62 Ë 3 Magnetic levitation
was set on April 3, 2007, by the French SNCF with a speed of 574.8 km/h on the new
East European high-speed line [7].
By the end of 2012, Chinese HSR (250–350 km/h) completed the traffic line – the
“Four North-South and Four East-West Network”. China’s HSR total operating mileage
reached 19,000 km in 2015. At present, more than a dozen countries in the world have
operational HSR. China has the largest HSR operation mileage in the world. The total
HSR operating mileage is half that of the whole world [8]. According to the long-term
extension plan, the HSR line will have 30,000 km in China by 2020.
The rapid development of HSR fully demonstrated its superiority compared with
road and airline traffic. Without further development and progress of science and
technology, HSR will not be able to satisfy the need for ultra-high speed, safety,
comfort, and other requirements.
Although HSR has reached the speeds of more than 500 km/h, its operating
speed is generally at 200–350 km/h. When the velocity of ground railway transpor-
tation is higher than 350 km/h, the train consumes large amounts of energy and
produces huge noise. Therefore, in March 1998, the International Railway Association
of Innovation proposed that the maximum speed of ground transportation should
be 350 km/h.
Such an operating speed is far less than the speed of the Japanese and the
German Maglev. With further increased speed, wheel-rail HSR will bring a series of
problems, for example, increased power consumption, vibration, noise, rail deterio-
ration. Wheel-rail high-speed trains cannot solve the ground traffic problem of ultra-
high speed, but Maglev can be the best choice. Table 3.1 shows the ground rail transit
speed.
There have been many discussions about the advantages and disadvantages of
Maglev [6, 9–11]. Indisputably, Maglev is a new ground transportation technology
that is a fundamentally new innovation since the invention of the railway. The Maglev
train offers numerous advantages over the conventional wheel-rail system: (1) Maglev
vehicles are capable of traveling at speed up to 500 and 600 km/h [12], or even
theoretically feasible over 1000 km/h [13, 14], and elimination of wheel and track wear
provides a reduction in maintenance costs. (2) The distributed weight-load reduces the
construction costs of the guideway. (3) Maglev train has no danger of derailment due
to the strong electromagnetic force. (4) Maglev has no noise and vibration caused by
the wheels and railway. (5) Maglev has a better climbing ability. (6) Guideway curves
require a smaller radius. (7) Maintenance costs are low because no mechanical moving
parts. (8) They are less affected by climate. (9) Swift acceleration and deceleration
prevent sliding during operation. Table 3.2 shows the comparison of Maglev and
wheel-rail systems.
An ultra-high-speed transport system can be developed by the Maglev. A Maglev
train has no direct mechanical contact between the vehicle and its guideway, and the
vertical support, lateral guidance, and longitudinal propulsion at levitation can be
achieved simultaneously.