From: adrian@ntmtv.UUCP (Adrian Brandt)
Subject: Ussery's MagLev BART idea assailed
Organization: Northern Telecom Inc, Mountain View, CA
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 00:25:42 GMT


Another item of interest regarding recurrent talk of BART
going Mag-Lev someday (mostly by Will Ussery):

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From _The New Electric Railway Journal_, Summer 1992
by William S. Lind

"The Bourbons are Back"
<...> indicates italics

In this time of turmoil and revolutions around the world, no
change in governments should come as too great a surprise.  It
was, however, something of a shock to see California revert to
Bourbon rule.  The Spanish Bourbons ruled California in its
colonial period, but it is to the French Bourbons that it was
recently ceded.

You missed this little news item?  Well, the evidence for it is
compelling, if circumstantial.  It was said of the French
Bourbons that they forget nothing and they learn nothing.  Who
else but a ruling house with that motto--and that arrogance--
could be responsible for BART's determination to proceed with
<low-speed> maglev?

Yes, you read that correctly--low-speed maglev.  The only
putative virtue of maglev (a train that is magnetically levitated
above its roadbed) is superior speed potential.  With the French
conventional technology TGV already hitting better than 500
kilometers per hour on test runs, that advantage is open to
question.  But the maglev train BART wants would be no faster
than standard steel-wheel-on-steel-rail transit cars.  So what's
the point?  We decided to enquire.

Mr. Wilfred T. Ussery, who was formerly president of BART and is
no King Louis XXV's [sic] Viceroy for transportation in the San
Francisco Bay area, is the man behind the low-speed maglev idea.
According to an article that appeared in the January 20, 1992
<San Francisco Chronicle> by noted transit writer Harre W. Demoro:

"BART President Wilfred T. Ussery is pretty sure that one day
BART trains will run on a cushion of magnetic force instead of on
wheels... Major BART extensions as well as the proposed rail
shuttle between the Coliseum BART station and Oakland
International Airport are likely candidates for maglev technology,
Ussery said.

According to him, the counties of Santa Clara, San Joaquin, and
Solano are likely to join the BART district in a few years.

`That's enough mileage to do a serious analysis of magnetic
levitated trains as an alternative to the existing technology,'
Ussery said.  Eventually, the present BART system could be
retrofitted with the new equipment."

These statement were a bit puzzling on first reading.  How could
a transit system that has suffered so badly for so long from
technological gimmickry again set itself up for disaster by
repeating the same mistake?  It was then I realized the Bourbons
were indeed back.  Who else would so blithely ignore the lessons
of the past by a determination to repeat it?

Just to be sure I had it right, I called Mr. Ussery and asked a
few questions.  He confirmed that BART's policy is to adopt
maglev as soon as it is feasible.  Since speed is not an issue in
this application, I asked him what he thought the advantages
would be?  He replied that maglev could potentially cut BART's
ower bill by 20-30% (an annual saving of $6-9 million), it would
be quieter (inside, not outside the vehicle) and have better ride
quality, and the vehicle would be lighter (BART already has the
lightest 'heavy' rail car in the industry).

In return for these modest and wholly hypothetical advantages
(maglev could be worse than conventional technology in all these
respects), the risks would be enormous.  I asked the Viceroy
about risks.  His reply could not better illustrate traditional
Bourbon policy.  He said that the risks, especially if BART were
first with maglev, would be "the same as being first in other
cases."  Further, he stated that maglev would bring BART some of
the same problems it had the first time around!  The implication
was clear: if the taxpayers and riders who suffer from these
problems do not like it, tough.  Let'em eat cake.

The French Bourbons were always noted for their largess--
Versailles wasn't cheap--and in that respect too Mr. Ussery is an
able servant of his new rulers.  He takes credit, no doubt
deserved, for getting $75 million in the new transportation bill
ear-marked for the study of low-speed maglev for transit systems.

That's $75 million of taxpayer money down a rathole that leads
nowhere but to, at best, performance comparable to that of
conventional technology coupled with huge costs and risks.  And
to think the French complained of Marie Antoinette wasting a few
livres to build a mock dairy on the palace grounds so she could
play at being a milkmaid!

It would, we realize, be indiscreet of us to remind BART where
this kind of behavior led past Bourbons: to the guillotine, with
the public cheering as the long-awaited blade falls.  But just
for the record, Mr. Ussery, what's your neck size?  Some time
around the end of the century, we think the Bay area public will
want to know.

--end--

-- 

Adrian Brandt (415) 940-2379
UUCP: ...!ames!ntmtv!adrian
ARPA: ntmtv!adrian@ames.arc.nasa.gov
Newsgroups: ba.transportation,alt.activism,ca.environment