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First Maglev Installation Going Up

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the above-ground-above-speed dept.

berniecase writes "After hearing about the 500kph Maglev in Japan on Slashdot, I caught wind of this installation which is going up in Norfolk, Virginia. It's the first Maglev installation in the US. Here's another photo, too."

3 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. about time by BigBir3d · · Score: 3, Interesting

    this has been seriously talked about, planned for, for over a decade, and the US is just getting around to starting to build the infrastructure for this?

    what with the problems of air travel right now (expense, overcrowding, & safety, to name a few), something like a mag-lev system would be awesome for continental travel; say, LA to Phoenix, DC to Boston etc.

    it just makes so much sense that it will probably never be utilized in the proper manner.

    *sigh*

  2. I invented the maglev train (sort of) by wackybrit · · Score: 2, Interesting

    When I was a young kid, about sixteen years ago, I was introduced to magnets/magnetism, and like any budding engineer, I asked my parents why couldn't you have a big metal tube that was magnetised 'north', and a train covered in metal that was mangetised 'south'.. no friction!

    They couldn't figure out any reason why that wouldn't work, although I couldn't figure out a very good way of propelling the train at that time. My best solution was to stick a giant fan on the back of the train and have it push itself along!!

    It's quite funny, therefore, to see maglev come along in the last few years. I feel like 'I invented it!' Of course, that's not true, but I'm sure lots of people have great ideas without ever learning about the idea before, and then are bitterly disappointed when they find it already exists ;-)

    Unfortunately, my creative skills have dropped off somewhat in the past sixteen years, and now I'm doing drone work.. hmm.. perhaps these technology companies should be employing some smart 5 year olds..

    --
    mogorific carpentry experiments
  3. Are 500kph trains safe? by cdunworth · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Wouldn't it be pretty easy for some malcontent to kill hundreds of people by parking a car or hoisting some other heavy object onto the tracks of a 500kph train? You wouldn't even need explosives. The bodily trauma of violent deceleration in a train car careening about at 500kph is surely enough to kill anyone.

    This seems like it should be a huge issue. Airplanes moving at 500kph are largely safe because (a) it does so when there's nothing to run into but air, and (b) it's extraordinarily hard (though obviously not impossible) to intervene maliciously with their normal operation.

    How is this problem being addressed in Japan? Or is it? Or am I just paranoid?