I live in Glasgow and the most obvious business case for a large super-fast train project is the 50 mile (80km) divided with Edinburgh. The Scottish government done a report a few years ago into the options on the table for a Maglev (Magnetic Levitation).
For background Maglev works by essentially floating a few centimetres above the track and rides a wave electricity. As there is no contact points i.e. wheels, the whole system can travel a lot faster than conventional high speed rail, such as HS2. Maglevs max out at around 500km/h, around 310 mph while High Speed Rail is around 210-220 mph. Maglev can actually theoretically go a lot faster if you build your system in a vacuum (hyper loop uses a type of vacuum) which on paper could travel 4000-5000 mph. As of today they are no large scale vacuum Maglevs or Vactrains due to the prohibitive cost.
For Hyperloop, it uses a tube and stretches of linear motors (similar to maglev). It is proposed to cover the SF to LA distance in around 30 minutes which is 380 miles, so around 7.5 times the distance.
In Scotland we have just had the calamity which has been the Edinburgh trams project. The total cost of the 8 mile track and set of trams is rumoured to be over £1 billion. To put this into perspective, that is more than the cost of the first moon landings on Apollo 11. For this price tag, the brand new trams top speed is only 43 mph.
So at 125 million per mile I am sure a maglev or hyperloop could do significantly better. There are other options out there which involve upgrading existing routes..
Options:
"The report investigated: A new-build track linking the existing network with two new tunnels, one into Edinburgh Waverley and another from Carmyle to Glasgow city centre - reducing travel time to 31 minutes and costing at least £2.4bn.
Upgrading existing line via Shotts; electrifying the route, building a £221m loop and achieving a time of 47 minutes.
Re-alignment of the track at Carstairs junction costing £200m, leading to a time of 46 minutes.
The current time from Queen Street to Waverley is around 50 minutes and officials believe a significant reduction could see it come down to 30 minutes."
Source http://www.heraldscotland.com/maglev-trains-best-option-for-edinburgh-to-glasgow-route-1.856520These are all pretty depressing. The Glasgow-Edinburgh Travel times are frustratingly high:
Bus Rush hour: 2hrs
Bus off peak: 1hr
Train today: 55 minutes
Upgrading shotts: 47 minutes
New track rail: 31 minutes
Maglev airport stop: 15 minutes
Maglev direct: 12 minutes
Hyperloop: <10 minutes?
So what the big attraction of going super fast?... Economics
With a Maglev or Hyperloop you would turn to separate metro areas into a super city with the potential to create unparalleled economic growth for the Scottish Economy.
- The link will provide a radical boost to the labour market, making it as easy to live in Glasgow and work in Edinburgh (or the other way round) as it is to live and work in the same city today.
- Airport - a route from Glasgow Airport to Edinburgh Airport could turn them into a merged facility with people arriving at one and departing on a connecting flight from the other.
- Green - the system would run on electricity and could be environmentally friendly if powered by renewables such as solar or wind.
Conclusion
This is just a quick over view of why we need something like this in Scotland. There are many different poit to explore like what route to take, financing, timescales etc. There would also need a bit more indepth on the advantages vs risk of going for a Hyperloop and it economic advantages of going from say a 12 minute journey to a 7 or 8.
