What are facts about maglev trains?

Answer 1

Advantages : they'd be wonderful on the moon OR in vacuum tunnels bored through the Earth.

Disadvantages : expensive, and by that I mean that their cost does not translate into savings. Like growing corn to make ethanol for fuel when the BTU's spent in fuel and fertilizer exceeds the BTU's you get from the alcohol.

Answer 2

Maglev trains are sometimes called airplanes because they move without touching the ground. Because electro-magnets keep them hovering above the railway lines the tracks and the trains need hardly any maintenance at all. This is a huge saving compared with normal, even high speed trains.

They use special tracks, so they cannot run on ordinary train lines, but the cost of installing the tracks is soon recovered from the savings on maintenance.

Answer 3

The longest Maglev

in use today is the Shanghai

Maglev

at 30.5 km. It runs between Shanghai airport and Shanghai

at a speed of 431 km/h.

Answer 4

1) Maglevs have significantly lower rolling friction than normal trains.

2) They are ridiculously expensive, and require new infrastructure.