RIVAL ROUTES TO BE STUDIED FOR BULLET TRAIN.Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer PALMDALE - A $1 million federal study will examine whether a 250 mph maglev train Magnetic levitation transport, or maglev, is a form of transportation that suspends, guides and propels vehicles (especially trains) using electromagnetic force. This method can be faster than wheeled mass transit systems, potentially reaching velocities comparable to could link downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or , Palmdale, Orange County and San Bernardino San Bernardino, city, United States San Bernardino (săn bûr'nədē`nō), city (1990 pop. 164,164), seat of San Bernardino co., S Calif., at the foot of the San Bernardino Mts.; inc. 1854. County on a multibillion-dollar high-tech transit loop. Another $1 million study will examine a competing maglev route linking Orange County communities to Ontario International Airport and Las Vegas Las Vegas (läs vā`gəs), city (1990 pop. 258,295), seat of Clark co., S Nev.; inc. 1911. It is the largest city in Nevada and the center of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States. , a 269-mile system promoted by the 15-year-old California-Nevada Superspeed Train Commission. Floated by an electromagnetic field electromagnetic field Property of space caused by the motion of an electric charge. A stationary charge produces an electric field in the surrounding space. If the charge is moving, a magnetic field is also produced. A changing magnetic field also produces an electric field. on a guideway elevated above freeways or railroad tracks, the trains could speed travelers to Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, airports and ease congestion The condition of a network when there is not enough bandwidth to support the current traffic load. congestion - When the offered load of a data communication path exceeds the capacity. on ever-slower freeways as the Southland adds 6 million people over the next three decades, supporters said Tuesday. ``There's going to be a huge need from a commuter standpoint. The demand is definitely going to be there,'' said Jeff Lustgarten, a spokesman for the Southern California Association of Governments. ``When you add on top of that the airport component, there's going to be considerable demand.'' The studies come as Congress considers involving the federal government in financing a maglev system somewhere in the United States. Squared off against the Southern California projects are cheaper and less-ambitious East Coast maglev routes: 40 miles between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and 47 miles between Pittsburgh and its suburbs, to which Congress appropriated a total $3 million for studies in the same bill. Congress is expected to decide which American maglev project should be built in next year's session, officials said. The Pennsylvania and Washington projects actually had won out in 2001 over other proposals in a competition for further study, but federal officials urged Southern California and Nevada officials to keep going on their plans. The Anaheim-Las Vegas line would cost about $6 billion, with service between Ontario Airport and Orange County possible as early as 2010, Miller said. The competing Southern California loop is proposed to have as its first segment a route linking West Los Angeles
That segment would cost about $7 billion, Lustgarten said, and an estimated 110,000 riders a day would use it. ``It's the equivalent of a new freeway, basically,'' he said. Charles F. Bostwick, (661) 267-5742 chuck.bostwick(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): box, map Box/Map: HIGH SPEED RAIL Daily News |
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