Sorry - no spiffy futuristic pictures of MagLev trains in this article. Nobody knows what an American Magnetic Levitation system would look like yet. The whole point is that America offers a clean slate to reinvent high speed rail for the 21st century, without having to conform to expectations.
So the $28 million federal grant which the state recently received to study a MagLev line between Baltimore and Washington is very welcome. Throw away the preconceptions and open your mind. Don't make the same mistakes as China or Germany or the Maryland Transit Administration's 1990s study, and don't make new mistakes overreacting to the old ones.
Don't construe MagLev as a threat to Amtrak in the Northeast U.S. Corridor. No matter what happens, that line needs billions in improvements, and sooner rather than later.
But a fifteen minute ride at up to 300 mph from Baltimore to Washington, part of the world's most powerful urban corridor, would certainly be a "game changer" - that often abused term would certainly apply. So let's REALLY change the game.
1 - Connecting to BWI-M Airport should not be a "given" - Airports are soooo 20th century! What's the point in getting to the airport in ten minutes so you can wait an hour in a security line? And how often do most people fly anyway? The purpose of MagLev should be to reinvent inter-urban travel, not to enable slightly quicker trips to Dubai, LA or Tokyo for which there's no competition anyway. In the 1990s study, this became a trap where the whole MagLev line became narrowly focused on affluent expense-accounted business travelers - an Amtrak Acela on steroids or a short-hop Concorde.
The airport area is devoted to supporting air travel, not overall urban activity like housing and jobs. Besides, linking to BWI-M would not be easy. There is no suitable right of way, and the cost and impact of tunneling is what killed the 1990s MagLev study, politically and otherwise.
2 - Don't assume maximum tunneling - After the 1990s MTA MagLev debacle, it's easy to just throw up our hands and say the whole thing needs to be all tunneled. Out of sight, out of mind. The 1990s study attempted to use an aerial alignment within the Interstate 95 corridor, but the deviations to serve the airport made it not worth the trouble, in cost, impact or in the extra travel time to slow down for the curves.
I-95 is straight and wide enough that an elevated line designed for sufficiently high speeds is possible, at a fraction of the cost of tunneling. And wouldn't it be cool to look out through your windshield and see MagLev trains whizzing by above you as you drive? Or look down from the MagLev above and see those old-school motorists like they're standing still? Both groups would then instantly know their place in the new travel paradigm.
It may not be as cool as the now-classic MagLev scene with Mount Fuji in the background, but BaltWash megalopolitans will identify with it.
3 - Plan for a whole new kind of "transit oriented development" - For an intermediate station between the two cities, all previous rules and expectations should be thrown to the wind. What kind of community would grow up around the station for a 300 mph transit line that could whisk you to Baltimore or Washington in less than ten minutes, and ultimately to New York in well under an hour? Who knows??? The only thing we do know is that it would be unlike any community that has ever existed before, and that it would not look like a 20th century airport. And since it would be unique, it would be extremely valuable for living, working and visiting.
The station should probably be built on a simple platform over Interstate 95 with provisions for adjacent high density "air rights" development - possibly located next to the Konterra office park near Laurel or perhaps next to the UMBC research campus in Baltimore County, especially if access to BWI-M airport is still considered a priority. Or maybe both.
The station areas in Downtown Baltimore and Washington would also be profoundly affected, with the additional factor that unlike suburbia, our cities are the accumulations of all our past history and culture and continuing evolutions.
4 - Plan for convergent technologies that take advantage of MagLev's unique characteristics - The digital revolution is not just one invention with one technology. It has had profound spin-offs that affect everything from telecommunications to controlling "the internet of things". The two fundamental transportation differences involved with MagLev are: (1) The propulsion is in the guideway, not the vehicles, and (2) All systems must be automated to work in a coordinated manner.
