So now that we have computer algorithms for routing things very efficiently, we could change the scheduling of the entire network on the fly. The vehicles have to move where the network sends them. This core feature is what’s most exciting to Jesse Powell. The further a Maglev train gets from its normal position between the guideway walls, the stronger the magnetic force pushing it back into place becomes. Similarly, traditional train derailments that occur because of cornering too quickly can’t happen with Maglev. Any two trains traveling the same route cannot catch up and crash into one another because they’re all being powered to move at the same speed. Maglev trains are “driven” by the powered guideway. Even though the train can travel up to 375 miles per hour, a rider experiences less turbulence than on traditional steel wheel trains because the only source of friction is air.Īnother big benefit is safety. This floating magnet design creates a smooth trip. Electrifying the propulsion loops generates magnetic fields that both pull the train forward from the front and push it forward from behind. The front corners have magnets with north poles facing out, and the back corners have magnets with south poles outward. Imagine the box with four magnets - one on each corner. Here, both magnetic attraction and repulsion are used to move the train car along the guideway. The third set of loops is a propulsion system run by alternating current power. Both loops use magnetic repulsion to keep the train car in the optimal spot the further it gets from the center of the guideway or the closer to the bottom, the more magnetic resistance pushes it back on track. Three types of loops are set into the guideway at specific intervals to do three important tasks: one creates a field that makes the train hover about 5 inches above the guideway a second keeps the train stable horizontally. Like ordinary magnets, these magnets repel one another when matching poles face each other. In Maglev, superconducting magnets suspend a train car above a U-shaped concrete guideway. In the United States, a number of routes are being explored to connect cities such as Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The first commercially operated high-speed superconducting Maglev train opened in Shanghai in 2004, while others are in operation in Japan and South Korea. Superconducting magnets are electromagnets that are cooled to extreme temperatures during use, which dramatically increases the power of the magnetic field. He dreamed up the idea of using superconducting magnets to levitate a train car. The idea came to Powell as he sat in a traffic jam, thinking that there must be a better way to travel on land than cars or traditional trains. James Powell and Gordon Danby of Brookhaven received the first patent for a magnetically levitated train design in the late 1960s. Maglev - short for magnetic levitation - trains can trace their roots to technology pioneered at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
What if you could travel from New York to Los Angeles in just under seven hours without boarding a plane? It could be possible on a Maglev train.