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COUNCILMAN
ON CHINA FACTFINDING MISSION Councilman Steve Hofbauer arrived in Shanghai to begin a fact-finding mission this week to investigate the Shanghai TransRapid Maglev Line. The line is the world's first high-speed commercial commuter system using state-of-the-art electromagnetic levitation technology to transport passengers from Pudong International Airport to Longyang Road Metro Station - a 30-kilometer trip - in only eight minutes. A similar system would take riders from Palmdale to Union Station in about 20 minutes. Hofbauer has been the city of Palmdale's delegate to the joint powers authority of 14 cities and numerous supporting agencies, plus a consortium of private partners, headed by the multinational ARCADIS Corp. The authority was formed to promote and develop a regional high-speed transportation system based on mag-lev technology from Irvine to Palmdale. Hofbauer has been a proponent of exploring alternative technologies to accommodate future transportation demands, and has been one of the authority's more active participants, meeting with other city councils, north county transportation interests, and county, state and federal representatives in support of the project. He was selected to participate with several other board members, engineers and other experts on this inspection, funded by the mag-lev authority. avpress, January 06, 2006
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PALMDALE - Palmdale City Councilman Steve Hofbauer and Assistant City Manager Steve Williams were in Shanghai, China, last week checking a high-speed train system that could be used in the future to rocket passengers between the Antelope Valley and downtown Los Angeles in 20 minutes. The two men are part of a Southern California delegation that checked out the maglev line in Shanghai. The delegation described it as the world's first commercial commuter train line to use electromagnetic-levitation or maglev technology. The train line takes passengers from the Pudong International Airport to downtown Shanghai, about 19 miles, in eight minutes. Electromagnetic force makes the train hover about one-half inch off its guideway and propels it to speeds that can surpass 260 mph. Hofbauer said he and other riders felt a slight shudder as the magnets were activated and the train levitated about 20 seconds before it left the airport station, where the delegation boarded on Thursday. At that moment, the train was "just silently lifting itself up," Hofbauer said. "As the train operates, there is only a low electrical hum, like what you might notice near a transformer, and you notice the sound of the wind against the skin of the train," he said. Maglev train supporters say the system can fit into urban areas more easily than conventional railroads or high-speed trains on steel tracks because maglev trains can get by on narrower rights-of-way. They operate on elevated guideways built over or beside conventional railroad tracks or freeways. The maglev proposal is separate from California's high-speed rail plan, which would use 200-mph trains on conventional steel rails to link Southern California and the Bay Area. That proposed project would have a stop in the Antelope Valley if it is ever built.
This article appeared in http://www.maglevboard.net/ and LA Daily News |