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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by BNSFNUT With high speed conventional rail working well and being made better with research using Maglev seens like reinventing the wheel. [/quote] As an example, vacuum tubes work well, are still being made better, but the fact that people now use solid state for most applications doesn't sound like reinventing the wheel. In my humble opinion, the only limiting factor for a maglev would be the source of electricity used to power it. Be it coal-fired, gas-fired, oil-fired, nuclear, or solar power, it's got to come from somewhere and cost is going to be the big issue. The School of Engineering and Sciences at Old Dominion University has built a working maglev on the campus. It is designed to carry students from the west end of campus to the east end, running overhead between buildings and across one major thoroughfare. With maglev, what parts are there to wear out? Since the train rides above the rail, there's no friction to speak up, no axles, no bearings, no wheels, all of which contribute to friction. There is friction with the air that the train passes through, but with the speeds we want to use, friction is neglible. I don't think we'll be trying to run trains at Mach 3 (at least, not for a while), and as the technology gets better, the cost should come down. That's SHOULD, not will, since nobody can predict the cost of the energy required to generate the electricity. Hugh, I am amazed. I didn't know Sir Isaac invented the catflap! I guess this brings into play the third law of emotion - the amount of amazement is inversely proportional to the amount of obfuscation in the description.
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