Britain wants Maglev

[Anonymous]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,1500096,00.html
The Guardian reports Tony Blair held a seminar on building a 500 mile Maglev line to Scotland at a cost of 16 Billion pounds (29 Billion dollars) not including the cost of land.

It would be the same technology as that used in Shanghai. They say it can run up 10% grades and blow off snow up to 20cm deep.

[Hugh Jampton]

Yeah right,,, and I'm going to go out and buy a new umbrella to stop me getting hit by the s**t from all those flying pigs.

[88gta350]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Hugh Jampton

Yeah right,,, and I'm going to go out and buy a new umbrella to stop me getting hit by the s**t from all those flying pigs.

LOL!

[Junctionfan]

What is wrong with the trains they have now? There is nothing really wrong with Virgin's Pendalino and the Eurostar potential is high. High-speed in Britian will be slow because most of the rail lines still follows the two rail giants of the 30s. Those lines were only designed for the steam and diesel not electric high-speed.

[mudchicken]

Son of General Slocom, Tay Bridge, Concord and Brabazon!

[jeaton]

Wouldn't that put a bit of a dent in the Queen's expense allowance?

Jay

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jeaton

Wouldn't that put a bit of a dent in the Queen's expense allowance?

Jay

What he heck. They think it's sexy, new, modern. Why they'll be the envy of the world.

What a wonderful piece of equipment to place a Toyota Tundra ad onto. That alone will cover building costs.

Make sure to see the Simpson's episode about the monorail. I think that sums it all up.

Mitch

Mitch

[Anonymous]

Concorde was a White Elephant if you only consider passenger revenue but where would Airbus be without Concorde?
Maglev operating revenue won’t come close to covering expenses but Britain north of London has become flyover country. If Maglev brought some of the prosperity of the south of England to the north of Britain then it wouldn’t be as much a waste of money as say a program to return to the moon. The North votes Labor and maybe this pork barrel project would also pay off politically for Labor.
And don’t forget it would one up France.

[mudchicken]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken

Son of General Slocom, Tay Bridge, Concord and Brabazon!

and how could I forget?-the unsinkable TITANIC![(-D]...What I am talking about in each case is unproven technology prone to failure, scaled up inside the worlds biggest fishbowl.[X-)][X-)][X-)]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by garyaiki

Concorde was a White Elephant if you only consider passenger revenue but where would Airbus be without Concorde?
Maglev operating revenue won’t come close to covering expenses but Britain north of London has become flyover country. If Maglev brought some of the prosperity of the south of England to the north of Britain then it wouldn’t be as much a waste of money as say a program to return to the moon. The North votes Labor and maybe this pork barrel project would also pay off politically for Labor.
And don’t forget it would one up France.

I think Concorde was always a prestige project (the first supersonic passenger jet etc) and making money off the thing was always in second place/

Land issues will always be a problem with the UK being as crowded as it is. At one point some consortium wanted a high speed freight line running over the former Great Central Main Line, but the project was abandoned i think, so maybe they were thinking of using the ssame route for MAGLEV.

I'm not too keen on the phrase "the north votes labour" - I certainly didn't for one, and whilst I'm always in favour of a new rail link, i'm not sure I want the "prosperity of the south of England" if it comes with the urban sprawl and stress of an overdeveloped region . I'll stick with the flat caps and whippets..[;)]

Plus, this is Tony Blair we're talking about. How many promises has the man made and actually delivered on compared to the many pledges we've been made? And also I think you'll have to take into consideration the amount of time it takes to get a project like this into action. Be it a good thing or otherwise, I doubt Labour will win the next election (the more time you give a politician, the more time he has to p*ss the people off). This last time round the Conservatives were trying to get in on a ticket of lower taxes and government expenditure. If the election came before any work/land buying had actually taken place, would they pull the plug on the project?

As for what's wrong with the existing trains, it's not the trains as such (although Virgin's Voyagers are woefully small - it's a pity they put profit over passenger comfort there), it's the system of privitisation. I'm sure others have gone into depth but it seems to be awash in red tape, politics, blame and general navel gazing from those in authority. Personally, I'd flog the whole lot off to SBB (Swiss Federal Railways) - at least they know how to run trains efficiently, and we'd all get there on time, even if it wasn't on a Maglev...