Stuart
Godzilla
ADJ said:
The Shanghai maglev cost US$1.2B to build which means that at 20,000 passengers a day at US$6 per passenger it will take around 30 years to pay off just the capital costs, not accounting for track maintenance, salaries and electricity (see solar power). This computes to US$60 million per mile. However, it should be noted that the total $1.2B indicated includes one-time capital costs such as manufacturing and construction facilities and operational training, largely distorting the per-mile costs of the short track. It is predicted that the per-mile costs of the extension to Hangzhou will be significantly lower.
The proposed Chuo Shinkansen line is estimated to cost approximately US$82 billion to build[citation needed].
However, when one considers the cost of airport construction (e.g., Hong Kong Airport cost US$20 billion to build in 1998) and eight-lane Interstate highway systems that cost around US$50 million per mile, it becomes immediately apparent that maglev's costs are competitive, especially considering that they can handle much higher volumes of passengers per hour than airports or eight-lane highways and do it without introducing any air pollution along the right of way.
So for London to Edinburgh, I would guess £50million per mile or thereabouts = £25 bn, or about 66% of what the government takes in road taxes each year.
You also need to consider where the electricity will come from. A few windmills is not going to do the job, and coal and gas fired power stations are out, so only nuclear would do the job.
If we reject these and want to be green, then I guess we need a lot of hamsters on treadmills, except the animal rights people will not be happy.
Last edited:
