Our economy, standard of living, and national security in the U.S. depend on efficient, effective, and affordable autos, trucks, airplanes, and trains. But rapidly escalating oil prices and America’s increasing dependence on expensive oil imports from hostile and politically unstable countries threatens all three. The situation, bad as it is now, will get much worse in the coming years as world oil production declines.
The major mode of transport in the 21st century will be electric autos and trucks, and maglev (Magnetic Levitation). Oil-fueled autos and trucks will become as obsolete as coal-fired trains are today.
Why will this happen?
• World oil reserves are running out while demand keeps rising.
• There are no practical alternative fuels to oil. Biofuels can meet only a tiny fraction of U.S. transport needs and they drive up food prices. Hydrogen fuel requires impossible amounts of energy to produce it, and has insurmountable safety and security problems. Synfuels from coal and oil shale will greatly increase carbon dioxide emissions, speeding up global warming.
• Oil-fueled transport is a major cause of global warming, due to the carbon dioxide emissions from its tailpipes. As the developing world adopts the American lifestyle, global warming will rapidly accelerate, with incredible damage to the environment and human society.
Even though modern maglev was invented by two American scientists – Drs. James Powell and Gordon Danby in the 1960’s – the U.S. is behind the curve in the development of electric transport. The federal government started a maglev research program, but dropped it in 1973. However, other countries took up the slack and now lead the world in operating first generation maglev systems.
Japan’s first-generation Superconducting Maglev system, which is based on the 1960’s inventions of Powell and Danby, has carried over 50,000 passengers and holds the world ground speed record of 361 mph. Japan plans to build a 300 mph maglev line between Tokyo and Osaka that will carry over 100,000 passengers daily. Germany has also developed a first-generation maglev that uses conventional electromagnets rather than superconducting magnets. The maglev train in Shanghai, China was built by Germany.
The U.S. has a second chance to take the lead again, using the new and much more capable second-generation maglev system invented by Powell and Danby. If we seize this opportunity, we can develop a major new domestic industry with many thousands of new jobs and many billions of dollars in exports.
If we fail to grasp this opportunity now other countries will, and in just a few years America will have to buy maglev systems from abroad, just as with many other technologies.
We propose a modest federal investment in a Maglev Test Facility (MTF) similar to the ones built and operated by the governments of Germany and Japan. The program will demonstrate that the Maglev-2000 system is superior in cost and performance to first- generation maglev and European type high-speed steel-wheel rail. Demonstration of costs and capabilities will lead to an all-electric, all-weather, very high-speed (300 mph) network of maglev routes interconnecting America’s metropolitan regions.
The National Maglev Network will provide comfortable, fast, and affordable travel for passengers and freight. The system can be privately financed without government subsidy.
The National Maglev Network is practical, energy efficient, and can be quickly implemented before shrinking world oil production cripples national economies. The MTF program will require a total government investment of $600 million over a period of five years, but will yield trillions of dollars to America in new jobs and exports.
The U.S. has the technological capability to build the National Maglev Network. Its benefits are clear. Only lacking is the will and planning to move forward.
James Jordan is president of the Interstate Maglev Project.
