There’s a proposal to build a maglev line on the Northeast Corridor – initially Washington, DC to Baltimore’s BWI airport then to New York City and maybe on to Boston.
This sounds like another Elon Musk type project but its not hyperloop. No details on who is promoting it. I think Japan has the best developed maglev technology (according to Nova programs from years ago). Are any systems commercial. In the Nova programs they used liquid helium for cooling to get superconducting magnets.
We don’t hear much about super conducting materials these days. Are they making progress.
Maglev is very fast, but is it practical?
A bit more info on the players. Advisory board seems to have great credentials.
We don’t hear much about super conducting materials these days. Are they making progress.
I think so
It was a moment three years in the making, based on intensive research and design work: On Sept. 5, for the first time, a large high-temperature superconducting electromagnet was ramped up to a field strength of 20 tesla, the most powerful magnetic field of its kind ever created on Earth. That successful demonstration helps resolve the greatest uncertainty in the quest to build the world’s first fusion power plant that can produce more power than it consumes, according to the project’s leaders at MIT and startup company Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS).
Yes, Wall Street Journal had similar article. Super conducting at over 60F, but under very high pressure. Sulfur and organic compound and a rare earth.
Interesting but maybe not ready for prime time maglev.
While I absolutely applaud the efforts to explore a maglev option for the NE corridor, the hurdles to doing so are probably insurmountable, in both the short and long term, particular as the train would 1) pass through and over highly populated areas where there would be the need for the use of eminent domain and given the populations along that corridor, I can imagine absolutely resistance, particular in high income areas; 2) “maglev” is actually not a new technology – it’s worked around the world but implementation has been snarled for decade by the automobile and fossil fuel industries — shocker, right?; and, finally 3) Biden’s substantial infrastructure initiatives are already being implemented throughout the NE, in particular working mightily to alleviate the bottleneck that is the tunnel connection between NJ and NY along the NJ Transit, Amtrak and Conrail lines that are beyond decades of their useful life and these bottlenecks will alleviated when the Gateway Tunnel is finally completed.
Again, I feel exploring maglev and how it can be ultimately implemented is a worthy endeavor. But let’s not let this wishful thinking divert our attention from the more mundane upgrades of bridges, tunnels, and roadways that MUST happen in the NE in order to keep the trains, plains and automobiles moving.
As an aside, there are a number of EFT’s that are focused on stocks that will benefit from the influx of cash into companies involved in rebuilding our national infrastructure, one is PAVE, which was moving slowly for awhile but is not beginning to move. Probably an investment that needs to be watched when infrastructure spending starts to trend down, but for now, it’s a good bet in my mind.
Northeast Corridor line is owned by Amtrak and is the most logical place for a maglev (or hyperloop) line. You wonder if the right of way could be adapted with very high speed line above or below. No doubt billions required. But likely to be profitable.
That’s correct. Another complicating factor is that Amtrak shares good bit of that track in NY / NJ with Conrail, NJ Transit, Metro-North Railroad, and (I believe) part of the Port Authority’s PATH system (again, not sure if PATH runs on those tracks, but I do know that at heading into Newark Penn Station there feels like a bit of gridlock that includes PATH trains). The construction of the new Gateway tunnel that is now underway (with no thanks to Chris Christie, btw) should ease that congestion.
Anyway, sorry for letting my transit nerdiness show through.
Conrail runs freight trains on the Northeast Corridor line between 2 and 6 am. Its a four track line. NJ Transit uses the outer two and stops at all stations. Acela uses the inner two and makes few stops in NJ. Probably Trenton and Newark.
To get to World Trade center south Manhattan you switch to Path at Newark. Path does not use NE corridor rails. Path station was damaged on 911 by collapse of the towers.
Path is inexpensive but slow. Faster to take NJ Transit to Penn Station and then subway south to World Trade center.
The tunnels are the main bottleneck on NE Corridor line. They do say investment in better overhead wiring would allow Acela to run faster especially NY to Boston. Current Acela schedule is similar to express trains with steam in the 1940s.
