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In Japan, Md. governor is wowed by super-fast trains — with big price tags [View all]
In Japan, Md. governor is wowed by super-fast trains — with big price tagsAsia & Pacific
By Anna Fifield June 4 at 3:20 PM
@annafifield
TSURU, Japan — Imagine getting from Baltimore to Washington in less than 15 minutes. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan certainly did Thursday when he hurtled through the Japanese countryside at 314 mph.
Hogan wants Maryland to get these “maglev” trains — short for magnetic levitation — and Japan wants to sell them.
“There is no question that this is the future of transportation,” Hogan, a pro-business Republican whose victory in November shocked his heavily Democratic state, said after taking four trips along the 26-mile test track near Mount Fuji.
If he’s right, it’s an expensive future — even many in Japan are balking at the multibillion-dollar cost of the fast new trains. And in the United States, such trains would face daunting questions concerning not only cost (and more importantly, who would bear it) but the need to find a right of way through the most congested and perhaps litigious part of the country. It would take an unusual amount of national willpower to make the idea a reality.
By Anna Fifield June 4 at 3:20 PM
@annafifield
TSURU, Japan — Imagine getting from Baltimore to Washington in less than 15 minutes. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan certainly did Thursday when he hurtled through the Japanese countryside at 314 mph.
Hogan wants Maryland to get these “maglev” trains — short for magnetic levitation — and Japan wants to sell them.
“There is no question that this is the future of transportation,” Hogan, a pro-business Republican whose victory in November shocked his heavily Democratic state, said after taking four trips along the 26-mile test track near Mount Fuji.
If he’s right, it’s an expensive future — even many in Japan are balking at the multibillion-dollar cost of the fast new trains. And in the United States, such trains would face daunting questions concerning not only cost (and more importantly, who would bear it) but the need to find a right of way through the most congested and perhaps litigious part of the country. It would take an unusual amount of national willpower to make the idea a reality.
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