(The following column by John Rudolph appeared on The Augusta Free Press website on November 24.)
AUGUSTA, Va. — I must say, this has been a very good week of thoughtful responses for one particular writer, and one 12-year old boy who has a dream of seeing technological and economical growth develop and flourish here in the Shenandoah Valley.
My recent op-ed, A rail solution to I-81 problem (Nov. 12 AFP), was generated from an idea of my son Aaron – to see reality come about from a vision of his utilizing a fantastic technology that has been proven to work.
He’s been talking about magnetically levitated trains and magnetic highways for levitated cars for a long time. He even talked about something called anti-gravity-repulsor technology when he saw Luke Skywalker’s hovering car in the movie “Star Wars” – I had never even heard of this amazing technology before he spoke about it.
I would like to personally thank the inventors of the Maglev system, James Powell and Gordon Danby, who have not only developed a futuristic and realistic method of transportation, but who have also written in an op-ed about their invention. Their article, Winning the Maglev race (Nov. 17 AFP) presented some sad and ironic facts that other countries like Japan and Germany have taken off with American Maglev technology and ran with it, while our demand on oil is still very much on the increase.
We can only deduce that the inventors of this rail system have identified key problems here in America, but the solution is right here in our grasp! It is time that we all do something about it.
Other writers came in and offered their kind support of what was written. Mr. Laurence Blow, the senior program manager for the Washington, D.C.,-based Transrapid International USA, wrote in his article, The Maglev solution (Nov. 18 AFP) about how the Shenandoah Valley could clearly benefit from having this system installed. Using the intermodal idea of having it accompany our I-81 interstate highway, this would positively impact the way we transport goods and how it would also reduce travel times.
Another letter came in from Mr. James Jordan, who wrote an article, More support for Maglev system (Nov. 19 AFP), that presented an even more refined idea of building an elevated concrete supported Maglev track along the I-81 corridor. Here is yet another great idea that perhaps wasn’t even considered by our local, state and federal governments, including the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Think for a moment about this – a levitated Maglev monorail system would seriously cut back on a lot of land movement and grading, and it would have much less of an environmental impact than building additional and expensive concrete lanes for trucks.
This accumulation of op-ed writings – from the inventors who took the time to write in about their wonderful invention to the other men who wrote in with their most appreciated feedback, only amplifies my son’s visions for a brighter future with an idea that utilizes an invention that has already been time-tested and proven.
Ideas are being generated here. I strongly urge all of you who are interested in this to help us find a way to make this idea press on and become a reality.
Since I am personally not in tune to who is who in the local government and VDOT zoo, this is where I need your help, the common citizen, and those who may know a lot more about local and state government more than I do. Present these op-eds to them, and let’s get their feedback published here in The Augusta Free Press.
Further, let’s task them to take these ideas on. Let’s get them to set up a think tank to weigh in our ideas on bringing a Maglev intermodal rail system to the I-81 interstate highway versus the addition of expensive truck lanes.
My question now goes to those local and state government representatives, and the representatives of VDOT, whom I hope that some of them actually read this: Why is it that a 12-year-old boy can come up with such a fantastic vision – yet you continue to fork out our taxpayer money to mental-giant corporations like Star Solutions to research another useless addition of truck lanes to a highway that will eventually cave in from even more massive increases of truck traffic?
The citizens of Virginia speak. We want the idea of a Maglev rail system investigated and comparatively run against the idea of additional highway lanes. Let’s see which idea is more cost-effective and is less of an impact on our environment and our budget.
Most importantly, which idea is safer and will result in a huge reduction on statistical highway deaths?
Attention VDOT and state/local representatives – we want to hear from you.
(John Rudolph resides in Stuarts Draft.)