Why are maglev trains still rare?

frightful_hobgoblin@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 237 points –

They were invented decades ago.

They have fewer moving parts than wheelbois.

They require less maintenance.

There's obviously some bottleneck in expanding maglev technology, but what is it?

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Also the fact that 'less moving parts' doesn't mean lower complexity or maintenance cost. Train wheels are a very robust and efficienct mechanism and most train designs are not being limited by them.

Very robust because they have 300 years of research, innovation, materials science and manufacturing in them. Making them incredibly stellar, well understood, damn near perfect technology for what they do.

Also them just being wheels in general which are one of the most efficient and simple ways to move stuff.