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A comment on Japanese railway operator to license maglev tech to US for free. Parent comment

Re:Japanese railway operator to license maglev tech to US fo... by cafard on Saturday April 12, 2014 @08:35AM (#7577680)
It seems to me that you would need to exercise a fair bit of eminent domain, and there you might find that the world is indeed smaller.

The article mentions Washington to Baltimore as the first segment to be built. The existing rail lines pass over a number of level crossings, and pass under some bridge spans that are fairly snug for the existing track. And the mile or two before you get to Baltimore's Penn Station are in tunnel. I doubt the tunnel has much width to spare--how much would it cost in 2014 to widen a couple of miles of tunnel under a densely built city?

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Re:Japanese railway operator to license maglev tech to US fo... by bazzargh on Saturday April 12, 2014 @01:09PM (#7578407)
You could get a ballpark figure by looking at Crossrail: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossrail

73 miles of track, 40 stations, 26 miles of tunnel under London. £16bn ($27bn-ish). So, for your project, I'd handwave at $1-5bn.

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