These differences should cause secondary revolutions. All the old rules about driver reactions and vehicle spacings will be gone. Pre-determined schedules will be irrelevant and vehicles can be dispatched in real-time based solely on travel demand at any given moment. Trains would no longer have to be a certain length and size to achieve economies of scale, and could consist of smaller single driverless vehicles. Many of the ramifications of driverless automobiles currently being studied would apply more and sooner with MagLev. Stations and guideways could then be appropriately downsized as well, resulting in less cost and impact.
5 - Maximize expansion capacity! - This is the transportation revolution for the 21st century. All aspects of it should be optimized to allow maximum capacity expansion. All stations should have bypass tracks so that vehicles only need to stop as necessary, and vehicles can be readily brought on and off line as needed. The guideway should be designed as a "trunk line" with provisions for future branch lines to Columbia or Annapolis or wherever.
In sum, MagLev should be planned and designed for the masses. Automobile and air travel were once the exclusive province for the rich, but inevitably they got to the mass market. Computers were once klunky things that cost many thousands of dollars. Now they're far more powerful and we put them in our pockets.
If anyone should have seen this, it was China with its billion-plus population, but they made the mistake of orienting their MagLev line to Shanghai Airport. What percentage of Chinese are air travellers? Not much.
Of course, it is America, not China, that's known for its freedom, innovation and personal upward mobility. Europe and Japan are known for their conventional high speed rail which has become part of their highly organized lifestyles. But America is now a blank slate for high speed transportation. That's why world investors and capital are becoming attracted to America for MagLev. Americans should be ready for anything.
So the $28 million federal grant which the state recently received to study a MagLev line between Baltimore and Washington is very welcome. Throw away the preconceptions and open your mind. Don't make the same mistakes as China or Germany or the Maryland Transit Administration's 1990s study, and don't make new mistakes overreacting to the old ones.
Don't construe MagLev as a threat to Amtrak in the Northeast U.S. Corridor. No matter what happens, that line needs billions in improvements, and sooner rather than later.
But a fifteen minute ride at up to 300 mph from Baltimore to Washington, part of the world's most powerful urban corridor, would certainly be a "game changer" - that often abused term would certainly apply. So let's REALLY change the game.
 |
| A MagLev alignment in the I-95 corridor? |
Five Basic Guidelines:
1 - Connecting to BWI-M Airport should not be a "given" - Airports are soooo 20th century! What's the point in getting to the airport in ten minutes so you can wait an hour in a security line? And how often do most people fly anyway? The purpose of MagLev should be to reinvent inter-urban travel, not to enable slightly quicker trips to Dubai, LA or Tokyo for which there's no competition anyway. In the 1990s study, this became a trap where the whole MagLev line became narrowly focused on affluent expense-accounted business travelers - an Amtrak Acela on steroids or a short-hop Concorde.
The airport area is devoted to supporting air travel, not overall urban activity like housing and jobs. Besides, linking to BWI-M would not be easy. There is no suitable right of way, and the cost and impact of tunneling is what killed the 1990s MagLev study, politically and otherwise.
2 - Don't assume maximum tunneling - After the 1990s MTA MagLev debacle, it's easy to just throw up our hands and say the whole thing needs to be all tunneled. Out of sight, out of mind. The 1990s study attempted to use an aerial alignment within the Interstate 95 corridor, but the deviations to serve the airport made it not worth the trouble, in cost, impact or in the extra travel time to slow down for the curves.
I-95 is straight and wide enough that an elevated line designed for sufficiently high speeds is possible, at a fraction of the cost of tunneling. And wouldn't it be cool to look out through your windshield and see MagLev trains whizzing by above you as you drive? Or look down from the MagLev above and see those old-school motorists like they're standing still? Both groups would then instantly know their place in the new travel paradigm.
It may not be as cool as the now-classic MagLev scene with Mount Fuji in the background, but BaltWash megalopolitans will identify with it.
