The Future Of Transportation: MAGLEV | Megastructures | Spark

it's as fast as an aircraft this is maglev a revolutionary transportation system yeah maglev is not rocket science it's beyond rocket science but something's gone wrong it's the world's first crash of a magnetic levitation vehicle 23 people died coming up the story behind the transport of the future deep in the pastoral countryside of northern germany is a test facility developing a magnetic levitation vehicle or maglev this is the trans-rapid test facility it cost over one billion dollars it's built to put the magnetic levitation vehicle through its paces this demonstration track has been in operation for more than 20 years here it traveled nearly 1 million kilometers but this test track is open to the public each year it attracts thousands of tourists and for an admission fee these people get the thrill of riding a magnetic levitation vehicle in total over half a million curious visitors have experienced high-speed levitation all without incident but on this september day the maglev is about to face a shocking turn of events the maglev sets out for a test run the vehicle quickly accelerates to 200 kilometers per hour it will blaze around this 31.5 kilometer test track in minutes hitting speeds of 450 kilometers per hour on the straightaways but less than 60 seconds after starting the test run the worst happens a maintenance vehicle is checking the guideway for debris and problems [Music] it's the first major accident for a technology a century in the making an investigation gets underway questions are asked as to what happened and why because there's a lot at stake because maglev is on the edge of a breakthrough [Music] ready to change the way we travel in the 21st century like the airplane did in the last [Applause] maglev is a magnetically propelled vehicle that floats above the guideway and can travel up to speeds over 500 kilometers per hour but never really leaves the ground and it's driverless you probably haven't heard of it but if you ask these guys your kids and grandkids will be heading to the maglev station instead of the airport if what they say is true it's in a transportation league of its own imagine inter-urban commuting at speeds faster than a formula one race car with maglev the speed of an aircraft meets the convenience of trains offering fast loading and unloading at stations located right in the downtown floor kevin coats is a transportation consultant it's phenomenal so you can actually plan your trip imagine this traveling around the united states and moving from city to city typically for trips 500 miles or less moving from city to city and being on time to the second on every trip people that travel around this country i think would find that unbelievable but that's what this new transportation system promises the maglev levitation system is what separates it from all other forms of mass transportation maglev technology is a radical approach to locomotion it floats over a guideway the guideway in the vehicle work together to create and control magnetic levitation and propulsion neither part is compatible with any other transportation system [Music] transrapid uses magnetic attraction along the length of the vehicle magnets attached to the top of this cast aluminum support arm are pulled towards the bottom of the guideway computers regulate the power to the magnets and keep the vehicle suspended at precisely 10 millimeters [Music] that's the width of one cd case whatever the payload the maglev will never make contact with the concrete and steel surface of the superstructure each maglev vehicle weighs in at 50 tons and is able to carry a 20-ton payload for a total of 70 tons that's heavier than a tank this sophisticated levitation system is no slouch lifting and then suspending 70 tons of vehicle and payload and propelled at speeds over 400 kilometers an hour always 10 millimeters above the guideway it sounds too good to be true at the trans-rapid test facility in germany a team of engineers are rapidly developing the next generation of maglevs it's the largest test facility of its kind in the world at a plant near the test track the maglev vehicles are assembled each component is custom made to exacting specifications heiko lobock who works in the tr09 engineering team wants to change the way we travel we have a lot of misunderstandings we'll have much lower noise we will have less energy consumption we will also have no emission from gas or from also not from the magnetics because the magnetic field of the levitation and guidance magnets is less than the magnetic field from your television at home these guys have such faith in this machine they've sunk billions into its development [Music] so who's buying the maglev system you have to travel far from germany to find them here in the people's republic of china maglev is revolutionizing the transportation infrastructure china is quickly emerging as an economic powerhouse and they've decided to start building magnetic levitation systems they see the benefit for a nation with a population of 1.3 billion people needing an efficient way to move people and products in the shadow of a looming fossil fuel shortage they're planning for the future and that plan includes maglev they've ordered a 30 kilometer maglev system from downtown shanghai to its international airport at a cost of 1.2 billion dollars but the trans-rapid engineers know that this first contract is really an audition other lines are in the works they want to expand maglev's throughout china there's the maglev line between shanghai and the tourist town of hangzhou a 170 kilometer line with a budget of 4 billion dollars and then there's the potential maglev connection between shanghai and beijing over 1 200 kilometers with a price tag of 22 billion dollars that's 18 million us dollars per kilometer are the chinese buyers making the right decision to invest in this technology when there's already lots of planes in high-speed trains why bank the future of their economy on a prototype for the engineers at transrapid the answer is simple there's a major problem with