The passenger Maglev in Shanghai connects the new city across the river, Pudong (literally "east of the Pu river") with the new international airport. for about 10 years. It is a German system. It is short, very fast and elevated, but even the Chinese have not elected to build more, even on small scales because the cost is so high. I enjoyed the ride, probably the fastest speed I will ever travel on land, but it seems impractical.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
There was a proposal two years ago to build a Maglev system in northern Germany, but the cost of building it killed the idea very quickly.
An experimental system is supposedly in operation at a college campus somewhere in the U.S., but the cost of it was something like $1 million per half a mile..
This has been floating around for almost 30 years now but has not caught on. I believe the Chinese and or Japanese built a test bed but the actual costs of building...including purchase of right of way...far outways the return at least for the moment. Even rededicating a ROW to it has not appeared to be cost effective. So despite its supposed "good science" and "good economics", it has not been accepted as yet and is quesitonable as to when it might be.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kaXi6DeuoM
http://www.qhappy.com/mwg/
http://larouchepac.com/node/14730
A proposed maglev system for carrying both passengers and freight. It uses an elevated guideway rather than an at grade guideway. Such a system could be built along existing right of ways.
Railroad to Freedom
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