3 - Plan for a whole new kind of "transit oriented development" - For an intermediate station between the two cities, all previous rules and expectations should be thrown to the wind. What kind of community would grow up around the station for a 300 mph transit line that could whisk you to Baltimore or Washington in less than ten minutes, and ultimately to New York in well under an hour? Who knows??? The only thing we do know is that it would be unlike any community that has ever existed before, and that it would not look like a 20th century airport. And since it would be unique, it would be extremely valuable for living, working and visiting.
The station should probably be built on a simple platform over Interstate 95 with provisions for adjacent high density "air rights" development - possibly located next to the Konterra office park near Laurel or perhaps next to the UMBC research campus in Baltimore County, especially if access to BWI-M airport is still considered a priority. Or maybe both.
The station areas in Downtown Baltimore and Washington would also be profoundly affected, with the additional factor that unlike suburbia, our cities are the accumulations of all our past history and culture and continuing evolutions.
4 - Plan for convergent technologies that take advantage of MagLev's unique characteristics - The digital revolution is not just one invention with one technology. It has had profound spin-offs that affect everything from telecommunications to controlling "the internet of things". The two fundamental transportation differences involved with MagLev are: (1) The propulsion is in the guideway, not the vehicles, and (2) All systems must be automated to work in a coordinated manner.
These differences should cause secondary revolutions. All the old rules about driver reactions and vehicle spacings will be gone. Pre-determined schedules will be irrelevant and vehicles can be dispatched in real-time based solely on travel demand at any given moment. Trains would no longer have to be a certain length and size to achieve economies of scale, and could consist of smaller single driverless vehicles. Many of the ramifications of driverless automobiles currently being studied would apply more and sooner with MagLev. Stations and guideways could then be appropriately downsized as well, resulting in less cost and impact.
5 - Maximize expansion capacity! - This is the transportation revolution for the 21st century. All aspects of it should be optimized to allow maximum capacity expansion. All stations should have bypass tracks so that vehicles only need to stop as necessary, and vehicles can be readily brought on and off line as needed. The guideway should be designed as a "trunk line" with provisions for future branch lines to Columbia or Annapolis or wherever.
MagLev for the Masses!
In sum, MagLev should be planned and designed for the masses. Automobile and air travel were once the exclusive province for the rich, but inevitably they got to the mass market. Computers were once klunky things that cost many thousands of dollars. Now they're far more powerful and we put them in our pockets.
If anyone should have seen this, it was China with its billion-plus population, but they made the mistake of orienting their MagLev line to Shanghai Airport. What percentage of Chinese are air travellers? Not much.
Of course, it is America, not China, that's known for its freedom, innovation and personal upward mobility. Europe and Japan are known for their conventional high speed rail which has become part of their highly organized lifestyles. But America is now a blank slate for high speed transportation. That's why world investors and capital are becoming attracted to America for MagLev. Americans should be ready for anything.
How about hyperloop? Obviously not as developed as a tech, but their pace makes me think they'll be making a Cal line long before the government decides anything about mahler. Has to be worth considering (especially to your point 4)
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ReplyDeleteTruth for the masses, basic rules: a planetary convention to create a New Humanism with 10 dignified selected basic rules for necessary moral education of Human Beings, and to select the True Beginning of Humankind´s History: No More religious Lie "2,016 a.c.". "The religious are the first that not belief in God, thus the Inquisition, thus they abuse of the innocents, thus they mislead to the foolish and thus they bribe to the folks" (Galileo Galilei). IT´S TRUTH THAT RELIGION IS LIE
ReplyDeleteTruth for the masses, basic rules: a planetary convention to create a New Humanism with 10 dignified selected basic rules for necessary moral education of Human Beings, and to select the True Beginning of Humankind´s History: No More religious Lie "2,016 a.c.". "The religious are the first that not belief in God, thus the Inquisition, thus they abuse of the innocents, thus they mislead to the foolish and thus they bribe to the folks" (Galileo Galilei). IT´S TRUTH THAT RELIGION IS LIE
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