MagLev Anaheim to Las Vegas gets more funding

[Arkarch]

Bush signs $45 million for Anaheim-Las Vegas MagLev project.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j4EtZuU...oYI0wAD914R5LG1

Plans for a levitating train from Las Vegas to Disneyland can move forward under a transportation bill signed by President Bush on Friday that frees up $45 million for the futuristic project.

Primarily for the first phase, which likely connects Vegas to the Airline super-hub "Ivanhoe Valley Regional Airport " being built near Primm/Jean NV (Stateline), opening sometime near 2020.

Still, I'd wish we'd get some sort of train on the UP tracks below. With fuel costs and the usual 6-8 hour Sunday return commute, there may be enough potential customers Fullerton-Vegas.

 

[GG-1]

Bush signs $45 million for Anaheim-Las Vegas MagLev project.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j4EtZuU...oYI0wAD914R5LG1

Plans for a levitating train from Las Vegas to Disneyland can move forward under a transportation bill signed by President Bush on Friday that frees up $45 million for the futuristic project.

Primarily for the first phase, which likely connects Vegas to the Airline super-hub "Ivanhoe Valley Regional Airport " being built near Primm/Jean NV (Stateline), opening sometime near 2020.

Still, I'd wish we'd get some sort of train on the UP tracks below. With fuel costs and the usual 6-8 hour Sunday return commute, there may be enough potential customers Fullerton-Vegas.

This is good news, even though in my opinion there never was a reason to stop the service between LA and Vegas as every trip I made the train was close to capacity.

Aloha

 

[sechs]

As I understand it, this closes a loophole that would have allowed funds to be spent on standard diesel-electric service. I translate that as Amtrak on the existing line.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Good, $45 Million. Enough for about 6" of track. Perfect.

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

Good, $45 Million. Enough for about 6" of track.

The link provided by the original poster notes that this is for an environmental study.

I do have to wonder, if you have an environmental study for a maglev train, how hard it is to adapt the results of that study to something along the lines of a TGV type train. Interoperability between various parts of the national rail system is valuable thing.

The article also claims that Amtrak service on that route was suspended in 1997 due to low ridership. That makes me wonder whether this route is really worth investing in at all.

 

[da40flyer]

Good, $45 Million. Enough for about 6" of track.

The link provided by the original poster notes that this is for an environmental study.

I do have to wonder, if you have an environmental study for a maglev train, how hard it is to adapt the results of that study to something along the lines of a TGV type train. Interoperability between various parts of the national rail system is valuable thing.

The article also claims that Amtrak service on that route was suspended in 1997 due to low ridership. That makes me wonder whether this route is really worth investing in at all.

Of course if the gov't wasn't spending a billion a month in Iraq, the MagLev could be well on it's way to becoming a reality by now.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Good, $45 Million. Enough for about 6" of track.

The link provided by the original poster notes that this is for an environmental study.

I do have to wonder, if you have an environmental study for a maglev train, how hard it is to adapt the results of that study to something along the lines of a TGV type train. Interoperability between various parts of the national rail system is valuable thing.

The article also claims that Amtrak service on that route was suspended in 1997 due to low ridership. That makes me wonder whether this route is really worth investing in at all.

The route, the Desert Wind was suspended for two reasons: 1) lack of funding, 2) need for equipment to make its mother train, the California Zephyr, daily.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., praised passage of the law, saying the MagLev project "will safely and efficiently move people between Southern California and Las Vegas."

...so they can throw away their money more easily.

I'm sure maglev proponents have their ducks in a row, but I really wonder about the feasibility of such a complex, and therefore inherently delicate, technology in the harsh desert environment. Temperature extremes and blowing sand that gets in everything. Maintenance costs would be a far greater issue than for maglev lines in more temperate climes.

Not to mention the prospect of tarantulas and scorpions crawling around under the seats.

On the other hand, a straight shot maglev route to Vegas, if feasible, would maximize maglev's high-speed strengths.

Perhaps, in these times of skyrocketing fuel prices (they're not gonna go back down, folks), it would be opportune to try running a limited-stop train - an express - L.A. area-Vegas to gauge demand, with a clear and publicized understanding that it's a trial balloon for high-speed service (TGV, monorail, maglev, whatever) in the future.

 

[George Harris]

Bush signs $45 million for Anaheim-Las Vegas MagLev project.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j4EtZuU...oYI0wAD914R5LG1

Plans for a levitating train from Las Vegas to Disneyland can move forward under a transportation bill signed by President Bush on Friday that frees up $45 million for the futuristic project.

Primarily for the first phase, which likely connects Vegas to the Airline super-hub "Ivanhoe Valley Regional Airport " being built near Primm/Jean NV (Stateline), opening sometime near 2020.

C O M P L E T E W A S T E O F M O N E Y

Harry Reid probably has a some buddy involved.

when you get past the confused wording in this little tidbit:

The money had been delayed by a drafting error in Congress' 2005 highway bill, which was corrected along with some other changes by the legislation signed Friday by Bush. The delay had allowed a competing and cheaper diesel-electric plan to emerge as an alternative, but with the money now freed up supporters hope to move forward with the MagLev plan.

It says the first time the study was made, Maglev proved to be worse than the alternatives, so they had to rewrite the bill so that the alternatives could not be considered. If you don't like the results, change the rules ! !

