(The Virginian-Pilot published the following story by Debbie Messina on its website on September 2.)
NORFOLK, Va. — Old Dominion University had hoped to make history this time last year by putting students on the nation’s first magnetic levitation train and whisking them across campus.
But faced with technical glitches and a lack of funding, the train is idle, and the university’s latest plans for the maglev program don’t even include shuttling students. At least not yet.
ODU is poised to spend $2 million in federal money to jump-start the stalled project, but it’s not enough to get the train and stations ready for public use. That would require about $5 million more, ODU officials said, an amount that they’re already lobbying Congress to provide.
The $2 million, however, should be enough to fix the problems with the train and get it running smoothly at 40 mph as a demonstration project, said Robert L. Fenning, ODU’s vice president for administration and finance.
The much-heralded maglev project screeched to a halt last fall when development problems ate up the train’s $14 million budget.
The blue-and-white vehicle has sat on an elevated track next to the college’s tennis courts for nearly a year. There are gaps in the track along the elevated guideways. Wooden scaffolding that hugs incomplete stations has turned gray from weather.
The only use right now for the elevated concrete guideway that bisects campus is as a big umbrella, shielding students from rain or from the sun as they dash between classes.
The schedule was “over-optimistic,” said Colin P. Britcher, an ODU aerospace engineering professor who recently became involved in fixing the maglev.
“But it’s not really a surprise there’s been problems,” he said. “With big new things, something usually goes wrong somewhere.”
In the next few weeks, though, the project should get back on track — so to speak.
After spending months on paperwork, federal authorities recently released $2 million that Congress appropriated for maglev in February.
ODU is finalizing contracts with its partners American Maglev Technology Inc. and Lockheed Martin Corp. to jump-start the train. Maglev uses electromagnets to make a vehicle float about half an inch above an elevated track. A linear-induction motor is used for propulsion.
Once the money is spent over the next eight or nine months, ODU hopes to have what is known as a “demonstrable engineering prototype.”
To carry students, about $5 million more is needed to complete the three stations along the 3,200-foot guideway, make modifications to the track and vehicle, and conduct lengthy testing to certify its safety for public use.
“We’re moving as briskly toward our ultimate goal as we can,” said Robert L. Ash, ODU’s interim vice president for research. “We can’t ignore our commitment to our students and faculty.”
ODU, which previously only served as host for the American Maglev project, has now involved its engineering faculty in finding solutions and will open a Maglev Technology Development Center on campus to advance the technology.
“It’s all heading in the right direction, it’s just going a little more deliberately than we had hoped,” Ash said.
The train levitates, moves along a short distance of track, stops and reverses direction; however, there are significant vibrations, bumps and rattles.
American Maglev, Lockheed Martin and ODU have developed new computer controls and sensors they say should offer a smoother ride. Those must now be manufactured, evaluated on a test vehicle and tweaked before they can be installed and tested on the maglev train at ODU. Upgrades to ODU’s car and track will be made as well.
“We need to get it to a place where it’s commercially viable,” Ash said. “We need to get the system to operate with the speed and ride quality that would make this an attractive transportation option.”
ODU students, who at one time were eager for the maglev train to open, are mostly complacent about it now.
“Nobody pays attention to it anymore,” said Brian Morris, a senior from Chesapeake.
“Since it never worked, I don’t miss it,” said Shiela Bunting, a Virginia Beach senior.
“A lot of people regard it as a white elephant, which it currently is,” Britcher said.
When maglev is mentioned in speeches around campus, Britcher said it’s mostly met with laughter.
“There’s been a lot of quiet discontent,” he said. “When it was obvious it was not ready, people were openly saying this looks bad for the university, whether it’s our fault or not. We were going to get the black eye if it didn’t work.”
Britcher campaigned to get the faculty involved in finding solutions. “Like it or not, we have to fix it,” he said.
At least on paper, it appears solutions have been found.
“From a technical standpoint, we feel quite comfortable with what we’ve got and what needs to be done,” he said. “There’s no reason why it shouldn’t work.”
ODU’s train is not the only maglev project to hit snags. The opening of a $1 billion German-built high-speed, 19-mile maglev system in Shanghai, China has been delayed until next year because of technical issues. The problems prompted China to cancel a planned 800-mile maglev train between Shanghai and Beijing, the Times of London reported.
Both Germany and Japan have pumped billions of dollars into maglev testing, but have yet to open a commercial system.
Still, with its projected $20 million-per-mile price tag, Tony Morris, American Maglev’s president and chief executive, envisions maglev as an affordable answer to congestion. American Maglev is being considered for other rail projects around the world, including one in Karachi, Pakistan.
With the infusion of the federal money, the ODU/American Maglev project’s budget is up to $16 million — still a modest amount, experts said.
“What’s been done is pretty commendable for the amount of funds available to do it with,” said Thomas Alberts, another ODU aerospace engineering professor working on maglev. “There was never enough money to bring it to the point of transportation system that could bring students around campus.”
The maglev was originally budgeted at $16 million three years ago, which included a $2 million federal appropriation that didn’t materialize. Without the federal share, project leaders adjusted their sights and started work with $3.5 million from Lockheed Martin, $3.5 million from Dominion Virginia Power and a $7 million state loan.
When things went wrong in the train’s development, there was no cushion in the budget.
“It’s taken a lot longer, but it doesn’t mean what we’re doing is any less important,” Morris said.