Baltimore-Washington Maglev closer to biting the dust

[MARC Rider]

https://www.bayjournal.com/news/pol...cle_332ae686-fdbf-11ee-ae7a-8bb4a47e0084.html

Not only has FRA stopped doing studies on this boondoggle, the company (Northeast Maglev) itself pulled their application for a water quality permit after being told by the Maryland Department of the Environment that their application would be rejected. It's not 100% staked-in-the-heart dead, as Northeast Maglev says it plans to reapply after collecting more information and plans.

As background, this project was touted by our former governor, who seemed to have a case of gadgetbahn fever in addition to his eagerness to cut tolls on various highway toll facilities, and a certain amount of hostility towards traditional rail transit. My impression was that he saw public transit as being mainly buses to allow poor people from the inner city to be able to get to their jobs in the suburbs. Anyway, we have a new governor who is reversing the hostility to rail projects and who, I presume, does not have the gadgetbahn fever so bad.

Some features about the actual plans for this project also indicate how poorly thought-out it is. The 40 mile ride will be 70% in a 300-ft deep tunnel. (Well, the tunnels will be "up to 300 ft deep." that might mean that 27 miles will be in tunnels 10 feet deep, with one really deep section.) The aboveground part will be on 150 ft. high pylons. I'm not sure what that's needed, unless there's a harbor crossing where they need to have tall ships be able to pass under. The Washington Terminal will be a Mt Vernon Square. That's where the Convention center is. Obviously this will involve a deally deep underground station that will need to be constructed with disturbing all the stuff that built up in the area, including the Yellow/Green Line Metro. The Baltimore Terminal is going to be in a neighborhood called Cherry Hill, not very close the anywhere that the kinds of people who are going to pay $60 (the estimated average fare) are going to want to visit. (It's home to Baltimore's largest public housing project.) The neighborhood doesn't even have particularly good highway access. There is a light rail stop, though. I also think that a 15 minute Baltimore - Washington ride is a pipe dream, especially if there's a stop at BWI airport.

It would be better to use the money to upgrade the existing Amtrak line, to have the capacity to run more MARC express trains that might be able to do the run in 30 - 40 mins, like the Acela and Northeast Regional can do right now, and maybe also have a side route that would diverge off the main line and directly serve the BWI Airport terminal without having to use the shuttle bus, or at the very least, build a dedicate BRT lane so that the shuttle bus can run non-stop between the existing station and the airport terminal, and maybe also directly from the train station to the rental car facility, which is pretty close to the train station.

 

[joelkfla]

and maybe also have a side route that would diverge off the main line and directly serve the BWI Airport terminal without having to use the shuttle bus, or at the very least, build a dedicate BRT lane so that the shuttle bus can run non-stop between the existing station and the airport terminal, and maybe also directly from the train station to the rental car facility, which is pretty close to the train station.

How about an APM?

 

[west point]

It is ~41+miles between Washington Union station and Baltimore Union station. It would be better that the route would be upgraded for speeds in excess of 160 MPH. No permanent slow sections except at Washington Union Station and Fredrick Douglass tunnel bores. That would include 4 main tracks, constant tension CAT. with clearances to plate "H" including WAS & BAL..

That way MARC can run its commuter trains at 125 and use two level cars if traffic becomes too heavy on some trains. NON-stop regional and commuter trains WAS <> BAL would make a 22 minute trip with the published schedule ~ 25 - 28 minutes for unknown delays. Acela-2s about 16 -18 minutes with schedule of 19-22 minutes.

EDIT: IMO all the above work would cost less than this pie in the sky! OOPS pie in the dirt!

 

[JamesWhitcombRiley]

https://www.bayjournal.com/news/pol...cle_332ae686-fdbf-11ee-ae7a-8bb4a47e0084.html

Not only has FRA stopped doing studies on this boondoggle, the company (Northeast Maglev) itself pulled their application for a water quality permit after being told by the Maryland Department of the Environment that their application would be rejected. It's not 100% staked-in-the-heart dead, as Northeast Maglev says it plans to reapply after collecting more information and plans.

As background, this project was touted by our former governor, who seemed to have a case of gadgetbahn fever in addition to his eagerness to cut tolls on various highway toll facilities, and a certain amount of hostility towards traditional rail transit. My impression was that he saw public transit as being mainly buses to allow poor people from the inner city to be able to get to their jobs in the suburbs. Anyway, we have a new governor who is reversing the hostility to rail projects and who, I presume, does not have the gadgetbahn fever so bad.

