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I just discovered your website and you are doing a good job.

I like your urban planning approach and note that your reading list is on track. I have been thinking urban planning and livability for 50 years and believe that we have a lot of common interests. I am orange line from Falls Church and think constantly about the next generation of public transit and the organization of the transit to fit the current and future communities. I am an advocate of the quiet, friction free superconducting Maglev system, invented in this country by my colleagues, Drs. James Powell and Gordon Danby. Their system was developed by Japan and holds the worlds speed record for transport. Powell and Danby's 2nd generation system is even better, their new 4-pole magnets are powerful enough to lift trucks (allowing a lot of deliveries to be made during the night and unclog our roadways. The system guideways are spectacular. The new system operates in a planar mode and can operate on conventional RR trackage that has been adapted for Maglev for ~$6 million a 2-way mile. This capability also allows the system to uniquely electronically switch allowing flexibility in station spacing and operating express routes on the mainline trackage.

This is the inevitable system for the 21st Century and if you think there is interests in planning a 2nd generation superconducting Maglev evolution of the Washington Metro let me know and we would do a plan for WMATA so that the authority would have some idea of what it would cost and how much they would save in operating costs due to much lower electric power requirements and much lower track maintenance costs. Another super advantage of the system is that it could be integrated with a high-speed national Maglev Network. You could catch a Maglev vehicle at any metro station and if there are enough passengers the vehicles could proceed to a destination anywhere in the country at 300 mph, once the vehicles joined the elevated high speed guideway. Or at any of the existing multimodal hubs ultra high speed Maglev service could be connected to the Interstate system. Thanks for the great Website. I signed up and hope that we can continue to blog on this issue. James Jordan, President Interstate Maglev Project and Excutive VP of MAGLEV2000.

by Jim Jordan on Aug 13, 2011 7:04 pm • link • report