A Maglev Train System for Florida?

Artifice_Eternity writes "For 20 years, citizens of Florida have been pushing for high-speed rail, as an alternative to the state's ever-growing, yet ever-crowded highways. A previous plan, the Florida Overland eXpress (FOX), was killed by governor Jeb Bush in 1998. The voters responded by passing a referendum to require the building of a "bullet train," starting by November 2003. The new Florida High Speed Rail Authority is focusing first on the busy Miami-Orlando and Tampa-Orlando corridors, but eventually hopes to serve the whole state. And they are seriously considering maglev technology! If the Florida HSR system did use maglev, it would be the largest one in the world. (Right now, maglev is in use on test tracks in Germany and Japan, with a 30-kilometer system under construction in Shanghai.) However, I like this humorous proposal best: it takes the idea of a "bullet train" literally, using the Jules Verne approach to propulsion."

Comments

Scotty, I need more POWER!!!!!!

[digitallis]

The logistics of supplying power to such a maglev system would be slightly insane. Florida has daily rain, coupled with the heat, that will corrode coils and short stuff out. Not to mention the hurricanes.

Oh yeah, let's not forget the couple 'o fusion reactors that'll be needed to power the sucker.

Re:Futuristic Trains in Central Florida

[rtphokie]

Disney abondoned in thoughts of running a monorail between it's property and the Orlando airport when they realized it would be way to slow. They supported the maglev high speed train project that was to run between the airport and EPCOT (with connecting service to Disney hotels via bus and monorail) right up until the point that a stop at Universal/I-drive was also added to the plans. Disney got real uncooperative at that point. Their goal is to keep visitors (and their $$$) on Disney property.

One more link..

[dizco]

"Off-duty troopers, hired at $30 an hour, picked motorists at random and directed them to pull off the interstate into a rest stop, where Palm Pilot- toting interviewers waited. "

That's how florida's high-speed rail authority recently choose to gauge public interest in riding the high speed train.

Re:One more link..

[BitGeek]

When exactly was it that cops stopped being responsible for public safety and became agents of the state?

Have you noticed that people don't even expect cops to do things relating to public safety anymore? ITs just a foregone conclusion that they are the state's bullies-- there to harass drivers, or bust drugs (which has nothing to do with public safety) or provide protection, or run interference for politicos and corporations (such as blocking traffic, or providing "security" which is really just armed enforcement, without the checks or balances of the law.)

When was the last time a cop shot an innocent person and went to jail for it? I can't think of any... seems they do that once a month here in Seattle and are never brought up on charges, let alone serve time.

Hell on TV they don't even try to portray cops as working for any kind of objectivity-- they are always working for the prosecution. Notice that? It wouldn't be so bad if they were genreally trustworthy, but its been widely reported the hundreds of cases where the state forensice expert cooked the evidence (Where was that? Missouri? Maryland?) For decade he was doing this.

Its time to get rid of the police part of the police state-- let private security agencies represent us and defend us-- and make everyone equal under the law. (And no more agents of the state getting first crack at the evidence so they can tamper with it. Completely lacks objectivity that.)

Thanks for listening to my rant. while I was born in the south, I left after I realized just how corrupt the states are.. Florida, LA, Miss, Texas-- hell cops were drowning people in Brayes Bayou and shooting them, while drunk, on the freeway when I left Texas (and of course, no charges are filed.)

Re:Pushing?

[lollipop17]

I was going to moderate this story, but I hate it when folks living in south Florida think they are the whole state. There are some people left that live north of I-4 and the turnpike and see money taken out of their pocket for a project only benefiting those that live on or south of it. If you don't live south of Ocala, naturally I'll eat my own shorts, but big money didn't have to buy the signatures- there are plenty enough ignorant people living here to naively think a high-speed rail would benefit them despite their living in say, Tallahassee.

I will say, you are certainly correct in your second paragraph, I just don't think you can convince me that because it was introduced via petition that certain mouse-eared companies had nothing to do with sponsoring said petition.

Jacksonville has a monorail system that is not used becuase it currently only benefits one small portion of a very spread-out city, and the voters won't throw any more money at it to expand the service because of the perception that it won't benefit them- I guess I just don't want to see that happen in this case. Traveling in south florida is a pain, what with all the tolls and everything, anything to relieve that would be nice.

Re:Pushing?

[Ratbert42]

Absolutely. This will be 1000 times worse than the Florida Aquarium, Tampa Taxpayer's Stadium, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays combined. Nobody will ride it. Well, not nobody. But very few people. Tourists, not residents.

The problem isn't getting between Tampa and Orlando. The problem is getting from the rail station to where you need to go. Mass transit in Florida is nearly worthless to anyone except the poor or the martyrs. I can drive to work in 15 minutes, but to take a bus I have to walk/bike 3 miles, switch buses twice, then walk another mile. It's 2 hours each way.

I'm sure there will be Disney and hotel shuttles though.

The solution (if you refuse to finance and offer incentives for mass transit) is better roads. We still have plenty of clover-style on/off-ramps where onramp traffic has to cross over offramp traffic. We have way too short merge lanes at critical spots. Crap, we have a right-angle bend on a two-lane offramp that many drivers take at 50mph+. A gas tanker flipped and burned there recently, trashing the overpass for months. Do these engineers drive?

If we'd just yank the license of anyone with a 3" tailpipe on a Civic and blondes with BMWs, I'd shave 2 hours off my commute time every week.

Where do I park my car?

[jyang]

In order for trains (high speed or maglev) to work, they'd better build a parking lot put walmart, target lot to shame.

I'm wondering how much distance a 150 mph train achieves its top speed. It's safe to assume we only have one station in every major cities, which are miles and miles of sprawl. Take a taxi from my place to airport cost me $50, and that's only one way.

I love trains, I do, but billions of dollars are better spent on some good city planning first. And like a famous quote from a Florida legislator: "We should pay every teacher in this state at least $60,000". I'll vote for that.

Another Practicality vs Gee-Whiz! toy...

[Mulletproof]

Mag-lev! Wow! Neato! Yeah, but shouldn't we shore up our existing commuting rail system before spending this kinda cash? You know, for once, I'd like to see a clean, well kept light rail system, not one that looks like it's about ready to fall apart like the ones here in Chicago. Or New York. And such a joy it is to wait down in those pits too. My first experience with light rail was in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. I got back here to the US and my first thought was "What a joke! This sucks!" and "Damn, it feels like the car is going to derail at anytime!" Let's bring what we have at least up into the 80's before waste more money on these toys.