L.A. Ports Eye Maglev Trains to Cut Pollution

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The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are the nation's busiest. They may have received all those Asian imports that you got for Christmas. The trouble comes when trucks start trying to move all of our consumer goods inland. And this next story involves an effort to ease the congestion from trucks on Southern California's roads. Magnetic levitation trains might be able to reduce truck congestion and pollution.

Rachael Myrow reports from member station KPCC.

RACHAEL MYROW: In 2006, some $250 billion worth of cargo moved through the ports of L.A. and Long Beach. Art Wong is a spokesman with the Port of Long Beach.

Mr. ART WONG (Spokesman, Port of Long Beach): Since about 1990, trade at these two ports increased four or five times.

MYROW: All that trade has to move from the ports to regional markets in points beyond. To minimize political blowback from locals trapped all that traffic and pollutions, the ports have begun to use their leverage with the goods movement industry to encourage or even force companies to go green. There are little tweaks that lead to big results, like getting ships to burn cleaner diesel fuel. But there are more dramatic, even exotic options, under consideration.

A Maglev train whizzes by the test track in Laatzen(ph), Germany. Because magnetic levitation involves no friction between wheels and rail lines, these trains can move at more than 300 miles an hour. High-speed rail can fly too, but in the U.S. Maglev lobbyist have taken the lead. They're pushing links between Atlanta and Chattanooga, Baltimore and Washington, and most recently at the ports of L.A. and Long Beach.

Mr. HASAN IKHRATA (Director of Planning and Policy, Southern California Association of Governments): I do believe this technology have a future in this region.

MYROW: Hasan Ikhrata is director of planning and policy for the Southern California Association of Governments. The agency is conducting one of three feasibility studies on Maglev at the ports.

Mr. IKHRATA: A lot of work has to be done. I will tell you, Sir, maybe it is buying for a great region of different systems that are clean and fast.

Mr. JIM MOORE (Director of Transportation Engineering, University of Southern California): When people start talking to me about vision, I immediately reach for my wallet and make sure I know where it is.

MYROW: Jim Moore is director of transportation engineering at the University of Southern California. Moore is skeptical that Maglev at more than a $100 million a mile makes more sense than more conventional strategies to fight pollution and traffic.

Mr. MOORE: Most of the bottleneck is not on the rail system; it's on the roadway. If we were to expand rail capacity, we could possibly move some containers off the roadway.

MYROW: There is an existing rail expressway: the Alameda Corridor that runs between the ports and the rail junction near downtown L.A., about 20 miles away. Why not, asks Moore, extend this freight line 100 miles inland, where distribution centers repackage freight for eastbound travel.

Mr. MOORE: And the retrofit necessary to permit electric operation of locomotives is much less significant than developing entirely new rights of way from Maglev.

MYROW: But Maglev boosters point out those trains would be clean from the get-go. Again, Hasan Ikhrata of the Southern California Association of Governments.

Mr. IKHRATA: You're eliminating congestion. And the added health cost of pollution, if you factor that in, it is probably the most cost-effective alternative.

MYROW: Maglev has never been used to ferry freight. Because of the technology's cost and incompatibility with conventional rail lines there are only two commercial passenger Maglev trains - one in China, one in Japan.

MYROW: But even skeptics say studying the possibility of using Maglev at the ports is a good thing. All sides agree it will take more than one solution to help the ports go green as the volume of trade continues to grow.

For NPR News, I'm Rachael Myrow in Los Angeles.

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