the world's transportation system according to them cars trains and planes have had their day but in particular the airline industry is facing a looming crisis people love jets they're fast convenient and have reduced the time for long distance travel the demand for air travel is increasing on the ground delays are a major problem and in the skies it's become winged gridlock [Music] each year more aircraft are being added and larger airports to service them and with the introduction of the airbus super jumbo a380 are continuing a course of building bigger aircraft but this solution does nothing about the other major problem facing airlines skyrocketing fuel costs a 747 burns 170 liters a minute that's enough fuel to fill three cars every 60 seconds just to keep the thirsty beast afloat they're flying fuel tanks and that according to the maglev experts is leading to a problem and as oil gets more expensive and it will as it becomes more rare and more people are demanding it the cost of flying is going to increase there's no way around it and if that's the case people are going to be looking elsewhere for a viable transportation system that can replace air travel so transrapid charged its engineers to find the achilles heel of the airline industry the weakness is the short haul flight of under 700 kilometers in the u.s flights under a thousand kilometers make up about 50 percent of the airline market they're costly inefficient and plug the skies with aircraft so transrapid designed a maglev system to break the airline industry's grip on these short haul routes and replace the under 700 kilometer flights with a fast environmentally friendly cost-effective solution and china is the first customer the chinese government recognizes the potential of maglev and orders the first commercial magnetic levitation system in the world but now they have to build it and that's where the problems begin just like the research phases of the airplane car train or spacecraft the maglev has been in development for decades railroads in germany have a long history of rail innovation that dates back to 1835. trains were traveling over 200 kilometers per hour in the 1930s a scale model is displayed on a mile-long test track hitting speeds up to 93 miles an hour taking the 45 degree turns without a shutter it was in the 1930s german inventor hermann kemper dreamed of a train without wheels a system that would harness the power of magnets to both lift and propel vehicles forward but two major problems slowed its production down the first was the power of computers powerful electronic components such as computers control the system so it would be decades before the theories could be tested these weird-looking manifestations didn't go very fast compared to today's maglev's but they were crowd pleasers enough to keep the development lurching slowly ahead and as speed of the vehicles increased a second problem surfaced they hadn't found a levitation system that was stable or reliable enough to lift the sleds off the ground they were moving forward by magnetic propulsion but frustratingly still dependent on wheels because they couldn't get the vehicle to levitate the research and development of this radical technology was in danger of being shut down maglev was on its way to becoming just another footnote in the history of failed experiments but something changed all that and got the maglev project off the rails in 1974 transrapid tried out a new system splitting the motor in two they mounted the magnets on the sled and installed the primary motor in the track this reduced the weight of the vehicle [Music] with help from rockets this prototype was propelled forward to 401 kilometers per hour this was the breakthrough they needed to breathe new life into the project so for transrapid there was only one thing left to do to convince the world that this could be a great system they had to build one so with the computer and motor problem solved they began to build a system for human cargo [Music] in 1980 they chose the emsland region of northern germany for the first permanent test track a 31.5 kilometer double loop configuration far from prying eyes and critics they set out to prove that the technology they developed was revolutionary the guideway system was built to resemble a commercial track in size and distance with this in place they could push the maglev to the limits of speed endurance and handling jorg metzner is the deputy director we have tested three generations of vehicles and we're in the fourth generation for the operation control system the guideway is more than just something for the maglev to travel along the guideway functions as part of the maglev electric motor at the test facility it's being continuously upgraded to match the demands of the evolving maglev over the years different configurations of steel and concrete have been used to modify the structure their goal to reduce noise and maintenance increase stability and ultimately create a commercially ready maglev system this means that the vehicle and guideway need to work together flawlessly the stakes are huge if they couldn't make the maglev work on this track they wouldn't be able to get the people to buy in on this radical machine the testing begins records are made and broken and broken again these are the statistics and they're staggering maximum daily mileage 2476 kilometers a non-stop distance test of 1664 kilometers that would easily cover the distance from hamburg to rome the maximum speed on the test track was 450 kilometers per hour but the maglev is designed to exceed 500 kilometers an hour the speed is only limited by the configuration of the track to allow enough time to decelerate before reaching one of the turning curves since starting operations more than 800 000 kilometers have been logged at the test facility that's 20 times around the world at the equator and they did much of this with human cargo over a half a million passengers in quick succession they knocked off various models and incarnations today they're running the tr08 transrapid finally built a stable levitation system operating the train