Background
The idea of a train held up by magnets originated in
germany from a man named Alfred Zehden who was awarded
the patent in 1905. This idea would continually be
developed as time progressed when in 1962 Japan began
to research Maglev technology. The United States began
not long after, in 1969 with researchers James Powell
and Gordon Danby recieving the first patent for a
superconducting maglev transportation system.
China launched its first commercial maglev train
system, titled the Transrapid system, in 2004 and only
a year later Japan started a speed system named
Linimo. Since then other countries have picked up the
Maglev system such as France, Germany and Spain.
Why would we need another
train system? Why don't we just fly?
In
short, planes burn a lot of fossil fuels to
fly a small amount of people. According to
Boeing's website, a gallon of fuel is burned
every second. This means a 10 hour flight can
burn more than 36,000 gallons of fuel. Maglev
trains have no fossil fuel motor and thus
produce no carbon emission leading to a much
more environmentally friendly impact. Because
there is no massive fuel consumption with
maglev trains the cost of a ticket is
significantly less, a one way ticket in
Shanghai costs about 8 USD.
There are also extensive security checkpoints
that are required for flight whereas the
Maglev train system, while not lax, has less
extensive security measures. There also is
minimal time waiting for the train to receive
the go ahead for beginning the journey.
Maglev trains also have the luxury of not
having to worry about weather conditions as
much as planes. Heavy winds, ice, lightning,
etc, do not factor into the maglev system due
to the lack of contact between physical
surfaces. The train will simply float about
any ice on the track as ice does not impede
magnetic field movement.
Airplanes are rigidly locked into certain
routes where a maglev train can be more
flexible in where it stops and travels. It can
make intermediate stops much easier than a
plane can as all it has to do is brake as
opposed to landing.
Currently airplanes dominate the long distance
travel medium but with more research into
Maglev systems we could soon see a contender.
Elon Musk wants to build the hyperloop (See What's next) which
would make short work of long distances.