Maglev

THE NOTION THAT soon there will be sleek, high-tech trains hurtling along at 300 miles per hour on a cushion of air, shuttling commuters between Baltimore and Washington, has long been a beguiling image. Magnetic levitation technology, or maglev, has also been accompanied by serious reservations. Is it feasible? Cost-effective? Safe? But those questions have never provided a reason to reject the maglev project. Rather, they are the reason why it must be studied further. Lawmakers need to find out as much as possible about its potential rewards and its risks.

I am happy that you did not mention Mag-Lev in your editorial on high speed rail ( "Working on the railroad," Jan. 23). The proposed Baltimore-Washington Mag-Lev would be a disaster partly because it would be incompatible with all existing railroad track and trains. On the other hand, high speed rail is completely compatible with our existing system. Although new track would be needed in some areas, much existing track can be upgraded to the higher standards. Trains can use existing track to enter cities and stations.

Republican delegates who oppose a proposed high-speed train connecting Baltimore and Washington are questioning the timing and the objectivity of a proposed task force to study the issue. The legislation creating that task force, which lawmakers are to discuss today, would set up a panel of state officials to evaluate the proposed 250-mph magnetic levitation, or maglev, train that Maryland has been trying to land since the early 1990s. The Federal Railroad Administration will decide next year whether Maryland or Pittsburgh will get the right to go ahead with the project, expected to cost $3.8 billion.

Kevin C. Coates and I didn't exactly get off on the right foot. The longtime advocate for Maglev — for magnetic levitation — train technology wrote that he found my column last week praising a book whose author favored another approach to high-speed rail "offensive. " I wrote back that I found it offensive that he would be offended. He is, after all, executive director of the North American Maglev Transport Institute and ought to have a thicker skin. Eventually, we got past snorting at each other like bull moose in mating season and had a civil exchange of ideas about Maglev technology versus incremental approaches to improved passenger rail service such as those championed by author James McCommons in his book "Waiting on a Train.

Stephen Kiehl's article in the March 30 Sun asked, "Would anyone ride the maglev?" The answer is that there is a high probability some 30,000 to 33,000 riders a day would use the maglev in its initial year of operation of 2010. This estimate comes from a careful and painstaking study by Alex Metcalf, a national expert in travel projection who used survey and analytic procedures that have proved successful for many other highway and rail projects throughout the world. The maglev system is not intended for the average commuter who travels between Baltimore and Washington daily.

The state Transportation Department will ask the General Assembly to allocate funds to study building a magnetic levitation, or maglev, rail line between Washington and Baltimore, a transportation official said yesterday.Robert Agee, deputy secretary of the transportation, said that the department "is not one of those standing back and saying it's too new, it's too difficult, it's too expensive."At the same time, he said at a conference held at the Stouffer Harborplace Hotel that "we have to deal with it in the context of the fiscal realities" that so far have left Maryland struggling to bridge a $600 million budget gap in fiscal 1992.

A futuristic 300 mile-an-hour train that would run silently between Washington and Baltimore moved one step closer to reality yesterday as Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke appointed a committee to help promote the magnetic levitation rail line for Baltimore.The maglev train, as it is known, could rush commuters between the two cities in as few as 15 minutes, not counting a stop at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. But it probably won't be built here unless the mayor's Maglev Advisory Committee can raise $500,000 from non-federal sources to match a grant included in the U.S. Transportation Department's appropriation bill.

TWO IMPORTANT and highly visible efforts to transform Baltimore's regional transportation system have been put forth - the magnetic levitation train, or maglev, and the MTA's regional rail plan, a collaboratively developed 40-year blueprint for the area's mass transit system. These two are not, as some might suggest, rival predators struggling for control of a single bone of attention and funding. Neither are they separate but equally crucial opportunities for our city and state. In fact, maglev and the rail plan offer a happy synergy, like the parallel rails - or the pair of opposing magnets - of Baltimore's track to the future.

A 300 mile-an-hour train that could whisk Baltimore commuters to Washington (and vice versa) in 15 minutes would help energize and transform the two cities' economies into one large regional metropolis, the project's supporters said yesterday, but it will never happen without $500,000 for a feasibility study.Funding for the $1 billion prototype magnetic levitation -- or "maglev" -- train, is being considered by Congress as part of the mammoth transportation reauthorization bill, according to William Boardman, a Washington consultant who is head of a coalition working to persuade Congress to build the prototype ,, line between Baltimore and Washington.

