UK Ultraspeed
Encyclopedia
Maglev train
Maglev , is a system of transportation that uses magnetic levitation to suspend, guide and propel vehicles from magnets rather than using mechanical methods, such as friction-reliant wheels, axles and bearings...
line between London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, linking Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
and Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
, and with a spur to Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
.
Proposal
The proposal is a system based on TransrapidTransrapid
Transrapid is a German high-speed monorail train using magnetic levitation. Based on a patent from 1934, planning of the Transrapid system started in 1969. The test facility for the system in Emsland, Germany was completed in 1987...
technology (as used in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
on the Shanghai Maglev Train
Shanghai Maglev Train
The Shanghai Maglev Train or Shanghai Transrapid is a magnetic levitation train, or maglev line that operates in Shanghai, China. It is the first commercially operated high-speed magnetic levitation line in the world...
line); the trains would travel at up to 500 km/h (310.7 mph) significantly reducing journey times between major cities in the UK. It is the result of a £2 million feasibility study by the Transrapid group.
The route of the line is proposed as a 'backwards S' shape designed to serve cities on the East Coast Main Line
East Coast Main Line
The East Coast Main Line is a long electrified high-speed railway link between London, Peterborough, Doncaster, Wakefield, Leeds, York, Darlington, Newcastle and Edinburgh...
and West Coast Main Line
West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line is the busiest mixed-traffic railway route in Britain, being the country's most important rail backbone in terms of population served. Fast, long-distance inter-city passenger services are provided between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and the...
in one line.
Proposed Journey Times
The following are the expected journey times in minutes compared with present journey times by train. The table also includes the proposed journey times of High Speed 2.| Between | Present time | High Speed 2 time | Ultraspeed time |
|---|---|---|---|
| London and Birmingham | 1 hour 30 minutes | 49 minutes | 30 minutes |
| London and Liverpool | 2 hours 15 minutes | 1 hour 36 minutes | 45 minutes |
| London and Manchester | 2 hours 20 minutes | 1 hour 20 minutes | 50 minutes |
| London and Glasgow | 4 hours 30 minutes | 3 hours 30 minutes | 2 hours 35 minutes |
| Manchester and Liverpool | 50 minutes | 16 minutes | 10 minutes |
Not part of the current proposed route for High Speed 2
Benefits
This system would travel at 500 km/h (310.7 mph), a significantly higher speed than maximum conventional high-speed railHigh-speed rail
High-speed rail is a type of passenger rail transport that operates significantly faster than the normal speed of rail traffic. Specific definitions by the European Union include for upgraded track and or faster for new track, whilst in the United States, the U.S...
speeds of 300 to 380 km/h (186.4 to 236.1 mph). The system claims to use only 50% of the energy needed to power a comparable HSR alternative. The proposed maglev system is also able to accelerate and decelerate much more quickly than a conventional system, even if it had the same top speed. This reduces the number of trains required for the same level of service and also decreases point-to-point travel times. UK Ultraspeed quote 5 km for maglev to reach 300kph compared to 28 km for the German ICE conventional rail service reducing the acceleration time by a factor of four.
The guideway construction is elevated by nature and therefore requires both less 'land-grab' during construction (conventional rail lines prefer construction on the level) and also potentially easier construction up, for example, the centre of an existing road allowing new routes into major towns and cities. This construction would be no more than the usual per/km price since it would use the same guideway. For a conventional system to do the same, a special guideway would need to be constructed with climbable gradients from the level up to the guideway.
The traction method does not rely on friction for traction and therefore steeper gradients are possible (up to 1-in-10) when compared to conventional wheel-on-rail systems (up to 1-in-25). This would allow, for instance, a maglev system to cross the Pennine
Pennines
The Pennines are a low-rising mountain range, separating the North West of England from Yorkshire and the North East.Often described as the "backbone of England", they form a more-or-less continuous range stretching from the Peak District in Derbyshire, around the northern and eastern edges of...
mountains over the surface whereas conventional rail would require a tunnel or alternative longer route to avoid the inclines.
Because of the reduced journey times there are economic benefits to this proposal; with journey time reduced to 15 minutes, the cities of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
and Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
would be able to function as one economic entity and enable greater cohesion between them. Additionally shorter journey times may offset the traditional north-south England imbalance by encouraging businesses to locate outside London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
but still have good access to the locations like Heathrow Airport.
There are also environmental benefits, because high speed rail reduces the number of journeys taken by car and aeroplane between cities and would, in turn, contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transport. In the case of Ultraspeed, the presumed take-up of rail travel would be higher as a realistic alternative to short-haul flights and the much better point-to-point times compared to car travel.
Higher speed rail travel (of whatever method) implies the possibility of fewer trains being required to meet current timetables, reducing the overall construction and maintenance cost. Conversely, it would be possible to have a more frequent service with the same number of trains as present or something in-between.
The proposed Transrapid system could be controlled from a single control room and the trains do not require drivers leading to either a reduction in staff costs and/or an increase in the staff available to interface with customers.
UK Ultraspeed have claimed the Shanghai maglev which uses the same technology runs at 99.9% availability, much higher than the average for conventional rail due to certain factors related to the operation of the maglev system such as the main control equipment being static in the guideway and not inside a moving locomotive as in conventional rail. The guideway and control also implies fewer ways in which accidents could happen since it is impossible for the train to leave the guideway in normal operation and the simpler topology of the network and elevated guideways make traffic or other train collisions extremely unlikely.
