(Bloomberg News circulated the following story by Chris Cooper on May 11, 2010.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood rode on a 502 kilometer-per-hour (312 mph) magnetic- levitation train in Japan, stoking optimism that the Asian nation may be able to sell the technology overseas.
“We are right at the beginning of an opportunity for American cities to be connected by high-speed trains,” LaHood said today after his 27-minute ride at a test track in Yamanashi, west of Tokyo. “I’m delighted with this opportunity to really experience all the technology.”
LaHood visited the Central Japan Railway Co. line as renewed U.S. spending on railways revives optimism about maglev projects, including a possible link between Washington and Baltimore. That proposed line, costing some $5.8 billion, would cut the 40-mile journey to 18 minutes and it could eventually be extended to New York and Boston, according to a Maryland Department of Transport-backed group promoting the project.
“The U.S. Transport Secretary coming to Japan and riding the maglev is significant,” said Masayuki Kubota, who oversees the equivalent of $1.7 billion in assets in Tokyo at Daiwa SB Investments Ltd. “It is a big step forward in getting contracts.”
Japan’s government has pledged to support JR Central’s bid to build the Washington-Baltimore line, possibly including loans from a state-owned bank. Maglev trains float above the tracks and are propelled along by magnetic currents.
“There is a lot of interest in Japan’s maglev,” Japanese Transport Minister Seiji Maehara said last week. “I welcome the U.S. Transport Secretary trying out the train.”
Siemens, Bombardier
Japan’s backing for maglev sales is part of wider government efforts to help trainmakers compete with Germany’s Siemens AG, France’s Alstom SA, Bombardier Inc. of Canada and China South Locomotive & Rolling Stock Corp. in the U.S. President Barack Obama has approved $8 billion in federal funds for conventional and high-speed projects across the country.
The Maryland Department of Transportation had a bid for $1.75 billion in stimulus funds for the Baltimore-Washington plan turned down. The Federal Railroad Administration said the project was “not ready,” without elaboration, according to Phyllis Wilkins, executive director of Maglev Maryland, which is promoting the line.
The maglev group has had “a series of very substantive meetings” with JR Central about the project, Wilkins said. Soushi Hasegawa, a spokesman for Nagoya-based JR Central, said the company was preparing to work on detailed plans.
Maryland Congestion
The proposed line could carry about 9.2 million passengers a year, according to the Baltimore-Washington maglev website. It would take about three years to build after approval and need one year of testing, Wilkins said.
The train may help ease traffic that has made roads in Maryland’s Montgomery County, which lies between Washington and Baltimore, the fourth most congested in the country, according to digital-mapping company TomTom NV. Washington ranks seventh.
The line could be paid for with stimulus funds, revenue bonds and a federal loan, Wilkins said. Ticket sales would pay for operations and maintenance, she said.
LaHood said that the U.S. would look at opportunities for maglev trains. He declined to comment on government backing for the Washington-Baltimore line.
“The only thing we ask of manufacturers — whether it’s maglev or other technologies — is to build factories in America and hire American workers,” he said.
Delayed Plans
The global recession has slowed deployment of maglev technology. The line LaHood rode on is eventually due to become part of a link between Tokyo and Nagoya, stretching at least 286 kilometers. JR Central delayed the 5.1 trillion yen ($55 billion) plan last month by two years to 2027 after a drop in sales on existing operations, which include the Tokyo-Osaka bullet-train line, Japan’s busiest.
The Baltimore-Washington line has been studied since 1994, according to the Federal Railroad Administration website, and was due to enter service as early as this year, according to a timeline on the promoter’s website.
“Maglev would seem to be pie in the sky for the Northeast corridor,” said Jeff Straebler, a fixed-income strategist at RBS Securities Inc. in Stamford, Connecticut. “If the U.S. is serious about high-speed rail that is effective, i.e. pays for itself, the money would be better spent buying right of way along Amtrak to allow a straighter and therefore faster path.”
A maglev train, built using technology developed by Siemens AG and ThyssenKrupp AG, is in commercial operations in Shanghai. Passengers there are whisked along at 431 kph from Pudong International Airport to the outskirts of the city’s financial district. Japan’s maglev holds the world rail-speed record at 581 kph.
Nippon Sharyo’s N700, a conventional high-speed bullet train, can travel at a top speed of 330 kph. That compares with Amtrak’s Acela Express, which is capable of 241 kph between Washington and Boston.
Japan has built up the world’s busiest high-speed rail network with bullet-train services covering much of the nation. The country had 308 million high-speed train passengers in the 12 months through March 2009, compared with the 3.4 million carried by Amtrak’s Acela in fiscal 2008, according to figures compiled from the train operators’ websites.