We love a good bit of technology here at Londonist even when we don't quite know exactly how it works... iPods for example. How do you get so many tracks into such a small white box and then get so many small white boxes attached to so many idiots? It's beyond us.
Maglev trains then. They float. No engine. 300+ mph. Give us a break. We live in London. We find the idea of a regular train simply showing up on time to be science fiction...
And yet the Asia Times is reporting that we may be getting our own version of Shanghai's magnetic levitation system. The idea is that having a train that can do the equivalent of a one hour car journey in eight minutes will put paid to these silly and environmentally damaging flights from one British city to another. We're sorry but if you want to get to Manchester by noon just get up early. If some people could fly to the nearest Sainsbury's to pick up some milk they would.
Blair and Brown are looking into the idea. A proposed 800km route would cost us £16 billion without land purchase costs. That'll mean tightening the belts all round so maybe invading less countries over the next couple of years would be a good idea.
Another good idea would be to make at least one section of track a huge loop the loop. Just to go one better than Shanghai after they nicked our wheel idea.
We tried to get the technical stuff on Maglev (wasn't he a bad guy in X Men issue 246?) from the mighty Wikipedia, but the damn thing is having its nerd juice drained or something. Off with you then to How Stuff Works for the low down on magnetic propulsion.
