Jenn wrote on September 16, 2009 02:48 PM: The California Nevada Super Speed Train Commissions’ Maglev project is hoping to get $2 billion in Federal high speed rail grant money for a system that only spans 40 miles from Las Vegas to Primm. Recent independent cost estimates for Maglev construction in this country, referenced in the Government Accountability Office (GAO) study, were performed by the Southern California Association of Governments, Maryland MTA (for the proposed Baltimore to Washington DC maglev), and the designated public transportation planning agency for the San Diego Association of Governments, found that the cost of maglev construction would likely range of $99 million to $199 million per mile. Given the above information, the cost for the proposed 260 mile line from Las Vegas to Anaheim would be between $26 billion and $52 billion. Such a cost would make the CA/NV Maglev project the most expensive transportation infrastructure project in the nation’s history -- more than twice the size of Boston’s “Big Dig”.

There in only one application of the Maglev train technology in the world. It is a short 19-mile demonstration segment at Shanghai’s Pudong Airport in China. Rather than extend this demonstration project, China chose to terminate utilization of Maglev and implement its own state of the art high speed rail network similar to what is being used in Europe and other parts of Asia. Maglev is built on an elevated structure even when running “at-grade.” No matter the height of the structure, it requires extraordinarily tight tolerances and structural stiffness, which translate into very short structural spans, very stiff structural decking and columns, and therefore, incredibly high costs. The world’s only Maglev technology supplier (based in Germany) has disbanded its development program completely. Operations and maintenance costs of Maglev are virtually unknown due to lack of manufacturing, servicing, etc.

Tom wrote on September 03, 2009 06:51 PM: I think that the Maglev is a good idea. You cannot reduce pollution, traffic and foreign oil imports without funding 21st Century mass transportation projects like this Maglev train. Also any train that is built needs to go from Las Vegas to Anaheim/LA. The Desert Xpress project that ends in Victorville is useless.

Ed wrote on August 06, 2009 07:01 AM: What a crock! Who is going to ride it from Victorville? Most of the jobs would go to Nevadans? Look at the map. Only fifty miles is in Nevada. How about a decent highway between Reno and Las Vegas.

Allan wrote on August 05, 2009 11:25 PM: In 2020 Japan plans to launch its next generation of bullet trains: a service that will connect Tokyo and Nagoya in around 40 minutes using maglev – magnetic levitation – trains which are much faster than conventional trains.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ 2009/aug/ 05/high-speed- rail-japan

Don wrote on August 05, 2009 01:07 PM: @Rob: Geoff is very much right about what you quickly forgot: "like stimulating the economy (thus increasing tax revenue)"

The stimulating factor of a transport connection is enormous and vastly overweighs capital costs even in the short run.

Rob L. wrote on August 05, 2009 10:38 AM: Geoff wrote: "A lot of the benefits from government spending are indirect, like stimulating the economy (thus increasing tax revenue). Sometimes it's just giving people jobs."

Taxing others solely to give someone else a job is self-defeating. How do you support that concept in perpetuity? Samething applies to rail plans that fail to support themselves. At what point would the billions required in subsidies be better spent by the people it was taken from?

Geoff also wrote: "All rail transit in the US gets government support. Air travel does too, since the airlines don't pay the full cost of the airports or the FAA."

This is a falsehood. Virtually every major airport in America is self-sufficient and many are large revenue generators such as McCarran. The federal taxes paid on air travel more than cover the cost of the FA and the TSA.

Lastly he wrote: "uneducated groundless assertions that it is pointless to build it."

I can only assume that was a veiled swipe at my criticism that this plan is a failure. Uneducated and groundless? I laid out plenty of grounds on why it will be a failure, just because you don't accept them hardly makes them uneducated.

There is no problem getting people to LV from LA yet you proposed tossing billions down a perpetual rathole to an organization that cant even keep its website up because it might create a job. So would giving those billions back to those it was taken from and it will be jobs that are actually in demand.

Skeptic wrote on August 04, 2009 02:32 PM: You've been trying to build this turkey for what? 10-20 years? Aren't you getting the message? No one wants to pay for it, and no one's going to ride it at the fares you'll need to justify this whoofer.

Btw, I've dealt with this Bender woman and she's a lunatic - absolutely no professional credibility. Is she even getting paid anymore? Or is she sitting in her mobile home out in the desert and just spewing this garbage of her Macintosh?

Don wrote on August 04, 2009 03:23 AM: @Lou: we are talking about existing systems here, not fictional rail/maglev-killer-wannabe systems that were never built anywhere in the world.
Please keep the discussion at that.

Lou B Wizard wrote on August 03, 2009 08:59 PM: Magnetic levitation will be a major factor in all aspects of transportation. However it must be coupled with the highest and best use of space,resources and little to no impact on the environment, a single purpose high speed train will accoplish nothing.
(ASBE) America's Sunlight Bullet Expressway. a high speed all electric train, is a complete transportation system that produces Energy, for electic trains and electric vehicles with Transmission lines on an Electrified highway with provisions for portable sub stations for natural disasters, terrorism and peak demands. As part of the National Security Defense System. It connects the East Coast To the West coast with a Northern and Southern corridor, each leg is aprox. 1500 miles or about 3000 miles total, they tie into the proposed interchanges of the admistrations High Speed Rail System. Why, throw our money away on systems that only do a small part of the job. E-mail for more info to eaglefinancial01@sprintpcs.com
or call the (Triple T) Transcontiental Transmission & Transportation Network @ 800 421-8782

Geoff wrote on August 01, 2009 08:45 PM: Rob L.:
When is the government NOT bleeding red ink.
I agree that we shouldn't spend money on "projects that are financial losers by any estimation", but we disagree on what those are. A lot of the benefits from government spending are indirect, like stimulating the economy (thus increasing tax revenue). Sometimes it's just giving people jobs.
Putting a man on the moon brought improvements in computers, in materials, dialysis machines got smaller and better as a result. The procedures used in every restaurant in America to keep them from serving food that will make you sick were developed by NASA to protect their astronauts. Do you really doubt that finding solutions to the problems of putting a man on Mars won't have other applications?

All rail transit in the US gets government support. Air travel does too, since the airlines don't pay the full cost of the airports or the FAA. The reasoning for the government paying is that these things benefit everybody either directly or indirectly.
Why are you so sure that a faster rail connection between Las Vegas and Los Angeles won't benefit either city?

I don't live in Nevada, so the only money I have on the line here is the Federal money, and the only benefits I'll see are those indirect ones, but the only way I'd begrudge the money is if the project never happens because of short-sighteness or NIMBY attitudes or uneducated groundless assertions that it is pointless to build it.

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