A proposed high-speed magnetic levitation train whisking passengers between Baltimore and Washington in just 16 minutes could become one of the world's most financially successful mass transit systems, a new study concludes.Preliminary findings of a study commissioned by the Maryland Department of Transportation estimate that a magnetic levitation train would cost $30 million to $40 million a year to operate and maintain. But the train would rake in at least $60 million a year charging one-way passenger fares of $10 to $20, the study found.

Maryland has an unexpected opportunity to turn the Obama stimulus package into a local triumph. With a little vision and a lot of determination, we can make it happen. House and Senate conferees inserted language into the stimulus bill that provides $8 billion for high-speed rail systems. The funding was part of President Barack Obama's bold plan to help shift America's transportation priorities and jolt our high-speed rail infrastructure into catching up with what the Europeans, Japanese and Chinese have been doing for decades.

Any popcorn with that? Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy could be local producer Rodney Bethea's No. 1 promoter. She passed out more than two dozen copies of his now-infamous DVD Stop Snitching to legislators Wednesday in Annapolis. The DVD, which features Baltimore native and rising NBA star Carmelo Anthony and drug-smoking criminals who urge the killing of crime witnesses, is a colorful and profanity-laden testimonial for witness-intimidation legislation that Jessamy and Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. are pushing to get passed this year.

Decree drives efforts to boost special learning Sam Stringfield's column on the causes and cures of the Baltimore school system's deficit asserts that one of these causes is the "incredible costs of administering the decades-long federal special education lawsuit" ("Adding up causes, cures," Opinion Commentary, March 25). As the parent of a child who has disabilities and is entering the special education process within the city schools for the first time, I believe that lawsuit has been, and continues to be, instrumental in ensuring that appropriate procedures are adhered to. Unfortunately, despite the consent decree in the lawsuit, many parents of special education students in this city feel that their input in relation to their child's individual education plan (IEP)

THE NOTION THAT soon there will be sleek, high-tech trains hurtling along at 300 miles per hour on a cushion of air, shuttling commuters between Baltimore and Washington, has long been a beguiling image. Magnetic levitation technology, or maglev, has also been accompanied by serious reservations. Is it feasible? Cost-effective? Safe? But those questions have never provided a reason to reject the maglev project. Rather, they are the reason why it must be studied further. Lawmakers need to find out as much as possible about its potential rewards and its risks.

Baltimore's City Council received a sneak preview yesterday of how a proposed high-speed maglev train could one day benefit the city and region with thousands of new jobs and millions in investments. Also yesterday, the Maryland Transit Administration began a series of hearings to garner public opinion on the embattled project proposing to connect Baltimore and Washington by way of a 250-mph levitating locomotive. Maglev "is not a dead issue," said Phyllis M. Wilkins, executive director of the Baltimore Development Corp.

SHANGHAI, China - Every weekend, an unusual train glides out from a nondescript station, carrying its passengers at remarkable speeds along tracks high above the farms and factories east of downtown Shanghai. With a cruising speed of nearly 270 miles per hour, it is the fastest passenger train in the world, but what makes the train truly extraordinary is what it lacks underneath its alloy chassis: wheels. At a cost exceeding $1.2 billion, the Shanghai Transrapid line might be the most expensive 19-mile train route on the planet.

With opposition growing in Maryland to the proposed $3.5 billion maglev train, Howard County Executive James N. Robey joined the critics yesterday. Robey, who is also chairman of the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, waited to take a position on the disputed train while elected officials from Howard and Anne Arundel counties lined up against it. A cautious politician who normally supports regional transportation and economic development efforts, Robey's...

Republican delegates who oppose a proposed high-speed train connecting Baltimore and Washington are questioning the timing and the objectivity of a proposed task force to study the issue. The legislation creating that task force, which lawmakers are to discuss today, would set up a panel of state officials to evaluate the proposed 250-mph magnetic levitation, or maglev, train that Maryland has been trying to land since the early 1990s. The Federal Railroad Administration will decide next year whether Maryland or Pittsburgh will get the right to go ahead with the project, expected to cost $3.8 billion.

Stephen Kiehl's article in the March 30 Sun asked, "Would anyone ride the maglev?" The answer is that there is a high probability some 30,000 to 33,000 riders a day would use the maglev in its initial year of operation of 2010. This estimate comes from a careful and painstaking study by Alex Metcalf, a national expert in travel projection who used survey and analytic procedures that have proved successful for many other highway and rail projects throughout the world. The maglev system is not intended for the average commuter who travels between Baltimore and Washington daily.