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By Brad Swartzwelter. Alder Press. 2003. 158 pages. Check price/buy book.Faster Than Jets: A Solution to America’s Long-Term Transportation Problems
The author finds the United States transportation system increasingly inadequate to carry out its mission of moving people and freight efficiently and safely with minimal environmental impact. With our population projected to be 38% higher than today in 2050 and 95% higher than today in 2100 (404 million and 571 million versus the current 292 million), more than the customary incremental improvements in transport infrastructure are essential to maintain and grow our economy. Visionary Americans, Swartzwelter points out, have provided the leadership needed for radically transforming transport infrastructure improvements in our past. George Washington and Dewitt Clinton pushed for construction of the Erie Canal; Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Bill and Dwight Eisenhower initiated the Interstate Highway System.
Swartzwelter proposes replacing the United States’ intercity and at least part of its intra-city transportation system in the 48 contiguous states—highway, air, intercity and commuter rail, and transit—with magnetically levitated (maglev) trains. The trains would provide freight as well as passenger transport. They would run in tunnels from which air would be pumped to create a near vacuum and thus practically eliminate friction. As a result, the speed of the trains would far exceed that of today’s jet transport aircraft and make them orders-of-magnitude, instead of only marginally (as surface maglev would be), more productive than conventional steel-wheel-on-rail trains. There would be 4 levels of tunnels—local, commuter, regional and national. The local level would replace transit in communities of at least moderate size. The regional level would connect small communities; regional lines would radiate outward like a spider web from regional hubs, perhaps like airline hub-and-spoke systems of today. In addition, outlying towns would be directly connected to each other; the additional lines would be the commuter level of the system. The United States would be divided into about 30 regions, each with a primary regional hub. The national level would consist of long, very straight tunnels connecting the regional hubs. Interconnecting tubes would permit easy transfer from one level to another. Swartzwelter calls the system AmericanMetro in deference to Swissmetro, a similar system actually planned for Switzerland. This would be a long-term costly project. The author estimates the 40-year construction cost at $2.5 trillion.
Swartzwelter makes a convincing case that the project is technically feasible, although he points out the need for careful study and pre-testing to be sure all the component technologies—tunneling over unprecedented distances, vacuum pumping of the tunnels, magnetic levitated trains, life support systems, etc.—would actually work together and work perfectly. He quotes many experts in those technologies and devotes long passages to comparing alternative maglev systems and describing modern tunneling techniques and vacuum pumping and life-support systems. He is convincing despite his own lack of appropriate technical background. He is an AMTRAK conductor and railroad operating rules instructor with a BA degree in travel administration.
The author recognizes that the essential ingredient to build such a colossal system is political will, and, in his appendix, he calls for readers to join the AmericanMetro Group to build the necessary consensus. A groundswell of public support is essential because of the high cost, which Swartzwelter estimates at $55 million a mile, his proposal to finance the system with a .5% increase in the federal income tax, and major conflicting demands on the federal treasury such as national security and financing social security for the baby boom generation. The public is likely to be skeptical that the system could actually be profitable because passenger rail systems worldwide require government subsidy. Swartzwelter says, "Profits from the system are impossible to predict without an exhaustive study, but it [sic] could be as high as $50 billion per year." One political objection is sure to be that massive improvements in current transport systems (e.g., high-speed conventional rail, surface maglev, intelligent highways, etc.) would be surer to produce more immediate transport benefits at much less cost than AmericanMetro with proven technologies. Vested interests in current transport systems such as auto manufacturers, airlines, railroads and trucking companies would surely mount an all-out lobbying campaign using this theme if authorizing legislation were ever proposed in Congress. Construction companies might, however, support the proposal on the theory they could profit far more from building a nationwide tunneling system than from incremental improvements to interstate highways and airports. Another political objection is likely to be that the proposed system would be unsafe. In the event of an accident, how would survivors escape from the train into airless tunnels, especially with no on-board crew to provide assistance? Swartzwelter says on page 132, "AmericanMetro will only need a few people to monitor and maintain each station. And each station will service hundreds of departures and arrivals of automated vehicles each day." Legislators and regulators would surely demand that the trains have an escape system and that human crewmembers be present to assist passengers in an emergency just as flight attendants do today, and on-board crew would add significantly to operating costs. The environmental impact would also likely be a subject of political controversy and legal challenge. Swartwelter dismisses the problem of disposing of the dirt removed from thousands of miles of tunnels by saying, "Typically, only 3-5% of the spoil is actual waste that requires disposal." Of course, 3-5% of the spoil from this tunneling effort would still be a massive amount. Would it be turned into grass-covered hills or dumped into streams as mine waste is today?
It is easy to assert that the politics, and probably also the economics, make approval, construction and operation of such a system an impossibility in America’s future and thus not worth considering. However, as shown by the reaction to high-profile, catastrophic events like those of September 11, 2001, dramatic change can take place suddenly, even when politicians otherwise seem to be unable to agree on anything. Also, a new generation of politicians could be far more sympathetic to a gargantuan public works program such as the one proposed in the book. Swartzwelter would be a lot more convincing if he had included scenarios showing how what seems to be impossible today could be very real tomorrow. In view of the long time period required just for construction and post-construction economic life of AmericanMetro, the scenarios would also have to include the possibility of even better communications and manufacturing technologies and significant lifestyle changes partially substituting for transport demand and of some new currently unforeseen transport mode being an even better substitute for our current systems. Serious public debate on the proposal will surely include such scenarios.
About the Reviewer
is Consulting Futurist and Chairman, The Consilience Group, LLC. This review was originally published in Transportation Quarterly including the Journal of the Transportation Research Forum, Volume 57, No. 4, Fall 2003, pages 161-163, and posted with permission.
Kenneth W. Harris
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