Excellent question. Extending Sun Rail to the airport would be far cheaper. While light rail could be built to the airport instead, why when Sun Rail commuter rail exists?

Cheaper for him, not for us.

MetroPlan approves float-on-air train for south Orange

Read More: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/...turistic-train




http://media.trb.com/media/photo/2012-12/73670675.jpg

Speaking of feasibility, what happens when someone opens a cheap shuttle bus service for those looking to bypass being raped for $13/ticket for a ten mile trip?

Damn, that's ugly.

They could build a taller parapet wall to conceal the chassis, but that would be far more heavy and oppressive-looking. They could also build a "smart track, dumb train" system, but that would be dramatically more expensive and difficult to maintain.

It doesn't happen. I'm guessing airport officials and FDOT officials are conservative, but they won't bat an eye granting a monopoly to the maglev. They control curb space at the airport, so there's plenty of leverage to enforce the monopoly.

To grant a maglev monopoly, you'd have to rid yourself of everything serving this purpose now and stop planning for Sunrail to connect with AAF at OIA. That's a huge political battle that has little to do with transit. Will the theme parks, hotels, etc. be willing to give up their shuttles? Will the cab industry be willing to lose money so a guy with a maglev can have it all?

maglev from the airport with stops at The Mall and conv center
plus a few more ,
It wont compete with Sun Rail , just more ways for people to get to the airport.

Why dont Disney invest some money in the maglev and bring people straight to the parks???

A guy with a maglev train with non working prototypes to boot.
Golly, if elevated transit is required, there's several proven steel wheel on steel rail examples, and several rubber wheels on steel or concrete beam examples.
Why reinvent the wheel? The wheel has been around for millenniums.

It will compete because you're pulling from the same limited ridership pool. You'll need as many as possible if you require a high ticket price for it to make sense to build it.Also, Disney currently operates a free airport shuttle. They have no financial reason to invest in Morris' maglev.

Maglev is a far better ride, friction less, faster and quieter, I have ridden the Shanghai maglev. It also paves the way for an American Maglev industry to sprout. One one example succeeds, others around the country will use it as an example. Pioneers are always ridiculed, but history books will give them their due. I hope this will be built and it succeeds. Isn't it time that something new and innovative was engineered in the US instead of falling back on what is basically technology from the 1800's (steel wheel on rail)? Higher speed maglev is the future of intercity travel, see Japan. This low speed one will be a good start for the US to get experience with implementing such tech. It is also zero emissions locally and less polluting than shuttle buses (until we get electric buses).

Sun Rail is for locals/ and north orlando
All Aboard is for south miami/palm beach

maglev is for tourists/ & convention center

Transit in a sprawling state like Florida will quickly fail when you start designing it for specific markets instead of making it useable for the masses. Sunrail and AAF will be used by all who wish to travel to various destinations along their corridors. Short of some guy searching for a sucker to help make his invention come true, there are several more realistic and cost effective options to tie I-Drive with OIA. BTW, I haven't even mentioned the maintenance side of this. What happens when this thing malfunctions? Does connectivity then simply disappear until Morris secures the funds to repair or manufacters the parts? It's not like there are several suppliers of Morris maglev parts out there.

If the rendering is correct, it seems like Morris is proposing to use the Bombardier "Innovia" system (used for Vancouver SkyTrain and NY AirTrain, etc.) but replace the steel wheels with a maglev. This is actually ironic, since the Innovia system originally started as a maglev. Should be plenty of suppliers for this.

I am curious what happens if the power fails, though. Do the electromagnets stop working and the train crashes onto the track beneath? Are there rubber tires to cushion the fall?

The Innovia system at DFW Airport uses rubber tires mounted on wheels, not sure if the wheels are made of steel or another metal.

I'm more worried about they will alight the vehicle if the power fails. I don't see an emergency walkway in the photo, but that doesn't mean they aren't there.

I still haven't heard a solid list of reasons on how this is financially viable. However, there are a ton of red flags. It takes more than being innovative, cool, or trendsetting to get the ridership to justify a financial commitment to fund and maintain it long term. I'll be surprised if Maglev Morris secures the investors to pay for its construction. My ultimate hope is that Orlando/Florida doesn't end up with the short end of the stick when it goes up in smoke (like Norfolk).

There are huge differences between Maglev Morris and Norfolk light rail. Maglev Morris is private enterprise at work while Norfolk light rail was always a public enterprise. When public enterprise projects go over budget, the public pays. When private enterprise projects go over budget, the private money pays.
P.S. You can ride Norfolk light rail today, it didn't go up in smoke.

electricron, I assume you don't know the history of Maglev Morris. Here is the failed Norfolk project I was referring too:

full article: http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_n...in-on-the-move

full article: http://hamptonroads.com/2010/01/odus...ars-next-phase

Here is a picture of his failed Norfolk maglev I took back in 2008:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/pho...4-p1020293.JPG

^ Well, no wonder it failed. They never finished the fricking track. :haha:

Thanks for the heads up, although it would of helped if you had referred to his ODU project instead of Norfolk in the first place. :)

It's one thing for Universities and other private investors to invest and sink money into research, it's another to expect cities to do so.