VARIATIONS OF PROPULSION PERFORMANCE

Mr. KLEIN. The prototype tracked air cushion vehicle, 150 mile an hour system, has been constructed. It is getting its final outfitting with the power system that goes into it. We expect it to be shipped to the Test Center in May and it will then start undergoing testing and be tested throughout fiscal 1975.

The other two we look at really as one program, Mr. Chairman, and a totally integrated program. There are many common elements to an air cushion vehicle and a magnetic levitation vehicle. Those are two variations on how the vehicle is lifted from the surface.

Mr. McFALL. Is this also true for the 300 mile an hour vehicle? Mr. KLEIN. Yes. That is what I am referring to. Those two are really elements of the same program. The questions of propulsion, and of interaction between the vehicle and the guideway, the power pickup, the power conditioning, there are great similarities.

The air cushion research vehicle and the one that is designed for 300 miles an hour is at the Test Center now. It has gone up to 90 miles an hour so far. It's speed is being increased as we get more guideway built and as we progress with the testing. That vehicle, which is a research vehicle as distinguished from a passenger-carrying prototype. While it has place for four people, including the driver, it is not a passenger-carrying prototype.

Mr. McFALL. I have ridden on it.

Mr. KLEIN. It is to gain basic technological information on the levitated vehicle and also provides specifically air cushion performance. The magnetic levitated adjunct to the program will give us the added information necessary relating specifically to the magnetic form of levitation.

By these two elements of the program, we will be able to get basic information and make a choice as to what high speed levitated vehicle performance can be expected to be, what it would look like if a decision is made to proceed truly into a prototype installation. I think it's important to recognize that what we are doing is providing a technological base in this area so that decisions can be made in the latter part of this decade as we look down to the eighties and nineties for where the next step in ground transportation will be.

BREAKDOWN OF FISCAL YEAR 1975 REQUEST

Mr. McFALL. That is what we want to ask you.

How much of your fiscal year 1975 request will be allocated to each of these projects?

[The information follows:]

In fiscal year 1975, it is planned to allocate the following amounts to each of these projects:

150 m.p.h. air cushion vehicle..

300 m.p.h. air cushion vehicle. Magnetically levitated vehicle__

JAPANESE MAGNETIC LEVITATED VEHICLE

$7,200,000 4, 500, 000

Mr. McFALL. The largest part of your request is for the tracked levitated vehicle which has a 300-mile-per-hour potential. Who will

use such a vehicle and for what purpose? Aren't the Japanese considering a magnetic levitated vehicle that will run alongside their present high-speed rail line that they have been using for a number of years?

Mr. KLEIN. Yes, sir, they are.

Mr. MCFALL. What sort of progress are they making on that?

Mr. KLEIN. They have run a small scale vehicle up to speeds, the last time I heard, of approximately 100 miles per hour. Their system is somewhat different in detail than the technology we are developing, although we are in touch with them. We hope we will get information from them on what they are doing for future decision purposes.

Their system puts a lot more of the business end of the electrical magnetic system into the guideway. That means the guideway costs are substantially higher than they would otherwise be.

They apparently feel they can afford that because of the tremendous high density traffic that they will have. As you know, they have traffic densities that just swamp anything in most other parts of the world. In our case we believe that one should make the guideway as simple as possible and put more of it into the vehicle, because that is the cheaper way of going. Our technology emphasizes that. We hope we will get good trading information from the Japanese on what they are doing so that, when we come to make a decision on what we really should proceed on beyond this technology phase, we will be as smart as possible on how to do that.

Mr. McFALL. Where along the line do we come to the point where we decide that we are inventing something that we can use? We are spending money on a 300-mile-an-hour vehicle. Some people think that it's not practical to go over 200 miles an hour or, perhaps, 150 miles an hour. Is our transportation system going to be such that we would want to use a 300-mile-an-hour vehicle or a 200-mile-an-hour vehicle? Have you been giving this any thought? Mr. INGRAM. Yes, sir, we have.

MARKETS FOR RAPID TRANSIT UTILIZATION

Mr. McFALL. I think of these very same questions that I asked about the amount of money we are putting into permanent rapid transit. If we invent a system which is theoretically a very fine system, what do we use it for and where? It's not like the wheel. That was invented a long time ago. We didn't have to worry about a lot of research on it. Somebody else did the research because that was the thing to use.

