Re: Evacuated Tube Transport

At 02:58 PM 11/6/02 +0100, Karl Heinz wrote:
>A specific example of this is the Transrapid Maglev train project in
>Germany. Nifty technology, but the cost of building the track was such
>that it could not be operated profitably even under very optimistic
>assumptions.

Which is why the first operational (well, maybe -- slated for sometime 
2003) track is being built in China -- they don't care about costs, it's
a 
big propaganda piece to say that China is becoming more technologically 
advanced.

Of course, if it works as advertised (covering the distance from Pudong 
airport in Shanghai to somewhere in the downtown area in around 8-10 
minutes) it will be a vast improvement over the 40-50 minute drive, or 
longer, it takes these days....

The other reason I've heard for the track going up in China is that they

don't have all the sticky environmental and human health-related 
regulations to go through, unlike most/all European and American 
countries.  Makes me feel *so* much better about the possibility of
riding 
on it, but I haven't tried to find out if that rumor is really true or
not.

					 Aaron Teske
					 Mithramuse@njaccess.com