Drop the family at Disney, take MagLev to Vegas
Gamblers with families might start humming "It's a small world after all" if plans for a high-speed maglev train between Disneyland and Las Vegas continues to go forward. The "technical corrections" legislation that was recently passed freed up $42 million from a 2005 transportation bill to go towards an environmental study of the first leg of the project. The train, moving at speeds of up to 310 mph while levitating on a magnetic field, would make short work and a smooth ride of the 4 hours it currently takes to make the trip by car. It's a great sounding idea that could give both tourists destinations a big green boost. That is, it's great until you check out the $12 billion price tag. Yikes! Of course, $12 billion might be ok if it's a financially viable proposition. The Central Japan Railway Co. is spending $45 billion on a shorter run and foregoing government subsidies to do it.
[Source: Blogging Stocks]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
tankd0gq 10:53AM (8/08/2008)
Well I guess we have to start somehwhere...
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GoodCheer 11:12AM (8/08/2008)
Well compared to $14 Billion for the 12 mile long Big Dig in Boston, that seems like a positive steal!
Though if it were me, I think I'd put it between LA and SF, rather than Vegas. (But I don't have $12B handy).
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Brent 11:17AM (8/08/2008)
That would probably cost a lot more, since you would be going through cities instead of the desert.
tony 11:22AM (8/08/2008)
Will it be a hybrid? 1 mode or two?
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GoodCheer 6:39PM (8/08/2008)
Probably on-grid electric.
That's the beauty of a fixed route.
MF 12:08PM (8/08/2008)
PORK. Pure and simple. Make Disney and the Las Vegas resorts pay for it if they want it, don't hang it on the taxpayer!
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Noz 12:22PM (8/08/2008)
$12 Billion dollars....
Hmmmm...12/1000 = 1.2% of the total cost of the war so far.
Shame...we could have done so many good things with that money.
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GoodCheer 6:40PM (8/08/2008)
Yes but....
None of that was 'extra' money. Every penny of the cost of the war has been borrowed from China. Would you support borrowing from China to build a railway?
Geoff Gibson 12:41PM (8/08/2008)
This sounds like a great idea!
I don't know how it works in Las Vegas, but college students in Orange County, CA always flock to Vegas during the weekend and something like this would make the whole trip that much easier.
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Mike Z 12:52PM (8/08/2008)
You could build a biomass gasification and synthetic Jet fuel plant (Sasol), land to grow the biomass, and jetliners to fly between the two cities for less than the $12 billion.
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meme 1:12PM (8/08/2008)
This system is to have a capacity of up to 240,000 passengers per day. A large 747 will hold around 400 passengers and costs $300M. Let's say that when you factor in time for maintenance and the like, a 747 averages 4 flights along the route per day, so 1600 passengers per day. To match the capacity of the train, they'd need 150 such 747s, or $45B worth.
Now, it's probably easier to keep the planes operating at near capacity than the trains (since the planes can change routes when needed), but clearly, it looks to be cost-effective in comparison to just the cost of the airplanes alone, let alone the airport and biofuel infrastructure, the latter of which will probably cost more than the planes by a good margin. And let me tell you, I'd *MUCH* rather ride on a high-speed train than an airplane these days. Flying has become torture, and I loved my experience with the high-speed trains in Japan.
MarkR 1:15PM (8/08/2008)
that's the last place in the world it needs to go. Vegas sux.
sure lets waste money so people can waste more money in Vegas.
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BlackCanary 1:25PM (8/08/2008)
MagLev is the biggest Vaporware of all time. This thing is awesome but no one ever builds one. We have been hearing about building a MagLev in Pittsburgh for 20 years. In fact one of the major suppliers is located in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately nothing has ever come of it. There was once talk of a MagLev linking Baltimore and Dc and another linking B-Wa and Pittsburgh. None of gone very far.
http://www.maglevpa.com/
I would love to see one built it is a great technology. In Pittsburgh the government decided to built a tunnel under the Alleghany river for the worlds smallest subway. That project cost around 8 Billion!
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Mr. E 2:49PM (8/08/2008)
I'm highly dubious about this often mentioned project. Primary reason? It will have to cut straight across the San Andreas fault. I'd hate to see the mess that happens when a train going 310 mph derails in an earthquake. Not to mention the cost of repairing the track.
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meme 6:58PM (8/08/2008)
Why would the track break? You think they don't know the fault is there? Of course they'll design the track to be able to shift with the fault. I can easily picture about half a dozen engineering solutions that would do the trick.
Now, how a moving train will handle the forces involved in an earthquake, that indeed is a good question. However, Japan is even more earthquake prone than California, and they seem to deal with it just fine.
John Rowell 12:22AM (8/10/2008)
Compared to the gasoline costs for the millions of people who travel the route, $12 billion is nothing. The time savings and environmental benefits are priceless. We really need to have maglev here in the US.
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