After a decade of lobbying by planners and politicians, the Baltimore-Washington corridor has emerged as a leading contender for the nation's first high-speed magnetic levitation train.
"Maglev" trains, which have been tested in Germany and Japan, rely on magnetic fields that float cars along guideways friction-free and at speeds of more than 300 mph -- a pace that would cut the length of a trip between Baltimore and Washington to 16 minutes.
Advocates describe them as environmentally clean, quiet and safe; undeterred in bad weather; and a logical next step to 21st-century transportation. The Concorde of trains, a maglev in Japan set a speed record of 343 mph last week.
"It's like flying on the ground," said Phyllis Wilkins of the Baltimore Development Corp., who has ridden the train on a test loop in Germany. "There's no drone from an engine.
"You can stand and walk in the aisles and not even notice that you're going 250 mph, unlike trains that knock from side to side."
Skeptics say maglev is a pie-in-the-sky idea with a price tag to match.
"I think the technology works very well, but it's never really gotten off the ground anywhere because it's so enormously expensive to build," said David Fuscus of the Air Transport Association.
House members impressed
A 1991 congressional plan to fund a prototype died when support faltered. But in the past few years, key House members have ridden test trains abroad and been impressed.
So last year Congress voted for a plan that could have a prototype train operating in the United States by 2006.
Much of the attention is on a possible route between Camden Yards in Baltimore and Union Station in Washington.
"What I'm hearing is that Baltimore-Washington is the leading corridor among all the corridors they're looking at," said Rob Kiernan of Virginia-based Strategic Insight, a planner who assisted in Maryland's bid for the funds.
Among applicants from 10 states, the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) is certain to be among a few chosen to share $12 million Congress has set aside to develop comprehensive plans, according to transportation officials. That decision will be announced in the next few weeks.
Proposals for lines in Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Denver and southern California also are under review.
But among the assets said to be giving Baltimore-Washington an edge: The route's relatively short, 40-mile span; its proximity to the congressmen and senators who will decide maglev's fate; the existing rights-of-way between the two cities -- Interstate 95, Baltimore-Washington Parkway and the Amtrak route -- which would reduce expense; and a study suggesting that a maglev train here would be profitable.
The deciding factor could be the market of potential riders.
"Everyone knows the Washington-to-New York corridor is the most congested in the nation," said Kiernan.
Enthusiastic support
A senior transportation official acknowledged that Maryland is "in the front ranks."
"There seems to be a political will to do something there," said the official, who asked not to be named. "MDOT seems to be enthusiastically supporting this thing. The people in Baltimore think it's going to work.
"We're kind of thinking of it as the first segment of a northeast corridor line. I would see this ultimately as a replacement for high-speed rail in the northeast corridor."
Only last month, Amtrak announced plans for a high-speed rail line through the northeast corridor. The service, expected to open in October, will cut travel time between Baltimore and Boston by 2 1/2 hours.
"It's good they're buying new equipment and, yes, the service will be better, but it will not make the northeast corridor that much different," said Wilkins of the BDC. "Going 150 mph is not that much faster [than current trains]. To make a difference, to really compete with car and air travel, you have to go very fast."
Competition not an issue
She said possible competition with Amtrak is not an issue. By the time a maglev system could be fully developed in the northeast, Amtrak will have gotten its investment out of the new Acela train, she said.
Maglev has long been backed by a contingent of local engineers and developers, nonprofit groups and politicians, including Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski.
The trains work on a basic principle: Opposite magnetic poles attract and similar ones repel. Maglev uses powerful electromagnets to float and propel cars along guideways.
Because there is no contact between the car and the rail, the system is frictionless, without the sort of wear and tear that occurs between conventional train wheels and tracks.
Construction costs are comparable to highway costs but higher than building a standard train line.
The prototype would require about $1 billion in federal funds, plus $500 million in state, local and private commitments. The federal cost is roughly the same amount Congress approved for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project.
"It's hard to say what Congress might do," said Scott Brenner, spokesman for the House Transportation Committee. "New rail projects are very expensive, and yet it does seem to be a pretty efficient way of getting people around."
For demonstration only
Despite years of demonstration projects abroad, maglev trains are not used for public transportation anywhere in the world, primarily because governments have been unwilling to foot the bill.
Wilkins said the local studies being funded by Congress will project cost, ridership, environmental impact, financing commitments and other factors needed to determine whether maglev is feasible.
If Congress is persuaded maglev can work, Wilkins believes Baltimore is likely to win the project. "We have so much that sets us aside from the other projects," she said.
The Baltimore-Washington maglev proposal also is figuring in the two cities' partnership in bidding for the 2012 summer Olympic games.
According to the DOT timetable, a maglev project site is to be selected next year. The city that becomes America's entry for the 2012 Olympics will be chosen in 2002.
"The effort to get the Olympics here would be greatly facilitated if the two areas were connected by some very fast transportation," said Robert C. Embry Jr., president of the Abell Foundation and a longtime supporter of maglev.
Pub Date: 4/23/99