By Alex Landovskis and Véronique Rondeau
Advantages & Disadvantages
- Maglev train cars are less expensive to build and are relatively quiet in comparison to conventional trains.
- The maglev tracks take up a lot less land, because they are elevated. This also reduces the amount of collisions and accidents.
- No traffic!
- Maglev trains use far less energy than other types of transportation.
- Maglev trains do not pollute (since instead of using fossil fuels, magnetic fields are used to levitate and propel the trains forward).
- Maglev trains are much faster, because they float over the track eliminating rolling resistance and potentially improving the power efficiency.
- Maglev trains require Less maintenance (no wear because they float over the track).
- A lot of potential. The possibility of linking 2 cities, over a distance of 1500km.
- Cost is major issue when considering maglev trains, especially since they cannot operate on the existing, conventional rails. Guideways would need to be built in order to make use of this new technology, costing approximately $8.5 billions.
- The weight of the electromagnets in the EMS and EDS systems are also an issue. A very strong magnetic field is required to levitate the heavy trains, (the transrapid TRO7 weighs 45 tons) and maintaining the field constant requires a lot of energy which is expensive.