A Contrastive Study on Sustainable Development of Maglev and High-Speed Wheel-Rail

Abstract

With the rapid development of China’s high-speed wheel-rail and the gradual construction, testing and improvement of magnetic levitation (maglev), and the sustainable development of fundamental installations have become the irresistible trend of China’s transport construction. Compared to high-speed wheel-rail transit, magnetic levitated train has the advantage in speed, especially in intercity highspeed transportation. According to actual situation, this paper presents the comparative studies on high-speed maglev and wheel-rail, using the concrete parameter. The authors believe that high-speed maglev train has some competitive advantages on the quantity of energy consumption per unit transportation, air pollution, noise pollution, soil occupation, ecological impact and so on, those are in accordance with China’s sustainable development conception. Therefore, promoting the development of maglev is one of the most important measures to fulfill the sustainable development requirement of China’s traffic. 1 INSTRUCTION Based on sustainable development, scholars have launched some researches on the contrast analysis of high-speed maglev and high-speed wheel-rail. Yan (2002) considers that high-speed maglev train could overcome the main defects of traditional wheel-rail. They are the only ground passenger vehicle which speed can achieve about 500kph, and have prospecting development and un-substituted superiority. He further explains the principal advantages of high-speed maglev through introducing the basic principle, low resistance, low energy consumption, low noise and small vibration. Chen (2003) asserts the cost of maglev system is higher than high-speed wheel-rail by comparing the high-speed wheel-rail and the 1 The paper is sponsored by “the Position and Function of High-speed Magnetic Levitation Traffic System in Transport system of China, Country “11 th Five-Year Plan” to Support Science and