Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Maglev may come to the east coast

Thought this was pretty cool. A 300 mph commute would be a blast!

http://www.bwmaglev.com

They are supposed to decide on a test site this year, one of the contendors is the Baltimore-Washington corridor. If it pans out well, it could extend north to Boston and south to Charlotte.

I don't see it happening. DC can't even build a Metro line out to Dulles, let alone help build a Maglev to Baltimore. And Baltimore's not exactly rolling cash either.

I'd love to see a high-speed NE corridor rail system, but they would have to basically start from scratch north of Philly.

considering it took about 10 years for Acela to actually open, and then be shut down because the tracks weren't good enough for the trains to work on, i doubt we'll see this type of technology up here.

in order to run something like that, the fed would have to spend billions to rebuild our 150-year old rail New England rails.

Well the budget would be split between Federal and State governments, with some private contributions in order to work. As for rebuilding the rails, the Maglev stuff is completely different and a separate elevated track would be built along a different route that has already been planned out.

http://www.bwmaglev.com/technology/default.htm

Yeah, probably won't happen, but its nice to dream.

i think between MD and DC is feasible, and actually would be the exact economic stimulus MD needs. it makes sense to invest in a system like that which would add value to a city by attracting well-to-do commuters.
if they can keep the daily costs of the commute relatively low for users, then it has some real potential.

the issue with New England is that there really is no room for new tracks around here, especially around Boston. we've done a good job of letting our rail system disintegrate into crap. the remaining peice that still function are in need of repair or replacement. there are some corridors that might work through less populated areas: Boston to Portland, ME; Boston to Providence, RI; and Boston to Worcester, MA. but after our $14B spending spree on the Big Dig, i doubt the feds would give us any more money on transportation improvements.