 

[Arkarch]

My understanding is that the first phase is just Jean/Primm to Vegas - a relatively easy 30-40 mile Shanghai-type route on the desert. The new Hub Airport of course is the primary target - and may get lots of traffic. The whole Las Vegas to Anaheim thing is way out on the horizon.

But things could have changed. Like to find an up-to-date resource for all this.

As to use.. Way back when the weekend travel Vegas-LA was not that bad. Nowadays its very crowded (several sections of I-15 are now 6-lane) + those that do travel (lots) pay a bunch for fuel. If its relatively fast, I think it would work. Doesnt need to be 2 hours - I think 4 hours would absolutely change heads... depart by 5 pm, arrive by 9 pm.

So while I applaud the effort for MagLev - a more standard mode could work. But I dont think UP tracks allow for that timing and UP really doesnt want them. The last effort got bogged down due to double-tracking considerations.

And yes, the $45 is for the Environmental Studies. Not for construction.

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

The route, the Desert Wind was suspended for two reasons: 1) lack of funding, 2) need for equipment to make its mother train, the California Zephyr, daily.

How many months or years could the Desert Wind be funded for $45 million?

 

[jis]

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., praised passage of the law, saying the MagLev project "will safely and efficiently move people between Southern California and Las Vegas."
...so they can throw away their money more easily.

As usual, those windbag Senators need to go and get their heads examined h34r:

 

[GP35]

The route, the Desert Wind was suspended for two reasons: 1) lack of funding, 2) need for equipment to make its mother train, the California Zephyr, daily.

How many months or years could the Desert Wind be funded for $45 million?

If equipment was no issued, $45 million could run the DW at least 7 years.

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

What's the length of time for the Desert Wind's run?

(I'm pretty sure AlanB will argue that it's long enough that not using the mothballed Amfleet I cars would be best. Then again, are all of the Amfleet II cars on routes where Amfleet I cars would be a poor choice?)

 

[Green Maned Lion]

The route, the Desert Wind was suspended for two reasons: 1) lack of funding, 2) need for equipment to make its mother train, the California Zephyr, daily.

How many months or years could the Desert Wind be funded for $45 million?

It couldn't. Lack of equipment. It was an overnight SLC/DEN to LAX train, and it needs sleepers. There aren't any Superliner sleepers sitting unused these days.

What's the length of time for the Desert Wind's run?
(I'm pretty sure AlanB will argue that it's long enough that not using the mothballed Amfleet I cars would be best. Then again, are all of the Amfleet II cars on routes where Amfleet I cars would be a poor choice?)

There are more runs with Amfleet Is that could use Amfleet IIs, then runs with Amfleet IIs that could tolerate Amfleet Is. However, that being said, it would be possible to rebuild the Amfleet Is into long distance coaches. Infact, initially before the Amfleet IIs came in some Amfleet Is were configured as LD coaches.

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

Hmm. Maybe a better question is: what would a set of trainsets for the Desert Wind cost?

By automobile, Anaheim to Las Vegas appears to be 264 miles. I'm not really sure I understand what the benefit of maglev is for someone traveling from Los Angeles Union Station to Las Vegas, assuming they aren't planning to extend the maglev all the way to LAUS. The travel time for a maglev that maxes out at 300 MPH from Anaheim to Las Vegas may well be about an hour. With current TGV technology, probably more like an hour and a half. But with maglev, you'd have to change trains in Anaheim, and on the westbount Lake Shore Limited I took last month, the layover to transfer in ALB was an hour and a half. Are they really going to get the transfer time down to 15 minutes or less? Furthermore, I'm ignoring the very real possibility to TGV type technology getting even faster in the future.

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

The Wikipedia article is pretty perplexing, too. The summary seems to be ``track upgrades are too expensive. Fortunately, maglev is available as an alternative.'' Isn't maglev more expensive to build than TGV?

 

[Ham Radio]

:angry: I expect some environmentalist lawsuit mill to evenually file an action against this proposal due to some "rare" weed growing near the right-of-way.

 

[sechs]

Actually, it's a turtle, isn't it?

 

[AlanB]

Actually, it's a turtle, isn't it?

IIRC, yes, that's what derailed the attempt by Amtrak to restart service a few years back.

 

[PerRock]

wasn't there a talgo set running the DW for a while as well?

peter

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

Actually, it's a turtle, isn't it?

IIRC, yes, that's what derailed the attempt by Amtrak to restart service a few years back.

Is ths all an active freight route right now?

 

[George Harris]

Actually, it's a turtle, isn't it?

IIRC, yes, that's what derailed the attempt by Amtrak to restart service a few years back.

Is ths all an active freight route right now?

Yes. The issue that got derailed by the turtle was adding a siding, maybe two or a short section of double track. Don't remember the exact details. many of these environmental impact reports can be found on the web. If you have lots of time on your hands, read one sometime. Everything is historic or significant or whatever. If these things existed in 1800 we would all still be following a mule across a field and burying half our children before they were 10, becuase there would be none of technolgical advances of the 19th century. Can you picture the Environmental Impact Statement for the Steam Locomotive?

 

[AlanB]

Actually, it's a turtle, isn't it?

IIRC, yes, that's what derailed the attempt by Amtrak to restart service a few years back.

Is ths all an active freight route right now?

Yes, AFAIK it is a very active freight route. And UP is enjoying the fruits of the failed attempt to restore passenger service, as upgrades were made to those tracks in anticipation of the service with public monies.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Why would a turtle cause a few more trains added to a very busy line to not come into being?