Re: Transrapid's latest story

[David Bromage <dbromage@omni.com.au>]

"Colin R. Leech" wrote:
> 
> David Bromage (dbromage@omni.com.au) wrote:
> >
> > Phil Sellars from Transrapid Australia was in Canberra over the weekend
> > and made another sales pitch. I've made a summary of some of his more
> > questionable claims. Comments would be welcome.
> 
> Are you (or anybody else) trying to set the record straight in a forum
> where it matters? (eg. newspaper article, written submission to the high
> speed rail commission) Usenet is great for gathering information, but
> posting here won't be changing the minds of the people who need to be
> influenced.

It's in the information gathering stage at the moment. Transrapid is
trying to drum up support

> From this and past articles, it seems that Mr. Sellars is
> trying to persuade the authorities with incorrect information, and they
> deserve to know the truth.

This most recent list of claims was in an address to the Conservation
Council, trying to drum up support on environmental grounds. Some of the
technical questions has asked to be put in writing so it could be passed
on to the engineers. I'm not expecting much of a response, given their
previous record on technical questions.

> Most of these American examples barely register as a blip of interest in
> any sort of medium-speed rail links.

He said that 5 maglev projects had been approved under the $1 billion in
funding announced by Clinton, and 4 of these would be Transrapid.

It's not easy to get any information about this funding. What exactly
was it? At the time, I understood it to be funding for more research on
the "American Maglev" concept of the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Transrapid said it is funding for actual passenger lines.

Cheers
David