Airline Speed Rail
The 19th Century is Over
Nearly two hundred years on, we are still stuck on iron horse rail and limited to, at best, 100+ mph speeds. You wouldn’t think progress would be so hard to come by.
The successor to this primitive technology is a mag-lev train. However, they are so expensive as to be almost non-existent.
Perhaps it is time to think outside the box. If we are going to build rail transport, “Why not build airline speed capable rail for pennies on the dollar?”, using an air flotation concept.
If air is trapped underneath a carriage as in an air hockey concept, a train could achieve airline speeds for a fraction of the cost of even conventional rail, not to mention mag-lev rail. Technically, it would not even be rail anymore but rather, simply ‘line transport’, as there is no need for a rail. Logically, it makes more sense to build an airplane-type carriage that flies at 2 inches above the surface than to build a truck on a track and consider the savings.
By eliminating wheels, the only limit on speed is horsepower. By eliminating magnets, the only cost is the elevated line, and by eliminating the weight, the cost of those elevated lines would be significantly less.
It is perplexing that this concept has never even been suggested, much less debated. It seems so obvious on its face. We live in an age of the most sophisticated electronics imaginable and yet, we have a 19th-century rail. Physical engineering is the slow kid in the class and it is time to start catching up.
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