhat experimental, with several dissimilar systems being used.

Standard electric:

  • Can use ordinary railroad right-of-way that already exists.
  • Can share track with current trains - even freight.
  • Rolling stock can be built using proven technology and off-the-shelf parts.
  • Speed limited by track geometry, and is lower than that of Maglev systems.
  • Will start paying for itself almost immediately - as soon as some new rolling stock and/or some realigned track is available.
  • Can connect, end-to-end, with existing railroads for as far as the tracks run - in Europe, from Wales to Poland and beyond.

Upgraded electric (which is probably what the reference meant):

  • Uses dedicated right-of-way, but standard railroad building practice.
  • Uses trains which can operate at preposterous speeds on that dedicated infrastructure, but also at more usual speeds on older, less sophisticated lines (it doesn’t simply end at the end of the super-speed ROW.)

TGV and ICE are examples of upgraded electric, while the NEC is about as good as standard electric gets. The original Shinkansen was more like what Maglev is, since it didn’t match the “standard” track gauge - but it DID use standard (highly refined) EMU technology and rail construction methods. Whether shaving minutes off intercity times is worth the $$$ is something only travel economics can answer.

As "backward&

3

I think you’re correct that the poster was referring to upgraded electric. If I remember correctly, he mentioned ICE specifically.

Thanks for the information.

dl

4

Every couple of years somebody reports on a proposed maglev train. They never get beyond that point and this has been going on for close to fifty years now. You need super magnets and cheap electricity. the first is possible. The second one isn’t.

5

The last news report I read from Japan indicated that they have given up or are drastically cutting back on their maglev experimentation.