Maglev is a wonderful idea

I went to a Royal Institution talk more than 40 years ago, when it was suggested that this was the transport of the future.

So why hasn鈥檛 it happened? A clue is in the pictures supplied with the article. You will note that only straight sections of track are shown. The fact is that nobody has made a set of points that aren鈥檛 prohibitively expensive, and you need points at terminals to separate out trains and to allow them to turn back at destinations short of their terminuses.

Add to this the fact that the track can鈥檛 be used for anything else (for freight in particular), and it is not surprising that maglev remains a dream rather than a reality.

Derek Monnery, chairman, Essex Rail Users Federation

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