on a day-to-day basis mimicking the operation of a public system leading researchers to believe they will redefine our notion of distance travel the maglev system combines the technology of conventional rail and the time advantage of air travel making for an energy efficient and low maintenance high speed ground transportation and that's simply revolutionary still many countries such as america and europe shun the system critics charge maglev is too much of an untested system to build from scratch in america high-speed trains are almost non-existent and plans for their introduction remain in limbo as a transportation consultant kevin coats is frustrated by the lack of interest in maglev all these guys are rail guys and they don't want to go with something new that they don't understand and that's a problem and all these consulting engineers that are out there you know trying to advise government agencies what to do or going with what they know and they don't know maglev they know rail they know white rail well light rail is a fancy name for trolleys we've already been down the road with trolleys but in china they understand the need to move beyond regular rail transportation which is considered an outdated system indeed what got the chinese government really interested in the maglev was the incredible future potential of this technology if it worked it could change transportation throughout china and what better place than the city of shanghai to test the first commercial [Music] track this bustling metropolis is home to 20 million people here old china is being swept aside and a new modern china is emerging from the rubble they're building the city of the future and they want to set the standard business professionals are attracted to shanghai for its modern environment and new job opportunities and that's creating problems on the streets development is like a runaway train with predictions that more than two million vehicles will clog the streets in the coming years and the highways are becoming overrun as soon as they build new ones the reason the chinese decided not to go with airports or highway systems they realized that moving people between cities using electricity is a sustainable solution for their future transportation needs in march of 2001 construction began on a high-speed connection between shanghai and pudong international airport this is the first step towards building a transportation infrastructure for a modern economy what takes a one-hour car ride in congested traffic producing noise and pollution a maglev line will turn into a smooth seven and a half minute trip gate to gate it seems like a great idea using maglev to help solve their transportation problems but the challenges ahead are immense it's never been done before and now the german engineers have to build a radical transportation system and build it right the first time and the ground under shanghai is sinking over the last century it sunk by more than two meters and there's no end in sight the maglev guideway has to be built to incredibly accurate specifications not only does the guideway support the carriage and its passengers but also contains half of the maglev motor this is the motor in the guideway principle that the germans developed the operating tolerances between the guideway and the vehicle are less than two millimeters not only will they have to ensure that the guideways are built to virtual perfection they have to make sure that they will stay that way to handle the speeds loads and even earthquakes the geotechnical specifications are formidable the job of building the guideway system was given to the chinese engineers they begin to build this monster motor that will stretch from downtown shanghai to its international airport the first phase of this mega project is to clear the route they have to pull down buildings and move people who lived along the right-of-way but the real problems begin when they look at the soil beneath these homes the entire route sits in the flood plains of the yangtze and hungpu rivers silt and sand has been deposited here over millions of years and the soft unstable ground will not support the massive infrastructure needed for the maglev carlos ventura is a structural engineer bearings like in places like in shanghai it's a soil which has very low capacity to resist overboarding pressures or loads that are going to be put on top of it and that will eventually have a detrimental effect in the structure because the structure will sink or top over or have excessive deformations that are not acceptable china has been hit by devastating earthquakes in the past if an earthquake strikes shanghai the soil conditions here could result in a process known as liquefaction or liquid soil in this simple experiment professor don shuttle from the university of british columbia demonstrates how liquefaction can topple an unsupported structure when the earthquake happens the particles of sand try to move into a denser configuration but because the water's in the way the load is instantaneously transferred to the water rather than the soil and the building will sink but a proper substructure like pilings prevents the structure from collapsing the problem that's keeping the engineers awake at night is precisely how much substructure to build to keep the guideway from settling and to minimize the impact of any future earthquakes the engineers come up with a plan the idea is to distribute the enormous weight of the guideway down deep into the earth the guideway sections are mounted on a series of piers positioned every 25 meters along the route the piers rest on a pile cap this reinforced block of concrete sits just below the surface supporting the foundation are the piles or pile group there's two things the engineers have to take into consideration when building the caps first the bigger the piers the bigger the foundation in shanghai the pile caps are two meters deep and 10 to 12 meters to a side this means that along the route there might be as little as one meter between these caps but the engineers also take into account the load-bearing capacity of