Operational breakdown and performance measure of the transcontinental High-speed magleva
Authors: Chao Eugene , Venturi Jim 
Published: January 2019

Background: Magnetic Levitation (Maglev) systems have a noticeable operating track record in about a dozen countries. Higher speed maglev technology has been built for many intercity and regional lines in China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, United States, Brazil, and other countries. Maglev developers claim that the transcontinental high speed system can outperform the existing HSR and air transport and can achieve higher speed, have lower energy consumption and life cycle costs, attract more passengers, and boost regional economy. The article presents a systematic breakdown of the proposed transcontinental high speed Maglev system and pinpoints critical operational components and implementation measures. The analyses reach the following discussions on the three most important system characteristics.

Firstly, the transcontinental high speed Maglev had to make trade-offs among passenger access time to total travel time, station density to daily maximum operating speed, and operating strategy to daily skip-stop, express, as well as other accelerated services.

Secondly, the correlation between systems capacity management and vehicle interior space design (e.g. seats) has a serious impact on operators’ long-term financial condition. The involvement of identifying the equilibrium between these two factors in a linear algebra method is substantial.

Thirdly, the transcontinental high speed Maglev station must serve as the multimodal transportation hub. To attract passengers; accordingly, increase the ridership and farebox recovery, an unified transfer service on schedule coordination has to be incorporated into the system. Timed Transfer Systems (TTS) had the proven capability of increasing service reliability across different modes. Based on these discussions, the framework and direction of transcontinental high speed Maglev strategic planning is becoming sensible.

Aim: The article addresses the major system design elements of transportation planning and pinpoints corresponding operational strategies, which are useful for the planning and design of maglev. The study will assist system designers, network planners, and operators to understand where the technical and operational boundaries are for this particular mode. Knowing the boundary is useful for the design, planning, and operations of the system. 

Methods: The efforts of literature reviews focus on two fields: composition of major system design elements and interrelation with other modes of transportation. The method examines the foundation of maglev planning.

Results: First, the benefit of speed increase cannot be hasty generalized. The assessment of speed increase needs to break down to different beneficiaries (e.g. operator, passenger, and the community). Second, system capacity depends on its operating speed, service frequency, load factor, and vehicle size. These four factors further determine the operational feasibility of the maglev. Finally, in a dispersed travel pattern, TTS increases transfer reliability and unifies different lines of headway to improve service reliability.

Conclusion: Certain cities and countries are facing similar transportation issues. They are trying to learn from each other. The efforts focus on the establishment of efficient transit systems and the dedicated action to adopt a new mode of transportation (e.g. maglev) for intracity, intercity, transcontinental commutes. The article offers tangible values on transportation planning, systems design, and operation performance, which are critical for the development of the maglev system.