The United States is notoriously known for having a poor train infrastructure when compared to the rest of the civilized world. All throughout Europe and Asia there are a variety of high speed and maglev trains that are extremely more efficient at moving people from one destination to the other. However that may soon change as Northeast Maglev, a high-speed train company, is looking to bring a Japanese maglev train to the United States.
Maglev trains use magnets to propel themselves and float above their magnetic track. Since the train is essential levitating there is no friction caused by the rails or wheels, allowing the trains to achieve incredible speeds. The company Northeast Maglev is seeking to install a maglev train track that would extend from Baltimore to Washington. They are currently working with the United States Government to negotiate a deal and hopefully have the Federal Government Finance half of the $10 billion dollar project, as they would pick up the other half. If completed the train could achieve speeds of nearly 311 miles per hour, around 29 miles slower than the speed of sound, and it would make the daunting, traffic congested trip much quicker. In fact if the plan goes through the train can make the 40 mile distance in just 15 minutes, which is truly incredible.
Maglev trains start out using wheels when the first power up, however as they reach faster speeds the wheel are retracted and the magnets take over. Companies have been trying to bring maglev trains to America for some time now, so hopefully we will see this be put into place. The area from Baltimore to Washington is extremely congested so this train would help free up a lot of that traffic. The company even has plans, if everything pans out, to include a train from Baltimore to New York. If this were to happen travel time would be about 60 minutes to go from New York to Washington D.C. While train tickets will probably be expensive, it is much needed in our country. Including all the time that is spent waiting for a flight, boarding, and everything else it is probably faster to take a maglev train than it is to fly from New York to D.C.
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