the soil in which they're building the worse the soil the more piles they need and the deeper they have to go in shanghai the soil is so bad the engineers drive the piles down to 30 meters in some cases they have to go as deep as 70 meters that's the equivalent of a 23-story building and each pile cap covers 20 to 24 individual piles over the course of the project they sink over 24 000 pilings they've only 16 months to complete this phase before the first magnetic levitation vehicles arrive from germany back in germany the trans-rapid engineers are under pressure to deliver the vehicles that will travel the chinese-built guideways the problem is they've never built a commercial maglev system before they had only delivered prototypes this is not a trial product the chinese want it to work and work flawlessly they landed the billion dollar shanghai maglev project and they only have 22 months to deliver the plan calls for taking the tr08 prototype the eighth generation maglev to large-scale production passenger compartment presents few challenges because this section is built like any other passenger train compartment but that's where the comparison ends unlike a train that has locomotives which pull many cars the entire maglev is a propulsion and levitation unit for shanghai the pressure is on to build 15 distinct propulsion systems on a nearly impossible schedule [Music] a maglev has virtually no moving parts or generators to provide power to the lights computers and electronics housed in the carriage once it's underway it draws power from the grid to activate the magnets giant batteries store energy to supply the lights and power the onboard computers during operations they also perform backup functions to the magnets if there's a power failure the maglev won't drop suddenly to the guideway the batteries would kick in and hold it up long enough to bring the maglev to a smooth stop the propulsion and levitation system uses electromagnets coiled wire is pumped with electricity to generate a magnetic field the more coils and current the more powerful the field by controlling this energy trans rapid uncovered the key to lifting and propelling their 70-ton vehicle we can't tell you how many magnets are on board or how much each one can lift because that's a trade secret but what we can tell you is a maglev vehicle weighs 50 tons and can lift an additional 20 tons of payload the linear motor used in the maglev magnetic propulsion system can be found in other types of transport a linear motor is used when fast stable acceleration is required but that doesn't mean it can't be all fun and games at this amusement park magnetic propulsion technology is adapted from the maglev to propel this sled and its riders at high speeds the object of the exercise is to give the customers a taste of the g-forces that magnetic technology is capable of it's one of the fastest rides in america passengers get blasted from zero to 160 kilometers per hour in seven seconds rocketed up a 41-story top they stop and hang for six and a half seconds in complete weightlessness as the sled comes to a stop and begins its terrifying backward descent [Music] this is the kind of takeoff the maglev is capable of but it's still only a fraction of its potential acceleration power the navy is adapting maglev propulsion for their catapults onboard aircraft carriers they rely on steam driven pistons to launch aircraft it's tried and true but it's antiquated energy inefficient and above all bone jarring it's murder on the pilots and the planes future aircraft carriers will be equipped with maglev propulsion systems for launching and even landing aircraft using super magnets the advantage is greater control and longer aircraft life that means control over how much power to apply according to the weight of the aircraft given the opportunity to unleash its full potential the results are spectacular air force base in the new mexico desert there's a test track which uses a rocket-propelled sled to test weapon systems up to mach 8. in 2003 these rocket sleds set the land speed record at a whopping 10 430 kilometers an hour 3 2 1 0 it's this powerful combination of rockets and magnets that takes maglev to hyper velocity with speeds like that a maglev vehicle moving through a vacuum tube or tunnel where there's no air friction could top more than six thousand kilometers per hour to really appreciate this amazing machine you have to ride it and here at the test track in emsland joe public gets to experience firsthand a maglev vehicle this is the trans-rapid command center for the maglev test track in germany we have a 32 kilometer long guideway here with about eight kilometers of straight track for high speed testing and in the northern part and the southern part of the test track we have a loop and by this configuration it's also possible to perform duration test rides with the vehicle after careful inspection in the hangar the command center gives the green light the maglev is ready for its high-speed test run with a click of the mouse the computers activate the magnets and the maglev begins to defy gravity this thoroughbred train is ready to stretch its legs and today it's going to hit stride at 400 kilometers per hour with the technicians in place the speed test begins these men and women are the only human part of an entirely computer-controlled operation they think that by taking humans out of the operation equation they have a smarter safer system so they're handing control over to computers top speed of the trans rapids 310 miles per hour or 500 kilometers per hour you know at those speeds human beings can't react fast enough they're they're used to keep the vehicle the exact distance from the guideway so that you get a smooth ride and then computers are also controlling the power that's delivered to the vehicle from the track to propel it it's a full-scale test facility and every run is with a purpose to further the technology the maglev is fully automatic so the computers are controlling the acceleration it's strong and steady but gradual enough that the passengers are not thrown back in their seat first