A lot of interesting opinions coming up.
I very seldom disagree with Vance on anything, but this time I beg to differ. If the US would support public transport more, it would be a blessing for many large cities which are spread out anyway but indivuduals travel by car today! However, strong other interests put all the mono-rail attempts to rest.
But, that is not, where the maglev plays. They want to travel for more than the Shanghai 20 miles: On that track the train reaches top-speed only for 2 of the 7 minutes ride.
The Shanghai Hangzhou extention (80 miles) never came into existence, because it would have gone along the inner city of Shanghai and citizen protest against the noise was too strong (and that means something in China!)
The maglev was meant for short flight distance like 200-600 miles. But the cost of the track is horrendous.
Terry, apparently the friction reduction outweighs the power consumption of the levitation, so the energy ratio is better than "comparable" high speed trains.
Well then, if the maglev is such a great thing, why doesn't everyone, and in particular Germany, have one?
The very powerful Transrapid consortium tried very hard to pressure the German gov into installing a proper distance connection like Munich-Berlin, Berlin-Hamburg etc. However, even during the planning stage, the cost expoded at such a horrific rate that every attempt failed. Additionally Germany has a very good high speed train network with speeds up to 190mph. So there is no need.
Looking at the last bail-out figures, however, we could have built one TO the US, with under-sea tunnel.
Kai.