Maglev - Economics

Economics

The Shanghai maglev demonstration line cost US$1.2 billion to build. This total includes infrastructure capital costs such as right-of-way clearing, extensive pile driving, on-site guideway manufacturing, in-situ pier construction every 25 meters, a maintenance facility and vehicle yard, several switches, two stations, operations and control systems, power feed system, cables and inverters, and operational training. Ridership is not a primary focus of this demonstration line, since the Longyang Road station is on the eastern outskirts of Shanghai. Once the line is extended to South Shanghai Train station and Hongqiao Airport station, ridership will be ample enough for the SMT to not only cover operation and maintenance costs, which it already does with its demonstration leg, but it will be able to generate significant revenue.

When the SMT in Shanghai begins to extend its line to South Shanghai Train Station, its goal is to limit the cost of future construction to approximately US$18 million per kilometer. They are confident about this since the German government, in 2006, put $125 million into guideway cost reduction development, which resulted in an all-concrete modular guideway design that is faster to build, has an 80-year life cycle, and is more than 30% less costly than what was used in Shanghai. In addition, new construction techniques were also developed that now put maglev at price parity with new high-speed rail construction, or even less.

The United States Federal Railroad Administration 2003 Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a proposed Baltimore-Washington Maglev project gives an estimated 2008 capital costs of US$4.361 billion for 39.1 miles (62.9 km), or US$111.5 million per mile (US$69.3 million per kilometer). The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) conducted their own Environmental Impact Statement, and put the pricetag at US$4.9 billion for construction, and $53 million a year for operations.

The proposed Chuo Shinkansen maglev in Japan is estimated to cost approximately US$82 billion to build, with a route blasting long tunnels through mountains. A Tokaido maglev route replacing the current Shinkansen would cost some 1/10 the cost, as no new tunnel blasting would be needed, but noise pollution issues would make it infeasible.

The only low-speed maglev (100 km/h (62 mph)) currently operational, the Japanese Linimo HSST, cost approximately US$100 million/km to build. Besides offering improved operation and maintenance costs over other transit systems, these low-speed maglevs provide ultra-high levels of operational reliability and introduce little noise and zero air pollution into dense urban settings.

As maglev systems are deployed around the world, experts expect construction costs to drop as new construction methods are innovated along with economies of scale.