time i rode the maglev was in germany at the test track and i was in the lead carriage and uh looking out the window and what's really amazing about that experience is that as the vehicle moves down the track you almost feel like you're looking at a video animation of something it's so smooth there's really it seems unreal that anything moving that fast could actually be that smooth and the reality is that the precision between the vehicles and the guideway is so exact that vibration is very it's cut to absolute minimum but there's no time for technicians to take in the scenery they're entirely engrossed in the test run they round the giant loop and prepare to accelerate over the 10-kilometer straight stretch the maglev is going to run up to its maximum speed on this test track because the maglev vehicle levitates friction from wheel on track contact found in conventional trains is eliminated this means higher speeds and faster rates of acceleration and deceleration power is measured not in horses but in bytes and kilowatts [Music] these supercomputers make millions of calculations per second sending and receiving information from the magnets and the guideway to keep the maglev stable and moving forward it's sort of like a surfboard riding on a wave a magnetic wave and that's how it's propelled and how the engineers propel the trans rapid is by speeding up the wave in the in the guideway it's very controlled and you can walk around without a seat belt it's it's all very smooth the test facility is built to try every conceivable situation the mag level find itself during commercial operation it's been run through rain snow wind and even lightning storms here in the curves the speed is restricted to 200 kilometers per hour for the sake of passenger comfort on the test track as in normal operations riders cannot be subject to higher centrifugal forces as it hits the straight stretch the maglev accelerates to full speed there are no camera tricks here this is real time the technicians are busy gathering data for analysis the speed and performance of the maglev is being carefully watched back at the command center it hits 400 kilometers per hour as it blazes down the straightaway the maglev successfully completes the test run the data is collected and the engineers are back to the drawing board to upgrade for the next generation of maglev working here in this team is really very interesting but no working day is the same as a day before we have so much different tests to do and that makes it very interesting and for sure now we are in a phase where the system goes into commercial operation and this makes it still more interesting as before now they just have to deliver the heavy lifting begins failure here can be measured in fractions of a millimeter they begin the delicate operation of picking up the passenger compartment it's only been a matter of months since they started building the maglev careful watches kept on every step as the chassis and the passenger compartment is put together the computers are mounted it's the moment of truth when they apply power will it lift off switches are thrown and the carriage begins to levitate then it's pulled apart the upper chassis from the propulsion system the carriage sections are loaded aboard flatbeds and taken to a cargo ship for the journey to shanghai two problems remain they've made three cars in 15 months and have to deliver 12 more in 12 months will these carriages assembled so carefully in germany work on the guideway being constructed in shanghai the results could be the biggest thing since the locomotive or a billion dollar bust on september 11 2002 a mere 18 months from the start of construction the maglev carriages are mounted on the guideways the trial runs begin this is necessary before the public get to ride the maglev from downtown to the airport with the pomp and ceremony behind them it's time for the engineers to prove the concept works under the heavy demands of scheduled operation have the german and chinese teams building from different engineering traditions and systems been able to overcome the problems of time and distance and execute the design specs that has system tolerances of less than two millimeters the guideways in shanghai are an adaption of the german engineered version instead of building a 50 meter length guideway beam the chinese engineers cut that in half and use a 25 meter girder instead this doubled the work and the number of guideway beams required for the 30 kilometer stretch but made it easier to transport and assemble the spans in this way they were able to meet the construction deadline even for transportation experts like kevin coats it's a technical marvel in shanghai you've got a 19 mile long guideway system that is built to within one millimeter tolerance through its entire length and to my knowledge there's nothing in the world that comes as close to that level of precision to keep the guideway within the strict operating specifications engineers use an adjustable bearing system which allows them to adjust the guideways if they settle the three-way bearing system raises or lowers the guideway b to adjust for settling there are more than ten thousand adjustable bearings along the entire route but not all the guideway sections are rigid pieces of concrete some are made of steel these steel switches can be bent on command and allow the train to change guideways but the speed is limited to 200 kilometers per hour in the curves the problem is the human passengers a sudden change in direction at high speed would throw passengers around now with the guideway virtually perfect and the first maglev vehicle safely mounted they do a test run with a single train in the speed trials they get it up to 501 kilometers an hour and establish a new world record for commercial rail systems but they have one more hurdle there are two guideways running side by side and now they have to run the vehicles past each other the trains will pass each other in close proximity at a combined speed of 860 kilometers per hour based on simulations and research the vehicles have been designed and