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Mag-Lev from LA to LV gets funding

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Posted by HarveyK400 on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 3:05 PM

How will a 350mph maglev make a faster trip than a 550mph aircraft?  Actually gate-to-gate may be a few minutes slower if taxiing time and the approach path are included.  I don't want to hear about downtown-to-downtown.  What proportion of Las Vegas visitors from the Los Angeles area begin their trip from downtown?

If people want to fly, they already take the plane.  How many fly now?  How many would fly if ticket prices were high enough to cover all costs - jet fuel, air traffic control, airport operation and security, et cetera - and return a reasonable profit?

May as well fly from a LA regional airport.  Using the existing airports is a lot cheaper than building a maglev.  An airport takes up a lot of land; but a 250-mile maglev with a 200-foot easement would be 9.5 sq mi, about the size of one airport and a comparison Joe Vranich (Supertrains) would make.  Runways may represent a substantial cost; but not nearly as much as for a mostly elevated structure.  If airlines are having a hard time recovering their costs now, what chance is there for a maglev?

Where could the line be built?  How could it be built to minimize the cost of residential and commercial dislocations? 

I don't expect energy cost to be much different; but I'd like to be proved wrong. 

Maglev doesn't lend itself to distributing passengers in the suburbs on exsiting regional rail lines.  If however the Maglev begins in San Bernadino, would passengers come from downton Los Angeles, Santa Monica, or Annaheim?

Some well-connected consultant won't go hungry.

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Posted by eltraino2 on Saturday, June 21, 2008 11:35 AM

 daveklepper wrote:
Let us all hope that this effort produces something useful, like rail passenger service, after an impartial engineering rerport states the obvious.

45 Million goes to the Congressmans favorite political ad agency and as kickbacks to enginerring contractors....just like the smoking settlement money.... The end of the Roman Empire is near

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Posted by Amtrak77 on Thursday, June 19, 2008 9:41 AM

All I have to say is "About SoapBox [soapbox] time!!!"

Timothy D. Moore Take Amtrak! Flying is for upper class lazy people
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Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, June 19, 2008 7:00 AM
Let us all hope that this effort produces something useful, like rail passenger service, after an impartial engineering rerport states the obvious.
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Posted by tomikawaTT on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 1:43 AM
 narig02 wrote:

My 2 Cents worth.

      The one thing that strikes my about mag lev is that you are using power to levitate(lev). Why can't someone just get Sen Reid to just do steel wheel on steel rail in a futuristic why(art deco plastic, stainless steel, ya da ya da ya da)

rgds IGN

Why can't we just get Happy Harry (who always looks like he's sucking on a lemon) to resign or retire?  Then maybe Nevada could elect somebody smarter.

As for the one casino jackpot of funding - for a Maglev??? - none of the Las Vegas media outlets even bothered to announce it.  Shows just how seriously it's being taken in Sin City.

Chuck (Clark County, NV, resident)

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Posted by Anonymous on Monday, June 16, 2008 12:01 AM

My 2 Cents worth.

      The one thing that strikes my about mag lev is that you are using power to levitate(lev). Why can't someone just get Sen Reid to just do steel wheel on steel rail in a futuristic why(art deco plastic, stainless steel, ya da ya da ya da)

rgds IGN

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Posted by alphas on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 4:36 PM
Was this one of Harry Reed's earmarks?   Its too small to accomplish much but it does get the camel's nose under the public funding tent.
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Posted by DMUinCT on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 8:57 AM
  Maglev, huge user of Electric Power to reach 300 mph.  A 200 mph TGV could be built for a lot less.

Don U. TCA 73-5735

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Posted by Ham Radio on Sunday, June 8, 2008 10:41 PM
It'll never get built.
Ham Radio Orange County, California learn more about amateur radio at www.arrl.org
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Posted by Cricketer on Sunday, June 8, 2008 5:12 PM

A bad idea - not so much the principle of some kind of public transport between the two cities, but the idea of Maglev. There are lots of perfectly good high speed rail lines using steel on steel technology. They work and the technology is mature.

Maglev is untried over long distances. There is one high speed Maglev line in China. There are high speed conventional, purpose built lines lines in France, Spain, Belgium, the UK, Germany, Italy, Taiwan and Japan to name the ones that come to mind immediately. Well over 2000 miles in total. And don't forget rolling resistance isn't the main drag factor at high speeds, it is wind resistance which increases with the square of the speed.

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Posted by Prairietype on Saturday, June 7, 2008 6:20 PM

$45 million will pay for the ad agency fees and the campaign.

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Posted by blue streak 1 on Saturday, June 7, 2008 6:19 PM
not enough money to even do a good feasibility study!
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Mag-Lev from LA to LV gets funding
Posted by amsr on Saturday, June 7, 2008 1:28 AM
Interesting story...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/06/futuristic-levitating-tra_n_105783.html

Apparently a new bill that Bush signed gave 45million for a mag lev from LA to LV? Thoughts?

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