FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION : FREIGHT RAILROADING

Magnetic Levitation Technology Deployment Program

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) was directed by the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century ("TEA-21") to initiate a competition to plan and build a magnetic levitation (maglev) project somewhere in the United States. Federal funding consists of $55 million for preconstruction planning and identification of the most promising project, and up to $950 million for final engineering and construction of the guideway of the one-selected project. The Federal funds for planning and construction must be matched at least1/3 to 2/3 by State, local, or private contributions. To be eligible for Federal construction funding, each project must demonstrate that operating revenues will exceed operating costs, and total benefits will exceed total costs over a 40-year period, and the service must achieve a speed of at least 240 miles per hour in revenue service for some portion of the route.

Why a Priority?

Intercity travel demand and resulting congestion continue to increase. In 1998, 15 large hub airports in the U.S. were congested and 21 conservatively can anticipate congestion by 2008. Statistics of the FHWA show that in the period 1985-1995, highway traffic has grown an average of more than 3 percent per year. USDOT expects growth to continue at a rate of at least 2 percent per year. Meanwhile, the 1999 Urban Mobility Report by the Texas Transportation Institute estimates that the costs of urban congestion in a sample of 68 urban areas was approximately $72 billion per year, with average delay per driver having increased by 181 percent from 1982 to 1997. Anecdotal evidence indicates the problems have grown since then. Growth in transportation demand over the next decades will require both new capacity and new technology to meet the nation's needs.

Maglev represents an alternative to existing means of transportation in some high-density corridors. It is the first new mode of transportation to be considered for deployment since the introduction of the airplane in 1904. Besides very high-speed capabilities, maglev features high acceleration and braking capability, an ability to climb steep grades, automated operation, variable train length, high system capacity, light vehicle weight, excellent ride quality, and safe, quiet, clean operations. Extremely powerful electro-magnets levitate, propel, guide, and stop the maglev vehicles.

Objectives

The objective of this program is to work with a selected public/private partnership to cooperatively plan, finance, construct, equip, and demonstrate in revenue service at an early date (by 2010), the potential benefits of maglev technology to the American people. If it lives up to its potential, maglev will be ready to be deployed as a logical technological successor to the Acela Express and other high-speed service currently being initiated in the Northeast Corridor and in other high-density travel corridors around the country.

Preconstruction Planning

In October 1998, FRA solicited applications for preconstruction planning grants from States or authorities designated by States. Eleven applications were received, which were evaluated in terms of the likelihood that the projects would be able to meet the eligibility standards. In May 1999, the Secretary of Transportation announced that seven projects were selected to receive planning grants in the first phase of the competition. These were:

Atlanta, Georgia: First 50 kilometers (31 miles) of a 176-kilometer (110-mile) maglev project linking Atlanta Hartsfield Airport located south of the Atlanta urban center to Atlanta and Chattanooga's Lovell Airfield along Interstate Highway Route I-75.
Baltimore, Maryland to Washington, D.C.: A 64 kilometer (40-mile) project linking Camden Yard in Baltimore (a sports complex, convention center, and center for recreation and tourism), and Baltimore-Washington International Airport to Union Station in Washington, D.C.
Las Vegas, Nevada to the California State Line at Primm, Nevada: A 56 kilometer (35-mile) project visualized by the project sponsors as the first stage of a high-speed service linking Las Vegas to Barstow and Anaheim, California, along the I-15 Interstate Highway Corridor.
Los Angeles, California: Plans for this project call for a 148 kilometer (92-mile) system would provide high-speed service between major activity centers in a dispersed high-density urban area extending from Los Angeles International Airport through Los Angeles to the downtown Union Station, then east through the San Gabriel Valley to emerging centers at Ontario International Airport and the former March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County.
New Orleans, Louisiana: This would be a 77 kilometer (48-mile) project linking New Orleans Union Passenger (Train) Terminal in the New Orleans central business district (CBD) to the New Orleans International Airport and across Lake Pontchartrain to the fast-growing northern suburbs of New Orleans.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: A 76 kilometer (47-mile) project linking Pittsburgh International Airport to Pittsburgh and its eastern suburbs.
Port Canaveral to Kennedy Space Center and Space Coast Regional Airport at Titusville, Florida: A 29 kilometer (18-mile) project linking a major cruise ship port at Port Canaveral to the Kennedy Space Center and the Space Coast Regional Airport.