built to survive high pressure wind effects as they pass each other at full speed but an actual passing test has never been done before the engineers won't sign off for public use until this test is completed one leaves from the long yang road station downtown and the other from the shanghai airport station in just over three and a half minutes they'll travel to the halfway point on the line where the vehicles will pass each accelerates to top velocity of 430 kilometers an hour they will sustain this velocity for less than a minute at a combined speed of kilometers an hour the maglev's pass each other it's a major success for the team the maglevs have survived this critical trial run intact the only remaining question was if people would actually pay to use it it didn't take long to find out for the chinese are flocking to this new transportation system in just over three years eight million passengers have ridden the shanghai maglev it's truly a phenomenal transportation mode and it's it's the reliability aspect of it that i i'm most impressed with it's 19 miles apart the trip's about seven minutes and 30 seconds but the vehicles leave and arrive on time to the second 99.92 of the time that's phenomenal i mean that's almost too perfect people aren't going to believe it the shanghai maglev vehicles have traveled well over 2 million kilometers and they're boosting the service from 9 to 18 hours a day the people of shanghai show it off as a tourist attraction and why not it's currently the only high-speed commercial maglev system in the world as for safety in august 2006 a battery malfunctioned causing a fire but no one was injured besides this incident the shanghai maglev has a flawless safety record almost running precisely to the second on each seven and a half minute run for china it heralds a new age which they can now claim as the prototype for their own maglev industry but the question remains what is the future of maglev outside of china and incidents like the crash of the trans-rapid maglev in germany don't help build confidence in the technology the crash that killed 23 people is still under investigation it's a sad story because it shouldn't have happened it was not in any way shape or form a failure of the technology somebody made a mistake or a couple of people actually made a mistake and unfortunately people died not only are they looking at why it crashed but the resulting damage there are lessons that can be learned from every tragedy kevin coats points out some interesting facts as horrible as this crash was in germany there are several things that really struck me knowing what i know about the system and first and foremost because maglevs don't carry their fuel source there was no fireball there was no explosion there was no fire and and fire is a terrible thing i mean it's it's you know airplanes crash you're gonna have fireballs uh automobiles and trucks crash oftentimes there's fireballs none of that with this system the other thing is that the vehicle did not derail even in spite of hitting a 60-ton maintenance cart the vehicle did not come off its guideway derailing can be a major problem with conventional rail systems on june 3rd 1998 in northern germany a wheel on a high-speed ice train comes apart the train derails at 200 kilometers per hour the force of the cars as they derail and slam into each other causes death and injury for passengers throughout the length of the train 101 people are killed and 105 passengers suffer critical injuries but this kind of accident where the vehicle's jackknife and tumble is practically impossible with the maglev system it did not jack knife it did not scissor and as a result of that people can be rest assured that if these systems are running through their communities that they do not have to fear collateral damage in the case of some sort of an impact although i would venture to say that an impact like this would not happen on a commercial line in fact in shanghai the chance of a similar accident happening is nearly impossible because it's a commercial line fail-safe systems are in place and if the computer detects anything on the track it immediately shuts it down because the track in germany is an experimental track the system has manual overrides it shows me that you can you can plan all you want to try to remove uh the human being from the operations of a of a high-speed transportation system but somebody has to push the go button and somebody did and they did it at the wrong time but in spite of that in spite of the terrible loss of life i remain absolutely 100 percent convinced that there's no safer transportation system in the world the shanghai maglev is an example of successful international cooperation in engineering and construction for china it's a step away from conventional travel systems such as air and train that rely on oil the system represents a new standard for high-speed ground transportation and as populations increase around the world and urban centers become more congested pressure is being put on our transportation infrastructure the upside of maglev is its ability to move people and products and do it more efficiently and do it without pistons turbines or any moving parts and most importantly it's a system that is less reliant on oil than train or air travel according to transportation experts it's going to take an investment in the future of new technology the question is whether the world is ready to make the leap and adopt the magnetic levitation vehicle you

Channel: Spark

Views: 342,901

Keywords: China's modern infrastructure, Commercial train operation, Engineering achievements, High-speed train, Magnetic levitation research, Magnetic propulsion, Public transportation, Railway projects, Research and development, Scientific research, Shanghai's financial center, Spark, Sustainable urban transport, Technological advancements, Train engineering, Train travel, Transportation advancements, Transportation revolution, Travel in China, Urban development, Urban transport

Id: PeYIo91DlWo

Length: 52min 34sec (3154 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 16 2021