Transportation Bill Sets Aside $45 Million For MagLev Train 402
tbischel tips us to news that the MagLev train project which would run from Las Vegas to Disneyland has received approval for $45 million in funding. The project has been in the planning stages for quite some time, and it was delayed further by a drafting error in a 2005 highway bill.
"Derided by critics as pie in the sky, the train would use magnetic levitation technology to carry passengers from Disneyland to Las Vegas in well under two hours, traveling at speeds of up to 300 mph. It would be the first MagLev system in the U.S. The money is the largest cash infusion in the project's nearly 20-year history. It will pay for environmental studies for the first leg of the project."
Huge construction project.. recession.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, apart from the fact a dam is actually useful, and a train between two holiday resorts during a time when people have no money to spend on holidays is all kinds of pointless.
Maybe they should talk to the germans first (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Huge construction project.. recession.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Not at all, if it proves the technology. Ensures people are happy to use it - and paves the may for a cheap, fast, and effective mass transit to try and tempt people away from cars.
I bet the big automotive/oil firms are watching this like a hawk.
After all, who wants to drive between the cities when you can do it in a fraction of the time, cost, and in air conditioned comfort whilst reading papers, sipping tea, and chomping biscuits.
Many times in the UK I have wished we could reverse Beechings Axe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeching_Axe [wikipedia.org]
Even more with the massive fuel price increase we have had here in the UK. The long term solution is to change demographics (get people living closer to work) and to ensure a cheap and viable mass transit alternative.
How about this instead? (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/
About time the United States became like the other industrialized countries, don't you think?
Re:Critics (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Huge construction project.. recession.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Infrastructure problems in the East prohibit (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes and no. Yes, there are no more at-grade crossings except maybe near Boston and I think those have been eliminated. But there were some at-grade crossings that I have personal experience with. In Delaware crossing Red Mill Road and Harmony Road until the late 70s. The amount of signaling at those crossings was insane too since those trains went through there around 100+ MPH.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/6qwspf [tinyurl.com] Link to google map of one of the former crossings, since replaced with overpass a few hundred feet to the west.
Re:Infrastructure problems in the East prohibit (Score:5, Interesting)
Lots of trains in the USA (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, the bulk of continental freight shipped in the USA is by rail. Have a look at the rolling stock of the likes of Union Pacific, Norfolk Suffolk or CSX, and you'll see that there's been quite a bit going on.
For example, cars are just getting into gas electric hybrids, but the railroads have been running diesel electric hybrids now for decades. The locomotives are now into a new generation of hybrid technology.
The fuel efficiency of these rail lines is staggering. One or two locomotives pull trains that can be two miles long!
But you are preaching to the choir here. I love trains.
Re:Trains, US? (Score:5, Interesting)
If you have the time, I would recomend the trip.
Oh.. and if you are willing to sit in a chair the whole way you can get the trip for something like $100. I am not going to recommend that, but it is possible.
Re:Trains, US? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Trains, US? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: "making it actually useful" (Score:3, Interesting)
It's like the Cold War. We spent many billions of dollars on unusable weapons systems,to keep the bucks flowing between wars, now, when we've managed to get someone to actually attack us, we get to borrow our grand-children's savings so we can buy some real weapons that someone has to go use on someone else. Have you ever noticed how we have to issue bonds whenever our Fearless Leaders find some project actually needed by the public? Just another finger in the pie. Why can't we pay cash, just once?