Evaluation and Selection of Projects

Each of the seven projects submitted a Project Description to FRA on June 30, 2000. The Project Descriptions include:

Projected environmental effects.
Costs of construction, equipment, and operations and maintenance.
Estimates of ridership and revenues.
An implementation schedule.
Operating plans.
A management plan defining a public/private partnership that would plan, finance, construct and operate the project.
A comprehensive financial plan.

A multi-disciplined committee comprised of Department of Transportation staff reviewed the 7 competing Project Descriptions. The committee reported to the Secretary on the merits of each project-to assist him in selecting the most promising projects to receive continued Federal support for the next phase of pre-construction planning.

The USDOT selected the projects in Maryland and Pennsylvania to continue to the next stage of the program.

The project in Maryland has been under study since 1994. Preliminary studies indicate the project would serve between 20,000 and 40,000 trips per day, even with continued Amtrak service in the corridor. It would provide residents and visitors to Washington, D.C. with a second airport only 15 minutes from Union Station and take some of the pressure off Reagan National Airport that is currently operating at capacity with rationing of gate slots. The project is visualized as the initial stage of a high-speed maglev system that would serve the entire Northeast Corridor between Boston and Charlotte, NC. In the event the Baltimore-Washington area wins its bid for the 2012 Olympic designation, the system would provide rapid transportation between the sports venues in both cities and the airport.

The Pennsylvania project has been under study since 1990 and has two objectives. One is to demonstrate the first high-speed maglev project in the United States. The other is to establish the precision fabrication technology to implement maglev technology anywhere in the United States. The rugged physical terrain, a full four-season climate, and stops at an airport, downtown, and in the suburbs would demonstrate the full potential of maglev technology to provide service in a variety of environments. The project is intended to be the first stage of a system that would eventually provide high-speed intercity service to Cleveland on the west and Philadelphia on the east.

A Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement was published and distributed on April 20, 2001 that selected the "action alternative" to continue the program as the preferred alternative, and identified the Maryland and Pennsylvania projects for continued evaluation and project development. The selection was documented in a Record of Decision dated June 29, 2001. The Secretary of Transportation may select one of these projects for possible design and construction based upon more detailed information. Any decision to proceed with the construction phase would be contingent upon Congressional appropriations and completion of a site-specific Environmental Impact Statement for the selected project.

Expected Outcomes

Over the period through mid-2003, the two selected project teams will use additional funding provided by FRA and local sources to refine proposed plans, estimate ridership and revenues, prepare site-specific Draft Environmental Impact Statements for each project, and secure financial commitments. The information generated in this process will enable the USDOT to make a well-informed selection of a single project. It is anticipated that early in 2003, the USDOT would be in a position to select a single project; and later that year, upon completion of a final EIS for the selected project, to make the decision to proceed with construction. That decision would also be contingent upon whether construction funds become available in a future Federal budget.

Although not selected to participate in the next phase of the Maglev Deployment Program, the projects in California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Nevada were encouraged to continue to develop their plans and seek alternative sources of financing. To assist them, FRA has made available almost $1 million in Federal funds for each of the projects, as specified by Congress in the FY 2001 Appropriation Act.

Between now and 2003, the FRA will administer the planning grants and monitor the work of each of the project sponsors. In addition, since maglev comes under the jurisdiction of the Federal Railroad Safety Act, FRA must approve the design and operational plan for a maglev project through FRA's safety rule-making process. During this period, FRA will analyze these designs and plans from a safety assurance viewpoint. Since the Federal Republic of Germany has already conducted a similar process with regard to implementation of the same Transrapid maglev technology in Germany, USDOT has signed an agreement with its counterpart department in Germany to share safety-related and project development information.