Quote:
Originally Posted by IbnMardhiyah
Can you clarify that please? As far as I'm aware, the TGV trains in France are pretty fast and can match the speed of Mag-Levs.
Regardless of whether capex or opex is higher, it just doesn't make sense to spend the energy to elevate the train because there is no commensurate ROI from what I can see.
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Sorry I don't know what half of that means.
What I'm saying is, I don't think the actual levitation of the train is what is costing more, in fact I've heard (unsubstantiated) that it costs less to move a train that way than it does to move it along in conventional ways. What is always cited as the key factor is the capital cost of infrastructure.
When it comes to their speed, they can go pretty much as fast as you want them to, the limiting factor is air and EM resistance, and much more critically, safety and comfort around turns. It's that last part that is apparently keeping them at the current speeds.