The distance between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. is just 37 miles. This stretch is always heavy with traffic. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan suggested that a Super-Maglev train system be introduced in the United States to continue the US-Japan cooperation. That was last year when the Prime Minister met with President Barack Obama. The initial plan will have the train line from Washington, D.C. along the Northeast Corridor all the way to Boston. If the plan pushes through the one-hour travel time from these two points will be reduced to just 15 minutes. The whole project will cost the U.S. government $8 billion and Japan has offered to loan half the cost of the project in its initial phase.
Long-time dream
The dream of having a Maglev train line on the Northeast Corridor is not new. The Japanese government says they have received interest in the train system several months earlier from the federal and state levels. Also, it has been 10 years since the cities of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore thought of having their own Maglev train system. Even before the Japanese expressed interest in partly funding the project, they already have planned to have one way back in 2001. Somehow the uncertainty over the funding stalled the project.
Super Maglev Series L0
The JR Central Railway Company of Japan developed the super train. The Maglev trains do not have wheels. They are suspended over the tracks and propelled by electromagnets, which eliminate friction, thus, providing passengers with a quieter and smoother ride at speeds that are much faster than other trains. The Maglev trains are already available in several cities around the world, but running at top speed of close to 267mph on shorter routes. On the test tracks in Japan, the Super-Maglev runs for speeds exceeding 310mph.
The latest series of Maglev, the L0 was introduced late in 2012. The train is almost 92 feet long, with a section measuring 49 feet allocated to its aerodynamic nose. It was fitted with 24 seats when introduced. The full versions will have 16 carriages that will accommodate 1,000 commuters. The Super Maglev Series L0 will start operation in 2027 to link central Tokyo’s Shinagawa Station with the city of Nagoya. With the conventional bullet train called the “shinkansen,” the journey takes 90 minutes. This is projected to be reduced to 40 minutes when the Maglev trains are used. Future plan is to extend this all the way to Osaka by 2045.
Washington-based U.S. company TNEM (The Northeast Maglev) is already working with the Central Japan Railway Company for the project. The company is projecting that with the Super-Maglev, the trip from D.C. to New York will only take 60 minutes flat. The company is also working to solve the problems with curves, which require additional funding. The issues with curves caused the earlier projects to fail. Lack of legislative support was also a contributing factor to the similar projects’ failure in the past.
Photo credit: Taken by Alex Needham under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
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