The estimated cost of the system would be £28 billion, which includes guideway construction and gliding stock.
UK Ultraspeed Project Manager Dr Alan James has asked why the country is talking about investing for the next 100 years or more into a system that is already 150 years old and reaching its limits rather than investing in something that is future-proof for the foreseeable future. Especially since UK Ultraspeed claim a more useful, faster, reliable and cheaper alternative in maglev.
Limitations
The system itself, by its nature, is incompatible with existing rolling stock, making integration with the existing network difficult - generally requiring the construction of adjacent and dissimilar lines or stations. Additionally maglev trains that have broken down are not easily rescued , whereas conventional rail allows recovered using self powered rescue locomotives. The fact that the technology is markedly different from existing technology also brings with it a risk that investment in something new at this level could seriously backfire if major problems were encountered . UK Ultraspeed has contended that this reason is not fully justified since the Chinese run the proposed trains in passenger service proving that the system is viable.It has been cited by the government whitepaper (page 10) that the proposed maglev is not good value for money compared with conventional rail. UK Ultraspeed have contested this assertion since there are savings that are present in the proposed maglev system that are not present in conventional rail such as reduced land-grab (construction) cost, reduced number of trains, much reduced maintenance (due to 'zero' wheel-on-rail contact) and reduced number of staff required. UK Ultraspeed had asked the UK government for the same amount of money given to the conventional rail report in order to provide more detail into the costing to demonstrate that this statement is unjustified. In the UK Ultraspeed Factbook, page 13, their pre-survey cost estimates are £20M-24.75M/km which compared to the High Speed 1 known cost of £46M-48M/km shows a marked reduction in cost compared to the slower High Speed 1 channel tunnel link. UK Ultraspeed contend that at this level of saving, it is important to fully investigate the costing before committing to something that is potentially twice as expensive per km for a much less useful system. For comparison, the system in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
equates to around £28M/km, which is not directly comparable due to differing construction conditions in China.
The system is not compatible with standard shipping containers used on the railways in Great Britain, however it is compatible with the standard air freight containers, which leads to a lower haulage capacity compared to the standard network; a maglev can haul only 150 tonnes of freight in airline shipping containers, utilising all 10 modules of a train of which each individual module can hold 15 tonnes, whereas a UK freight train can haul ~ 60 Twenty-foot equivalent unit
Twenty-foot equivalent unit
The twenty-foot equivalent unit is an inexact unit of cargo capacity often used to describe the capacity of container ships and container terminals...
(up to ~1800 tonnes net weight). This is not seen as a considerable limitation since the network is intended primarily for passenger travel which requires high speed journey times. The proposed network would run independently of the existing infrastructure which could carry more freight if conventional trains were replaced with maglev ones.
The interaction of the rolling stock and the guideway doesn't cause strong magnetic fields within the Maglev vehicle, so there are no restrictions for people with pacemaker
Pacemaker
An artificial pacemaker is a medical device that uses electrical impulses to regulate the beating of the heart.Pacemaker may also refer to:-Medicine:...
s.
Vehicles have to run at a restricted speed over a "reversed" switch (set towards the diversion) only being allowed to traverse them at up to 200 km/h (124 mph). However, they can proceed normally, up to 500 km/h (310 mph), if the switch is in the "normal" position (set towards the main route). The reason for this restriction is the guideway is normally banked into the corner at up to 12° from vertical, a switch is basically a girder that is bent into position by motors and is unable to bank.
Comparisons with Other Countries
There are comparisons, either favourable or not, with systems in other countries around the world, especially ChinaChina
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, which run the fastest commercial maglev system in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
and also Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
who are considered pioneers of both conventional rail and maglev systems. It is not correct to compare the apparent success in Shanghai or the apparent lack of a maglev system in Japan directly with the UK since a railway system does not operate in isolation with society, government, geography or other factors. These factors which might include financial pressures, distribution and expectations of a countries' citizens and the ability of a government or private consortium to build infrastructure easily where they decide to, all affect the overall value or return on investment
Return on investment
Return on investment is one way of considering profits in relation to capital invested. Return on assets , return on net assets , return on capital and return on invested capital are similar measures with variations on how “investment” is defined.Marketing not only influences net profits but also...
of any railway system including maglev. For this reason, more studies are required to determine whether the success in Shanghai can be duplicated in the UK, whether the economics that appear favourable there will translate to the UK and whether the apparent lack of commercial maglev systems in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
indicates a general problem with the technology that the UK should be concerned with or not.
A specific example relates to the fact that Japanese trains have to be designed with earthquakes in mind and therefore the technology that might work well and economically in the UK (i.e. electromagnetic suspension
Electromagnetic suspension
Electromagnetic Suspension is the magnetic levitation of an object achieved by constantly altering the strength of a magnetic field produced by electromagnets using a feedback loop...
) is simply not viable in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
who need to develop maglev trains with greater clearances between guideway and train (which is not a trivial task). For this reason, the Japanese have invested a lot in Electrodynamic suspension
Electrodynamic suspension
Electrodynamic suspension is a form of magnetic levitation in which there are conductors which are exposed to time-varying magnetic fields. This induces currents in the conductors that creates a repulsive magnetic field which holds the two objects apart....
which requires superconducting magnets.