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ODU Asks for More Time for Its Maglev Program

Posted on: Tuesday, 25 October 2005, 12:00 CDT

By Debbie Messina, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Oct. 25--NORFOLK -- Old Dominion University researchers have not found the key to getting their experimental maglev train to run without vibrating, but they think they've found more time to work on the problem.

Several months of laboratory work produced some progress when tested on the magnetically levitated train -- but not the smooth ride that's expected.

"We still have vibrating," said Jeremiah F. Creedon, ODU's director of transportation research. "We have to go back into the lab and make some adjustments before we go back to the vehicle."

He predicted another round of vehicle tests will occur in the spring .

That will be the last testing possible with the approximately $100,000 that remains of a $2 million Federal Railroad Administration grant. The grant, which expires next month, aimed to produce a working maglev demonstration project.

ODU has asked to extend the grant through the spring, and university officials expressed confidence Monday that the extra time will be granted. Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Steve Kulm said the agency has not yet made a formal decision.

ODU President Roseann Runte told the Board of Visitors on Monday that progress is "very good."

She also indicated that the staff is working on finding new sources of money.

"It's a journey," Creedon said. "I think the emphasis is that it's a research project, and with research projects it's important to make progress. And we are making progress."

But it wasn't always just research. Georgia-based American Maglev Technology Inc., and its partners, including Lockheed Martin, said in 1999 that they could deliver a maglev system suitable for mass transit by the fall of 2002.

Technical glitches, cost overruns and lawsuits derailed the project, and the train sat idle for nearly two years. Instead of floating on a cushion of air as promised, it bumped, rattled and vibrated.

With $14 million in state and private money spent, federal authorities stepped in in April 2004 with $2 million to try to prove that the technology works.

ODU took control of the money and the work. Models and simulations were devised. A laboratory test bed was established at ODU.

University officials say maglev could be years and millions of dollars away from deploying as mass transit.

Creedon has characterized the work as "high risk, high payoff."

No one has developed a maglev train that's affordable to build and to ride.

The only commercial maglev in the world, a high-speed train in China, cost billions to develop and billions more to build.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

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LMT,

Source: The Virginian-Pilot

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