FeòragMar 14
Re: last boost. The German transport minister would like to see maglevs back.
Show threadFeòragMar 14
Also, this word meaning (I think) “Public Transport Financing Act” - Gemeindeverkehrsfinanzierungsgesetzes
Show threadTill WestermayerMar 14
@feorag More or less, Gemeinde means communal (city/town/county) in this case.
Show threadCharlie StrossMar 14

@_tillwe_ @feorag Thus ignoring the only sensible reason for going with maglev—sheer speed over long distance routes, competing with jet airliners—and ignoring that local transport needs to be cheap or free to get people out of their cars.

(Also, they don't seem to remember what happened to Transrapid. Oops.)

Show threadTill WestermayerMar 14
@cstross @feorag My guess: Friedrich Merz' frame of reference is 1998-2002, the year Merkel replaced him as chairperson of the CDU parliamentary party. Everything after this time is an error, to be ignored or corrected. (Or as one person in another thread on this asked: can I have back Grunge, too?).
Show threadCharlie StrossMar 14
@_tillwe_ @feorag There *might* be something I don't know—the new Chinese rare earth magnets this century have revolutionized car drivetrains, so they might no longer need superconductors for schwebebahn (i.e. light rail) applications?—but I doubt it's anything as forward-thinking as that, coming from the CDU.
Show threadYsegrim

@cstross @[email protected] @feorag Transrapid never needed one or the other. The system was designed with super strict tolerances and electronic control so that the air gap between stator (track) and "rotor" was 10mm, meaning classical Cu based electric magnets sufficed.

Might be that Neodym magnets even improve efficiency here though.

Mar 14 at 2:11pmWeb
Show threadRob AbramMar 14
@ysegrim @cstross @feorag We had a public-transport Maglev in Berlin at the end of the 80s - the M-Bahn. It was shit, and one of its party tricks was overrunning the buffers at Kemperplatz station with hilarious results.
Show threadFeòragMar 14
@robabram @ysegrim @cstross Japan has one, in Nagoya. It was built for an Expo, but was made part of the public transport system later. The only other slow speed maglev I can think of is the one that used to be at Birmingham airport. That was fine except it was one of a kind and was killed by a lack of spare parts.
Show threadRootWyrm 🇺🇦Mar 14
@robabram @ysegrim @cstross @feorag also, do you mean the 'magical' Chinese 'super trains' that they won't let anyone actually look at but basically look like a 5th grader copied Elon Musk's homework?
Where they somehow licensed that exact technology (Transrapid) and magically got it to 620km/h?
(China fucking lies. Constantly. And very obviously if you bother to learn anything about the claims.)
Show threadThe Penguin of EvilMar 14

@robabram @ysegrim @cstross @feorag We had one in the UK for the NEC and Birmingham Airport. It was a quaint tech demo basically.

https://youtu.be/asVQzbOftqE

was fun but not terribly successful

Birmingham (UK) Airport Maglev Train 1984 - 1995 RIP

YouTube
Show threadWeekend EditorMar 14

@robabram @ysegrim @cstross @feorag

Sometimes the classics are classic for a reason.

Show threadJTIMar 15
@robabram @ysegrim @cstross @feorag I rode it once on vacation and liked it. The party trick looks hilarious. Haven't seen it then. Any more evidence on the party trick?
Show threadRob AbramMar 16
@jti42 @ysegrim @cstross @feorag The Berliner Verkehrsseiten website has the full history of the M-Bahn at http://berliner-verkehrsseiten.de/m-bahn/Geschichte/geschichte.html
M-Bahn Berlin: Die Geschichte einer Erprobung - Nur im Onlinemagazin zur Berliner Verkehrsgeschichte - www.berliner-verkehrsseiten.de

Show threadWellsiteGeoMar 15

@robabram @ysegrim @cstross @feorag

Nobody tag @[email protected] on this. We don't want him avoiding these problems when (if) he ever (eventually) builds a "Hyperloop".