Re: Maglev power consumption.

[dbromage@omni.com.au (David Bromage)]

> There are some figures which I dispute. They say the maglev will
> accelerate from 0 to 300km/h in 5km, and that a conventional train
> requires 30km to reach the same speed from a standing start.

Sorry, that was 0 to 500km/h in 5km or 300km/h in 3km. A German contact
says an ICE with 12 trailers can accelerate to 280km/h in 18km, a mean
acceleration of about 0.2m/ss. 

For a Transrapid to accelerate to 300km/h in 3km, that's a mean
acceleration of about 0.9m/ss. To give you some idea of the force a
passenger would feel, imagine travelling in any conventional train at
115km/h facing backwards and the driver makes a sudden emergency brake
application.

Cheers
David