HIGH SPEED TRAINS!
High Speed Maglev Trains and Bullet Trains Could Be a Solution to Both our Dependence on Foreign Oil, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
Save money on energy, reduce our dependence on oil, and save the environment!
A Maglev or Magnetically levitating train is a form of transportation that suspends off the ground and propels itself forward using electromagnetic force. Its much faster and quiter than wheeled rail trains.
A Maglev train can potentially reach speeds of 600 mph, nearly the speed of a turboprop or jet aircraft engine! In 2003 a Japanese Maglev train achieved 361 mph.
Countries that have made the Maglev train a key part of mass transportation infrastructure are Germany, France, Japan, and recently China.
The first commercial use Maglev mass transportation system was opened in 1984 in Birmingham, England. between the Birmingham International Airport and the Birminham International railway system, it only ran at 26 mph.
As the sytems have been tried and tested, faster and more reliable systems were built, like the German built Transrapid train in Shanghai, China that transports people 19 miles to the airport in 7.5 minutes achieving top velocity of 268 mph with an average of 150 mph!
Japan is a country that has put alot of research and development into Maglev technology and have been putting it to good use.
The systems vary in types of propulsion and lift, but they usually consist of alternating magnets of negatives and positives that push the train forward, while other magnets underneath the train and on the rail push the train up in the air, reducing friction and allowing it to move much faster.
Without friction, their is only air resistance and electromagnetic drag, which makes it much more efficient with electricity.
Rememering the I/35W Mississippi River Bridge Collapse Over Minneapolis Minnesota
The I/35W Mississippi River Bridge was an 8 lane, 1,907 foot steel truss arch bridge that carried Interstate 35W across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis Minnesota.
The Bridge was completed in 1967 and maintained by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT). It was Minnesota's 5th busiest carrying 140,000 vehicles daily.
On 6:05 pm on Wednesday, August 1st 2007, during the evening rush hour, the main spans of the bridge collapsed causing the bridge to vall into the river killing 13 people and injuring 100 more.
The NTSB (National Travel Safety Board) has not yet completed its investigation into the disaster to find out what caused or contributed to the failure.
Since 1993, the bridge was inspected anually by Mn/DOT though the inspection for 2007 was not completed due to construction work at the time.. In 1990 the federal government reported several cited problems and listed it "structurally deficient" because of "significant corrosion in its bearings. Aprox. 75,000 other U.S. Bridges has had this classification in 2007.
According to a 2001 study by the civil engineering department of the University of Minnesota, cracking had been previously discovered in the cross girders at the end of the approach spans. The main trusses connected to thse cross girder and resistance motion at the connection point bearings was leading to unanticipated out-of-plane distortion of the cross girders and subsequent stress cracking.
The report also noted a concern about lack of redundancy, meaning that if one part of the bridge failed, the whole bridge was more likely to collapse.
Continuous structural health monitoring had been suggested, but due to Conservative Republican pressure, the Minnesota State budget did not incude funds allocated to follow that engineering suggestion.
In 2005 the bridge was rated again "structurally deficient" and in possible need of replacement according to the U.S. Dept. of Transportation's National Bridge Inventory database. An inspection carried out June 15th 2006, found problems of cracking and fatigue.
In internal Mn/DOT documents, bridge officials talked about the possibility of the bridge collapsing and worried that it might have to be condemned.
On PBS television on 2007-08015 it was said that USDOT opposed raising the 18.4 cent federal gasoline tax, skeptical that the tax was needed for the nations bridges and infrastructure.
Conservatism played a big part in the collapse, because that 18.4 cent tax increase could have been used to fix the I/35W bridge, or condemn it in order to build a new one. Conservatism teaches that all taxes are bad- but tell that to the people who died while driving to and from work on aging infrastructure!
George W. Bush and John McCain opposed raising a 18.4cent tax to monitor, maintain aging infrastructure like bridges and roads because they follow Conservative principles that say that all taxes are bad and useless- which in this case could have been used to save lives and keep the I/35 W Bridge safe, or to condemn it to build a new bridge!
Barrack Obama has stated several times that he intends to do whatever is necessary to keep our bridges and roads safe, and to keep our infrastructure ahead of the rest of the world. In order to have safe bridges and roads, he realizes that someone has to be the responsible adult in the room and tell the voters unpopular truths- that an 18.4 cent tax to fix bridges that are unsafe is necessary- and that Infrastructure is important to America!
