maglev

maglev, a floating vehicle for land transportation that is supported by either electromagnetic attraction or repulsion. Maglevs were conceptualized during the early 1900s by American professor and inventor Robert Goddard and French-born American engineer Emile Bachelet and have been in commercial use since 1984, with several operating at present and extensive networks proposed for the future.

Maglevs incorporate a basic fact about magnetic forces—like magnetic poles repel each other, and opposite magnetic poles attract each other—to lift, propel, and guide a vehicle over a track (or guideway). Maglev propulsion and levitation may involve the use of superconducting materials, electromagnets, diamagnets, and rare-earth magnets.

Electromagnetic suspension (EMS) and electrodynamic suspension (EDS)

Two types of maglevs are in service. Electromagnetic suspension (EMS) uses the attractive force between magnets present on the train’s sides and underside and on the guideway to levitate the train. A variation on EMS, called Transrapid, employs an electromagnet to lift the train off the guideway. The attraction from magnets present on the underside of the vehicle that wrap around the iron rails of the guideway keep the train about 1.3 cm (0.5 inch) above the guideway.

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railroad: Maglev

Electrodynamic suspension (EDS) systems are similar to EMS in several respects, but the magnets are used to repel the train from the guideway rather than attract them. These magnets are supercooled and superconducting and have the ability to conduct electricity for a short time after power has been cut. (In EMS systems a loss of power shuts down the electromagnets.) Also, unlike EMS, the charge of the magnetized coils of the guideway in EDS systems repels the charge of magnets on the undercarriage of the train so that it levitates higher (typically in the range of 1–10 cm [0.4–3.9 inches]) above the guideway. EDS trains are slow to lift off, so they have wheels that must be deployed below approximately 100 km (62 miles) per hour. Once levitated, however, the train is moved forward by propulsion provided by the guideway coils, which are constantly changing polarity owing to alternating electrical current that powers the system.

Maglevs eliminate a key source of friction—that of train wheels on the rails—although they must still overcome air resistance. This lack of friction means that they can reach higher speeds than conventional trains. At present maglev technology has produced trains that can travel in excess of 500 km (310 miles) per hour. This speed is twice as fast as a conventional commuter train and comparable to the TGV (Train à Grande Vitesse) in use in France, which travels between 300 and 320 km (186 and 199 miles) per hour. Because of air resistance, however, maglevs are only slightly more energy efficient than conventional trains.

Benefits and costs

Maglevs have several other advantages compared with conventional trains. They are less expensive to operate and maintain, because the absence of rolling friction means that parts do not wear out quickly (as do, for instance, the wheels on a conventional railcar). This means that fewer materials are consumed by the train’s operation, because parts do not constantly have to be replaced. The design of the maglev cars and railway makes derailment highly unlikely, and maglev railcars can be built wider than conventional railcars, offering more options for using the interior space and making them more comfortable to ride in. Maglevs produce little to no air pollution during operation, because no fuel is being burned, and the absence of friction makes the trains very quiet (both within and outside the cars) and provides a very smooth ride for passengers. Finally, maglev systems can operate on higher ascending grades (up to 10 percent) than traditional railroads (limited to about 4 percent or less), reducing the need to excavate tunnels or level the landscape to accommodate the tracks.

The greatest obstacle to the development of maglev systems is that they require entirely new infrastructure that cannot be integrated with existing railroads and that would also compete with existing highways, railroads, and air routes. Besides the costs of construction, one factor to be considered in developing maglev rail systems is that they require the use of rare-earth elements (scandium, yttrium, and 15 lanthanides), which may be quite expensive to recover and refine. Magnets made from rare-earth elements, however, produce a stronger magnetic field than ferrite (iron compounds) or alnico (alloys of iron, aluminum, nickel, cobalt, and copper) magnets to lift and guide the train cars over a guideway.

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Maglev systems

Several train systems using maglev have been developed over the years, with most operating over relatively short distances. Between 1984 and 1995 the first commercial maglev system was developed in Great Britain as a shuttle between the Birmingham airport and a nearby rail station, some 600 meters (about 1,970 feet) away. Germany constructed a maglev in Berlin (the M-Bahn) that began operation in 1991 to overcome a gap in the city’s public transportation system caused by the Berlin Wall; however, the M-Bahn was dismantled in 1992, shortly after the wall was taken down. The 1986 World’s Fair (Expo 86) in Vancouver included a short section of a maglev system within the fairgrounds.

Six commercial maglev systems are currently in operation around the world. One is located in Japan, two in South Korea, and three in China. In Aichi, Japan, near Nagoya, a system built for the 2005 World’s Fair, the Linimo, is still in operation. It is about 9 km (5.6 miles) long, with nine station stops over that distance, and reaches speeds of about 100 km (62 miles) per hour. The Korean Rotem Maglev runs in the city of Taejeŏn between the Taejeŏn Expo Park and the National Science Museum, a distance of 1 km (0.6 mile). The Inch’ŏn Airport Maglev has six stations and runs from Inch’ŏn International Airport to the Yongyu station, 6.1 km (3.8 miles) away. The longest commercial maglev system is in Shanghai; it covers about 30 km (18.6 miles) and runs from downtown Shanghai to Pudong International Airport. The line is the first high-speed commercial maglev, operating at a maximum speed of 430 km (267 miles) per hour. China also has two low-speed maglev system operating at speeds of 100 km (62 miles) per hour. The Changsha Maglev connects that city’s airport to a station 18.5 km (11.5 miles) away, and the S1 line of the Beijing subway system has seven stops over a distance of 9 km (6 miles).

Japan has plans to create a long-distance high-speed maglev system, the Chuo Shinkansen, which would connect Nagoya to Tokyo, a distance of 286 km (178 miles), with an extension to Osaka (438 km [272 miles] from Tokyo) planned for 2037. However, the project was delayed past its original deadline in 2027 when the governor of Shizuoka Prefecture opposed the geological survey necessary to accommodate the high-speed train, citing impacts on biodiversity and water supply (though many surmised that it was because Shizuoka was the one prefecture with no station on the line). The governor’s resignation in 2024 effectively resumed the project, with new estimates placing the Nagoya-Tokyo line’s completion in 2034. The Chuo Shinkansen is planned to travel at 500 km (310 miles) per hour and make the Tokyo-Osaka trip in 67 minutes.