We have abandoned the old “maglev train” approach and designed a new maglev system from the ground up to fully exploit the potential of newly-invented technology. We developed a novel wide-gap permanent magnet suspension and a high-efficiency wide-gap linear induction motor (LIM), and combined them in a smaller-sized vehicle that allows the use of narrow guideways and instant guideway switches with no moving components.
The driving principle behind the Magtube System design has been to make vehicle and guideway dimensions as large as they must be to carry people and freight – but no larger – and to keep the guideway busy most of the time. The resulting effect? Costs plummet, performance improves, and the breadth of suitable applications increases.
The Magtube System can provide high acceleration, very high speed, short headway between vehicles, extreme safety, high passenger and/or freight capacity, low operating costs, and greatly reduced capital investment requirements compared with conventional maglev approaches. Variations on the design are suitable for intra-city or inter-city transportation on open guideways or in evacuated tubes. Our proprietary maglev vehicles, guideways and switches can be used to create a new transportation paradigm – the Mag Net™ – with revolutionary capabilities.
In developing countries, Mag Net™ construction could replace new highways, railroads, and airports, greatly reducing capital expenditures, saving huge tracts of land and avoiding the need for millions of petroleum vehicles. Since the Mag Net™ itself will be very close to silent and accident-free, it is reasonable to assume that noise, congestion, and accident rate reductions will correspond to reductions in road traffic.
Top speeds well in excess of 1,600 kph (1,000 mph) are achievable, but with operating costs orders of magnitude lower than supersonic airliners. Freight could be transported in less time than air freight, and at a lower cost than rail. Passenger terminals for long distance travel could be located throughout city centers, and in suburbs, rather than in remote airports. A nation-wide Mag Net™ passenger system would provide a level of speed, safety, comfort, convenience, and efficiency not previously possible.
Major breakthroughs in transportation technology are exceedingly rare – the railroad, the automobile, the airplane – but have far-reaching consequences. Mag Nets™ will provide tremendous environmental, social, and economic benefit. Our goal is to provide travelers and shippers with faster, safer, lower cost transport — the highway of the future.