Futuristic Shanghai's Risky Bet: Train On Air

Shanghai, striving to be the city of the future, begins construction on the world's first commercial railway based on magnetic levitation technology. Will MagLev succeed this time?

1 minute read

March 7, 2001, 1:00 PM PST

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech

"The idea of a maglev train -- floating a centimeter or two in the air on a cushion of electromagnetic repulsion created between superconducting magnets in the train and coils in the guide track, and zipping along at speeds above 200 miles an hour without friction -- has been studied for decades. But the only maglev service ever opened to the public, a link of less than half a mile between the main railway station and the airport in Birmingham, England, was closed in the mid-1990's after 11 years in operation because of maintenance problems.Since then, no government has been willing to underwrite the huge cost of building maglev lines..."

Thanks to Abhijeet Chavan

FULL STORY: Futuristic Shanghai's Risky Bet: Train on Air

Wednesday, March 7, 2001 in The New York Times

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