Aims and Objectives:
The main objective of my research is to know what exactly the barrier in developing a MAGLEV train system in Australia? What are the innovative ideas by the rail industries in the world? Also very important to know why is the need for such innovation in the country like Australia?
Rationale:
According to Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Australia is the sixth largest country in the world having land area of 7,686,850 km2. Australia has eight main cities, which are very far from each other. Except SYDNEY-CANBERRA all other big cities of Australia are more than 800kms apart. So travelling from one city to another takes lot of time, in some cases it takes days if we travel by train. Now the only way to travel such a long distance in short time is by air. The long distance between the main cities generates the need of faster mode of transportation. The train system in Australia is better in comparison to many underdeveloped and developing countries, but still it is lagging behind countries like Germany, China and Japan. They have developed a new train system called MAGLEV trains which is faster, more efficient and more comfortable than the Australian train system. Holmer (2003, p.31) stated that MAGLEV train is the fastest train in the world.
The main reason to develop MAGLEV in Australia is because Australian train system is good but not perfect. There are some negative points. Trains are occasionally late. Sometimes there are major delays due to the maintenance work being carried out. Pudney & Wardop (2000, p.2) stated that 'Australia’s rail network is single track with occasional crossing loops’. Because of this, delay in one train affects the schedule of other trains on the same track. This creates a lot of inconvenience to the passengers.
Lee et al. (2006) suggests that there are mainly three types of technologies of the MAGLEV train. Electrodynamics Suspension (EDS), Electromagnetic
References: 9. Pudney, P & Wardrop, A, ‘Generating train plans with Problem Space Search’, Proceeding of CORE 2000 Conference on Railway Engineering, Adelaide, 2000.