Magnetic trains — at 500 k.m.h.

Press, 29 February 1984, Page 16

Magnetic trains — at 500 k.m.h.

Novosti Press Agency

In spite of the testing of an experimental super-high-speed Japanese carriage on magnetic suspension, many world experts predict that the wide introduction of this type of transport cannot be counted on within the next ten to 20 years. Similar predictions are also made in the Soviet Union, one of the countries where work is being done on the creation of a magnetically suspended train (the so-called magnetoplane). However, in the long term such trains will be able to play a significant role in solving the problems of transport in large cities and of transportation between cities.

It is not fortuitous that magnetic transport has been included in the U.S.S.R.’s scientific and technological programme for the 1980 s, the programme which provides for the development of new and advanced types of transport. On some Russian testinggrounds — near Kiev (in the Ukraine), in Novocherkassk (in the south of the European part of Russia), and at Ramenskoye (near

Moscow) — research ana testing are under way with the aim of designing magnetic trains. Soviet experts have no ambitious plans for the next few years. At this stage their goal is to create a magnetic train for inner-city transportation and for transportation to and from airports. Here, in addition to high speed, the capacity to operate smoothly in the rush hour, the absence of noise and vibration, and the ecological advantages of this type of transport must be taken into account.

On the experimental route at Ramenskoye, a section of the track to be built in Alma-Ata, the capital of Kazakhstan, is reproduced in natural size. The city is situated in a mountain hollow above which exhaust from automobile transport accumulates. Magnetic trains made up of six cars will be able to carry about 25,000 passengers hourly at a speed of about 100 kilometres an hour.

The second stage is the creation of magnetic trains for transportation between cities. It is believed

that the expense of introducing magnetic systems will pay off three times quicker than it would with railway transport, and that as far as the speed of magnetic trains is concerned, they will be able to compete with planes over a distance of up to 2000 kilometres. More than 300 Soviet experts from 16 cities who attended some time ago a national conference on this type of transportation came to the conclusion that, before the year 2000, magnetic trains moving at a speed of 400-500 kilometres an hour will become a reality. Trains made up of several cars (75 to 100 passengers in each car) will carry 50 million passengers a year.

The initial routes will link Moscow with Leningrad and with southern Black Sea health resorts in the Crimea and the Caucasus. A trip to the south will take four to six hours, which is quite comparable with the overall time spent in air travel.

Anatoly Kamrat, chief of the testing ground near Kiev, where linear electric motors for magnetic trains are tested, thinks that in urban conditions these trains will prove to be two to three times

cheaper to run than a subway and that the rate of construction will be much higher. Magnetic trains are not faced with any problems as far as the slope of the route is concerned — in principle, they are even capable of moving vertically upwards. Designers already have 600 and 800 kilowatts linear electric motors, sufficient for attaining a speed of 450 kilometres an hour. The 800 kilowatt motor has already been patented in the United States. Japan. West Germany. Britain, France and Italy.

“We have a 1200 kilowatt motor and this is not the limit," Mr Kamrat said.

The choice of magnetic suspension is an important question. The first and the simplest version (a system on permanent magnets) was rejected because it would be too expensive to face the roadway with such magnets. Besides, rather expensive devices for the lateral stabilisation of a magnetic train are needed. Due to economic and other considerations, the principle of an electromagnet installed only in the cars, while the road itself is made of ordinary steel strips,

seems to be more acceptable. The third option, the electrodynamic version, presupposes the use of super-powerful magnets based on the principles of superconductivity and seems to be the most efficient technologically. This method has been used by the Japanese. Economically this is the prospect for "tomorrow" or "the day after." Perhaps today it would be more profitable to return to the first version: Soviet metallurgists and power engineers have designed relatively inexpensive permanent magnets. Installations for the stabilisation of magnetic trains are being created and their cost is acceptable. The speed of magnetic trains is about 500 kilometres an hour. Air resistance prevents an increase in this limit, but it can be raised if the magnetic-suspension roadway is placed in a pipe under vacuum. Cars in this case would have their own microclimate. In such rarified space a magnetic train could cover the route from Moscow to Leningrad (650 kilometres in 20 to 25 minutes. In principle, the speed in such a pipe could reach as high as 4000 kilometres an hour.

Al Alexandrov, head of the AllRussian Transprogress Industrial Association, speaks in favour of pneumatic transport. Transprogress created the world’s first commercial systems of container pipeline transport. The Japanese have bought the license from the Soviet Union and have also built such a system. Mr Alexandrov believes that trains moving through a pipeline will not face climatic problems - snow-fall, icing over, and so on — which may cause a lot of trouble for ordinary magnetic trains. Pneumatic trains will have a high speed for urban use: up to 90 kilometres an hour. To accelerate such a train to this speed it is enough to produce an excessive pressure of just 0.5 of an atmosphere in the pipe. At rush-hour it will be possible to transport up to 35,000 passengers an hour and during the rest of the time cars can be uncoupled and used separately so that trains would not run half-empty. This is feasible because no traction locomotives are needed.

According to the calculations carried out by Soviet experts, the construction of pneumatic systems will cost 50 per cent less than the construction of subway lines, and operational costs will be at least 50 per cent lower. Perhaps, taking into account the U.S.S.R.’s experience of handling commercial pneumatic systems for cargo transport, their introduction in city passenger transport will be quicker. As far as super-high-speed magnetic trains for long-range routes is concerned, they apparently will come into being in the more remote future