Maglev

As I was marveling at the wonders of the Maglev train whooshing us from Pudong Airport to the city, it reminded me that when I was growing up near Cambridge in England there was a piece of test track not that far away on a flat area known as the Fens. Professor Eric Laithwaite who, though not the inventor of the maglev system, ( the first patent for the system was in the USA), he developed it from its early days by discovering a better way to arrange the magnets to allow both lift and forward motion. The Prof joined a company which sought to exploit this technology as a new 'wonder transportation system' and they worked for a number of years to develop it operating a test rig on this track in this bleak corner of Britain. In the economic strictures of the '70's the whole thing was cancelled although the first public used Maglev train was on a short piece of track at Birmingham Airport in England. From its abortive development the idea went to Germany who did, I think develop it and it was the Germans who built the Shanghai system.

It will be interesting to see if the idea gains ground but the capital costs of the system are very high.