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Why are maglev trains still rare? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

120 comments fedilink hide all child comments

They were invented decades ago.

They have fewer moving parts than wheelbois.

They require less maintenance.

There's obviously some bottleneck in expanding maglev technology, but what is it?

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[–] Aux 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They're not that faster. Conventional train speed record is 574.8 km/h, Maglev record is 603 km/h. Maglev price doesn't justify diminishing returns.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And how about the actual speeds they are used with? Another poster suggested the maintenance costs of traditional speeds skyrocket as speed increases, while maglev doesn't really have a lot of stuff that wears down in the first place.

[–] Aux 2 points 1 year ago

All but one operational Maglev lines run at speeds below 160kph. Which is way lower than conventional high speed railways which usually run at speeds over 300kph. Also "non high speed" conventional railways in the UK have a top speed of 200kph, which is also faster than existing maglev lines, lol.

The only exception is Shanghai Maglev, which tops out at 430kph. But that line only exists as a Chinese propaganda tool.

[–] PixxlMan 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I doubt conventional trains are regularly traveling at the speed record. Thats a poor way to compare the speeds of things.

[–] Aux 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Regular conventional service is much much faster than regular maglev service. It's not even a comparison at this point.