LAist: The Other Orangeline: From the OC to LA and Quickly

Scott Mercer

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 23:36:46 -0800

Yeah, it won't happen. Too expensive. And, by the way, they are not building a MagLev train to Las Vegas. That's called the Desert Xpress, and it's a conventional High speed rail technology. Off-the-shelf stuff, like they currently use in France and Japan. It would go from Victorville to Las Vegas. That's it. It would cut about 1-2 hours from your drive to Las Vegas. This would be paid for with private money (quite doable since it would cost well under $1 billion, unlike MagLev), and could conceivably make its money back. Right now, it's under review by the Federal Railroad Administration, but since it's conventional technology, it could be built in 2-3 years. Might have to do a little bit of tunneling in the mountains though.

Bart Reed

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 23:12:28 -0800

MagLev is a huckster driven transportation mode that will only be built if "private industry" provides the capital in the multiple Billions of Dollars. What does this mean to a possible rider? Why let's take Santa Clarita to Downtown LA, a 33 mile trip. Based upon a weekly Metrolink Pass, your 5 or 6 day per week roundtrip is $45. With MagLev, the fares that have been estimated are something like $50 per round trip or $250 / week. But there is more. It goes really fast between 2 points that aren't likely to have much more than 15% of the travel to break even. Look at the Las Vegas Monorail. It is losing so much that it will run out of capital within the next two years. Now, Metrolink receives a subsidy to keep that fare at $45 / week, but even full cost (no subsidy) would only be $85 / week versus the MagLev at $250 / week. To put this another way, why doesn't Southwest Airlines offer service from Burbank to San Diego, Bakersfield or Fresno? The answer is the distance is too short, the fare would be too high and the ridership between these city pairs just isn't there. Another cost perspective: MagLev Anaheim to Santa Clarita $18.7 billion. The amount collected by MTA for all road, bus, rail operating and capital is less than $3 billion per year. If a public agency can't come up with the Capital to build such a project, how would private industry? Remember that the $18.7 billion, if paid via bonds would cost closer to $40 billion. The math just isn't going to pencil out. Time to stop the MagLev Hucksters and get the stupid cities in the MagLev Authority to withdraw. Not a good deal for anyone.

Wad

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 19:51:57 -0800

Raphael wrote: Instead of thinking about how much Japan and Germany "lost" on developing maglev there, why don't we ask how many MILLIONS of person-hours are wasted in traffic by people commuting between LA and OC. Well, for considerably less money, OCTA is double-tracking Orange County's LOSSAN right of way in preparation for 30-minute all-day Metrolink service. And Metrolink between Union Station and Irvine takes 60-75 minutes, faster and far more pleasant than taking I-5. This is happening right now, whereas the maglev plan is trolling for subsidies and investors. Or the BILLIONS we will be forced to spend on health care because of auto-related accidents and diseases caused by air pollution. And let's not forget all that money we will spend to "mitigate" the impacts of these highways on our streams and rivers, or our open-space. I bet it looks like a bargain in comparison. No, it will still be a nightmare. There is no maglev system in production. Every project has been a stand-alone prototype. This means any maglev plan will have to be developed from scratch. Maglev is too fast for local traffic. It cannot hit those speeds when acceleration is taken into account. And those 200+ mph speeds are more suited for long distances with no stops, but airplanes can travel faster while conventional high-speed rail uses less energy.

Jose Habib

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 18:50:29 -0800

Why do we need a 18 billion dollar system to get from Union Station to Irvine in 27 minutes when it can take an hour just to get to the Valley, South Bay or Westside? This money should be spent on a local rail system that covers more of the city/county.

Raphael

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 18:48:37 -0800

Instead of thinking about how much Japan and Germany "lost" on developing maglev there, why don't we ask how many MILLIONS of person-hours are wasted in traffic by people commuting between LA and OC. Or the BILLIONS we will be forced to spend on health care because of auto-related accidents and diseases caused by air pollution. And let's not forget all that money we will spend to "mitigate" the impacts of these highways on our streams and rivers, or our open-space. I bet it looks like a bargain in comparison.

Wad

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 15:58:50 -0800

J-9 wrote: still hoping this fucking country will *actually* get on the ball & get on the MagLev program already!!!!! Umm, no, let's not. Germany and Japan lost billions developing magnetic levitation technology and are trying to palm it off on the rest of the world. Maglev is inappropriate for short-range transportation. It would be like putting a Formula 1 engine on a skateboard. Nevermind the top speed. Maglev still must accelerate, and this is where most energy is consumed. and for long-range transportation, airplanes are still faster. Look up "gadgetbahn" on Wikipedia.

Adam Villani

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 15:06:40 -0800

Superman: The Escape is magnetically propelled, but it's not levitated. That's why it's so loud: the wheels. Maglev trains would be propelled by similar means, but they'd be more efficient and quieter because they'd be raised up above the tracks. There is also a group advocating a plan to build a maglev train to Las Vegas.

j-9

Thu, 08 Mar 2007 12:43:48 -0800

it's almost like the Superman ride at Magic Mountain, if you know what I mean - how COOL! (i'm not quite sure if that ride is MagLev or not, but shhhhheeeeeyite! Isn't that one of the many things the world needs now!) yeah - just throwing in my two cents - instead of the towel - still hoping this fucking country will *actually* get on the ball & get on the MagLev program already!!!!! Thanks for postisng about it...it's really quite about time!