Some features about the actual plans for this project also indicate how poorly thought-out it is. The 40 mile ride will be 70% in a 300-ft deep tunnel. (Well, the tunnels will be "up to 300 ft deep." that might mean that 27 miles will be in tunnels 10 feet deep, with one really deep section.) The aboveground part will be on 150 ft. high pylons. I'm not sure what that's needed, unless there's a harbor crossing where they need to have tall ships be able to pass under. The Washington Terminal will be a Mt Vernon Square. That's where the Convention center is. Obviously this will involve a deally deep underground station that will need to be constructed with disturbing all the stuff that built up in the area, including the Yellow/Green Line Metro. The Baltimore Terminal is going to be in a neighborhood called Cherry Hill, not very close the anywhere that the kinds of people who are going to pay $60 (the estimated average fare) are going to want to visit. (It's home to Baltimore's largest public housing project.) The neighborhood doesn't even have particularly good highway access. There is a light rail stop, though. I also think that a 15 minute Baltimore - Washington ride is a pipe dream, especially if there's a stop at BWI airport.

It would be better to use the money to upgrade the existing Amtrak line, to have the capacity to run more MARC express trains that might be able to do the run in 30 - 40 mins, like the Acela and Northeast Regional can do right now, and maybe also have a side route that would diverge off the main line and directly serve the BWI Airport terminal without having to use the shuttle bus, or at the very least, build a dedicate BRT lane so that the shuttle bus can run non-stop between the existing station and the airport terminal, and maybe also directly from the train station to the rental car facility, which is pretty close to the train station.

I don't get the part about tunnels 320 ft deep or pylons 150 ft high but I may be forgetting stuff from when I was reading about this project. The deepest station in North America is 260', that museum stop in Portland with the cool geological & historical timeline on the walls. And 150' is about a ten story office building, or almost the height of the former Francis Scott Key Bridge on the far outer harbor. But the maglev would be a tunnel stopping before or going under the Inner Harbor. Through the contested wetlands in the middle of the route there would be no need. Sounds like the Bay Journal got super NIMBY'd by some activists. They may have actually been gleaning facts from a project in Japan? In my own neck of the woods I've heard neighborhood protectionists just going wild with exaggerated facts, to the point where my more moderate takes (and real facts) were met with, well, you better not come to our meetings! I'm not NIMBY or YIMBY, and it just seems a weird rhetorical contagion can occur. (But correct me if I'm wrong about the heights and depths, my memory can be selective!)

All your other points I agree with and the last time I was in Baltimore walking around the new version of the Inner Harbor, where the new hotels are by the Little Italy gate, a friend was describing every change in development policy in Balto by saying which governor or mayor had pushed it. It's very personal!

It would be a challenge to get a new corridor approved paralleling at whatever distance the Amtrak/MARC line and the BW Parkway, since it's marshy, and the people there wouldn't get a station. The existing corridors and neighborhoods and major federal facilities are baked in. High-speed airport and city-center rail on a new corridor is not a bad idea, but let's be serious, we're not very ambitious about the future these days.

The most surprising thing about the maglev project was that the Japanese rail company offered to pay for it as a demonstration project, then thought it could go northward from there. As I read the website, I imagined the U.S. staff planning it pleased to have such a cool job! For howeer long it lasted. The other surprising thing was they thought they could take the closest part of the short-term parking deck at BWI for a station. I mean, the Amtrak/MARC station is too far out, but that was really going for it! Should have budgetted more to go under the terminal, like in Cleveland.

 

[George Harris]

With all these "gadgetbahns" (I love that term) there seems to be a significant amount of magical thinking, as if they have found a way to get around the laws of physics and a lot of the realities of obtaining right of ways and construction. First the physics: Acceleration, deceleration, horizontal forces on curves, both horizontal and vertical are limited by comfort, regardless of the means of propulsion and vehicle support. The volume of the people carrying capsules, regardless of what you call them is determined to a great extent by the size of the human body and the number you are carrying. (The cutesy little 10 to 20 person capsules frequently illustrated do not equal the capacity of a 12 to 16 car Shinkansen.) Then there is the realities of construction and operation. Whether buried, at grade or elevated, there is still the need to obtain right of way, and the straighter you need it to be the more likely you are to run into major problem areas. Then these tunnels: People have been building and using tunnels for centuries. Know needs and issues such as infiltration of water and drainage thereof, uncertainties in rock and ground conditions seem to be completely passed over. Then, there are the safety and evacuation issues: Emergency walkways, emergency exits, etc., etc. At grade, all the usual suspects such as trespassers, wildlife, etc. Aerial: Span lengths, elevations, etc. One classic picture I have seen showed Musk's vacuum tube system as if crossing the mouth of San Francisco Ban near the Golden Gate Bridge on a relatively low multi-span structure. Seems no thought was given to why the Golden Gate is a high single span structure. It is not just look pretty. It is because of the depth of the channel and the need to pass large ships.

I believe we are still a long way from having wrung out all that is reasonable and possible with "classic" steel wheel on steel rail tracks and to get caught up with these various fictional sciencey technologies is at best a distraction and more usually results in "Striving for perfection destroying the good."