Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
Display:
There must be somewhere, but without even looking at it, I can say conventional high-speed uses multiple times the energy of Maglev. However, operation costs are only a small part of total costs for both, the construction costs (resp. interests and depreciation) dominate for both.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Wed Sep 27th, 2006 at 05:44:55 AM EST
[ Parent ]
conventional high-speed uses multiple times the energy of Maglev

Actually: no. I must have remembered the numbers for an earlier prototype, which was rather short and slower. But here some ad-hoc numbers for roughly comparable-capacity trains: the currently crashed TR-08 prototype, a five-car train, needs 4,573 kW to travel at a constant speed of 300 km/h on flat terrain. For an ICE-3 high-speed train, the corresponding value is a bit under 6000 kW.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Wed Sep 27th, 2006 at 07:36:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]
a bit under 6000 kW.

Should have been: a bit under 6400 kW.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Wed Sep 27th, 2006 at 08:54:53 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:

Occasional Series