Maglev

Maglev technology emerged from a century-old dream: eliminating the friction that limits conventional trains. The first relevant patent came in 1902, when Albert Albertson proposed using magnetic levitation to reduce wheel weight. But the adjacent possible for practical maglev awaited the linear motor, power electronics capable of precise field control, and superconducting magnets that could generate the necessary lift force without melting.

The first commercial maglev opened in 1984 at Birmingham International Airport in England, connecting the terminal to the nearby railway station. English inventor Eric Laithwaite had pioneered linear motor technology, and the Birmingham system embodied his vision. The 600-meter elevated track carried passengers at a modest 42 kilometers per hour, levitating just centimeters above the guideway. It was a proof of concept more than high-speed transportation, and reliability problems led to its closure in 1995.

Convergent development occurred simultaneously in Germany and Japan. Germany began testing maglev technology in 1979, debuting the Transrapid 05 at the International Transportation Exhibition in Hamburg. The system attracted over 50,000 passengers during the exhibition and was extended for three months afterward. By 1984, Germany had completed a 31.5-kilometer test track in Emsland, where Transrapid trains reached speeds of 420 kilometers per hour.

Japan took a different technical approach. While Germany's Transrapid used electromagnetic suspension (EMS), attracting the train upward toward magnets in the guideway, Japan's JR-Maglev used electrodynamic suspension (EDS), with superconducting magnets on the train inducing currents in the guideway that repelled the vehicle upward. The Japanese approach allowed a larger levitation gap but required superconducting magnets cooled with liquid helium.

The commercial cascade proved disappointing. Despite decades of development, only one high-speed maglev line entered regular service: the Shanghai Transrapid, which opened in 2004 using German technology. It connected Pudong Airport to the city at speeds up to 431 kilometers per hour—the fastest commercial train operation in history at the time. A 2006 accident at the Emsland test track killed 23 people, caused by human error in safety procedures, and damaged Transrapid's reputation.

Japan's Chuo Shinkansen, a maglev line between Tokyo and Nagoya, remains under construction with a planned opening in the late 2020s. The L0 Series test train set the world speed record of 603 kilometers per hour in 2015. But decades of development and billions in investment have produced only one operational high-speed line.

Path dependence explains maglev's limited adoption. High-speed rail—conventional trains on upgraded tracks—proved good enough for most corridors while leveraging existing infrastructure. The enormous capital cost of maglev guideways, incompatibility with conventional rail networks, and lack of a proven mass transit use case kept the technology in demonstration status. The Birmingham system that inaugurated commercial maglev lasted only eleven years before conventional solutions replaced it.

By 2026, maglev remains a technology of spectacular potential and modest deployment. The physics works; the economics rarely do. What Laithwaite imagined in England became commercial in Shanghai but proliferated nowhere else.