Maglev tunneling halted after water comes to surface at Tokyo home

I saw a video of a bloke riding that Maglev on the test line, looks well good

I will say plainly that I am not particularly enthusiastic about the Maglev Shinkansen, given that the cost to construct and eventually extend it will be massive. Not to mention, fares are probably going to astronomical for the first few decades of this being a thing, and honestly it seems wildly impractical until the route to Osaka is at least completed. Even then, the standard time on the Nozomi between Tokyo and Shin-Osaka is like two and a half hours - is that not incredibly convenient as is? I only really see the Maglev Shinkansen being necessary as a means of connecting Kyushu to Hokkaido, as that route is currently more efficiently travelled via airplane.

This process is going to involve tons of eminent domain as well, and if you live anywhere near the current route... Well, good luck. In any event, as a Yokohama resident, we are not even getting a Maglev station, so this whole thing will basically never benefit me to begin with.

There are better things to spend the money on in my opinion. I think as a really long term investment there could be some value but axe the current timetable and prioritize other matters while they take their time building it.

Wolfshine

Youre probably correct in your analysis however for me I’d just to have a ride on it even for a brief while.

There is only one real reason for this megalomaniacal project. Filling the pockets of LDP politicians and their supporting companies.

point

I have already taken the Maglev in Shanghai, China. People from Yokohama can get the train from Tokyo, so it will benefit everyone in the Kanto area.

Fix it and keep building the maglev.

Travel time between Tokyo - Nagoya - Osaka is just already. It would have been better to invest in Hokkaido getting the extension to Sapporo sooner and possibly even further up to Asahikawa. Japanese will move north with the warming climate.

Imagine wishing to get to the cramped and crowded cities of Tokyo and Osaka 30 minutes faster than now?

LMFAO!

I just wish they had rudimentary train service or any kind of mass transit for that matter, on the west coast of the USA and hot routes such as LA-SF, LA-LV, SF-Port-SEA-Vancouver, and a million others.

Maglev in Shanghai, fast, so what, smooth, so what, expensive yes so expensive, does it get you to central shanghai?? Try the new high speed rail that now has replaced the previous intercity around all the major provinces in china. Way to go, apparently views are tremendous.

As for the tunnelling, first the air bubbles / water travel up thru the soil to the surface every action as an equal and opposite reaction, (Newton's 3rd or 4th).

People from Yokohama can get the train from Tokyo, so it will benefit everyone in the Kanto area.

I mean, not really. If it takes me forty five minutes to an hour to go from Yokohama to Shinagawa to get to the Maglev, then the extra time spent doing that effectively negates the benefit gained from riding it to Osaka or Nagoya.

What they should do, seeing as how Yokohama is the second biggest city in Japan, is create some type of super limited express service that runs between Yokohama station and Hashimoto station in Sagamihara where the Maglev station will be. As it stands now for travellers going to and coming from Yokohama this plan creates more inefficiency than it solves.

The Nozomi Tokkaido Shinkansen is a fantastic service and one I have taken many times and one I am grateful for. So far the Chuo Shinkansen has been a bit of a swing and a miss.

Not sure how happy I would be to see soapy bubbles coming up into my garden. Has anyone else had a similar problem? Have them dig out my whole garden to a depth of ten feet or so and install a buffer shield, then have the earth refilled?

The bubbles of course will stop once they resume boring and move on... .

The whole thing is a huge waste of money, driven by pride and also corruption.

Building an alternative to the ageing Tokaido- Shinkansen makes sense, but Maglev? Much less.

Pride, Japan as innovator and of course the huge government loan to JR to build it was payback by Abe for Kasai, who was one of the architects of his political comeback.

Ticket prices announced (years ago though and without real explanation how they got to that result) to be only slightly higher than the Tokaido-Shinkansen. Which makes it unlikely that it will ever be even close to profitable. (But JR makes its money from side businesses too anyway)

Another problem will be that they won't be able to increase the frequency of trains, time to stop a train and not enough side-tracks/parallel tracks for passing trains. Frequency will be nowhere near as high as for the Tokaido-Shinkansen. So again, even it it proves to be highly popular, which it should at these prices, whenever it's finished, they simply won't be able to increase the number of trains to a level where the red number becomes manageable.

Why would you need a car when a horse can do the same job..... It is what I am think with all the anti-progress comment here.

They are also still negotiatiing with Shizuoka prefecture with regard to underground water and drainage in the Ikawa valley area, although only a brief section of tunnel runs under it there. However, the old governor who was objecting vociferously, conveniently retired over a minor speech gaffe, and the new governor is certain to approve the line.

Why would you need a car when a horse can do the same job..... It is what I am think with all the anti-progress comment here.

Agreed. I love the way Japan progresses with these infrastructure projects... Otherwise it will just become like UK and America where nothing gets done and the aging and creaking infrastructure is utterly garbage, and you still get charged 5 times more than Japan to use that junk infrastructure.

Infrastructure like this in Japan is the envy of the world. I hope I can ride the Maglev when it is finished.

Infrastructure is good. Not all, the new roads appearing everywhere regularly, mostly to use up the budget and secure the same amount or more for the coming year are often superfluous.

Maglev? Expensive, expensive, expensive. I don't think all train lines have to make a profit, on the contrary, think it's an essential public service, even if offered by private companies to ensure a good public transportation net. But there's a reason all other countries have given up on the Maglev. Money, cost effectiveness. For Japan it simply has become a matter of principle and pride, we can do it. The hope to then sell the technology abroad and make some money there is just fake hope. They know they won't.

The same money should have been used to complete traditional Shinkansen net. As somebody wrote, use it for finishing the Hokkaido Shinkansen faster. Or connect the Joetsu Shinkansen to the Hokuriku Shinkansen. Etc.etc.

And if you build a Maglev, at least make sure you can have lots of trains running at the same time. The way they're building it, (info is old, but doubt they changed) they won't be able to run the same amount of trains as on the Tokaido Shinkansen. Not even close.

Great BirdToday 05:00 pm JST

I don't think all train lines have to make a profit, on the contrary, think it's an essential public service, even if offered by private companies to ensure a good public transportation net.

Also, the rationale behind some low-profitability private train lines is to drive customers to those companies' attractions/facilities etc. Companies like Seibu do this: even if the train line itself doesn't make much money, a lot of people will use it to get to a Seibu theme park that does.

In this way, both the customer and the company win, but for different reasons.

Due for completion in 2037, when Japan’s working age population will be 44million. Half what it was in 2007.

Most pensioners won’t be able to afford to ride this boondoggle, and the ones that can will have moved out of Tokyo & Osaka by then anyway.

Anyone else ride the experimental maglev at the Tsukuba Expo back in 1985! That was so freakin cool!