Comments

First of all, this train WILL happen if the free market is allowed to operate. I don't know about you, but I would be the first to put in buy a few shares in the company that builds this, and I don't think I'm alone. As for saving our economy....sorry to disappoint you, but transportation already makes up a rather small percentage of the price of most products, and nothing can "save" a government regulated economy, least of all a train. It will however, drastically reduce the price of, and increase the speed of, transportation. All the objections people have posted in comments could have been easily solved had they given the thought to it. How will it be funded? (Sell shares in a public company.) How will it withstand ocean currents? (Anchor the tunnel to the ocean floor/) How will it be protected from terrorism? (1. Keep the government out of train operations, to avoid making the train a terrorist target. 2. Employ various security systems, which may include ir proximity detectors, cameras, ocean current monitors, electric field detectors, touch sensors, robotic patrols, security contractors, and huge bounties on the discovery of vandalism and capture of vandals.) Won't other forms of transportation lose out? (Yes they will, just like the manufacturers of steam engines did. As long as the government stays out, these industries will be powerless to stop it.) I do have one objection though: Traditionally, trains were built with large, interconnected cars (as opposed to many separate cars), because this reduced air resistance, reduced engine costs, and reduced the risk of collision and derailment. The downside is that the entire train must stop at each station. However, this MagLev tran has no air resistance, no onboard engines (it operates by alternating magnetic fields, like the motor in a disc drive), and no chance of derailment. As long as collisions are avoided by the computer control system (which isn't hard), operational costs can be dramatically reduced if two tracks are built, and cars are allowed to run individually, with off-ramps at appropriate locations. Think about it: the majority of energy waste in any transportation system is braking; by allowing through traffic to proceed without stopping, braking is dramatically reduced, resulting in massive energy and cost savings.