Mr. INGRAM. It is very much like the introduction of jet airplanes into the aviation industry or the introduction of computers into the business systems industry.

The original market research that was done by Sperry when they introduced their computer said, there may be 20 people or 25 people who could use a computer of that sort. It's probably the grossest understatement that had ever been made in any industry.

Mr. McFALL. Howard Hughes made an understatement as far as the jet plane was concerned, didn't he?

Mr. INGRAM. He did, indeed. When you consider the capacity of one 727 or one 707 is roughly equivalent to that of the Queen Mary in trans-Atlantic service and then look at the number of airplanes that are presently flying the Atlantic, you realize the fantastic change in the market, both in terms of demand and in terms of supply, that occurred as a result of the introduction of that technology.

We feel we would have a similar breakthrough if we could indeed go 300 miles an hour by land. It would make Washington 55 minutes away from New York with about 3 intermediate stops. I think that the ball game would be entirely different if that sort of service were. available. The studies that we are doing and are continuing to do indicate that.

The real question right now is what would the cost be of introducing such a system to that sort of market? We have no doubt that it would be more expensive than present systems, but would the market pay for it? Is this the kind of transportation that we want in the future?

Mr. Klein and his people are working on the design of a vehicle and, through that design effort, they are going to come up with cost estimates. They have another program going on the design, and reduction in cost of the guideway, which is now rather expensive. The results of those studies will ultimately be used in deciding whether or not such a system should be installed.

Mr. McFALL. What you are saying is that we are not yet ready to determine where we are going to put it and whether or not it's going to be economically feasible.

Mr. INGRAM. I think you can say you will put it in the highest density market first, and the obvious place would be New York to Washington, D.C. We certainly aren't ready to make that decision yet. We just don't know what the costs would be. We have rough ball-park estimates now. We need a lot more refining before we get to any stage of implementation.

MAGNETIC LEVITATION VERSUS AIR CUSHION TECHNOLOGY

Mr. McFALL. Are we beginning to find out that the magnetic levitated vehicle is the answer rather than an air cushion type of vehicle? Mr. INGRAM. We don't really know yet. First of all, there are several ways of approaching magnetic levitation. Mr. Klein described one, the question of whether you put the hardware into the guideway or into the vehicle. There is a repulsive and attractive system. Which of those are the lowest cost in a particular area, in a particular set of market conditions? These are questions we don't have the answers to. This is what the research is designed to do, to produce those answers so decisions can be made. They look promising enough so that the research should be done, but we just cannot give you final answers until it's finished.

Mr. McFALL. Why couldn't you use a 125 to 150 mile per hour vehicle for distances of less than 300 miles and an airplane for distances of 300 miles or more?

[The information follows:]

Total travel time from the point of origin to the point of destination continues to be an important consideration for a traveler in choosing his mode of travel. Of course, cost, the quality of the ride, and the frequency of service are equally important considerations. The principal market for surface vehicles is the short haul market which includes distances of up to 500 miles. While surface transportation can never match the capabilities of speed, frequency, cost, and comfort of the airplane for distances in excess of that it can be competitive with air in the short haul, high speed ground area. As speeds are increased for surface modes our studies have shown there will likely be a dramatic increase in demand for such modes as travelers are attracted from short haul air.

Mr. CONTE. Isn't the budget top-heavy in the direction of research on advanced systems, particularly the Tracked Levitated Vehicle? Isn't it true that this type of mode can only be cost-justified at traffic levels largely unimaginable in the U.S. for the next 25 years? Couldn't some of this money be better used in the safety area, or for encouraging track improvements or electrification based on coal generated power?

Mr. KLEIN. The Tracked Levitated Vehicle program is now structured as a technology program with 1979 selected as the year when a prototype passenger-carrying TLV could be defined. The dollar levels in the budget are consistent with the 5-year program that provides this technology by then. At the completion of that phase of the program, and if a decision were made to go into the development of a passenger-carrying prototype, it would take approximately 10 years to go into revenue service. This gets us to 1990 and beyond, and demand studies indicate the traffic level in that time frame, in certain high population corridors, may be able to support a TLV system. The question of whether a TLV or a very high speed train system would be most cost-effective and the question of which could provide the performance desired are unanswered at this time, and require the recommended TLV program to supply these answers.

Mr. McFALL. How does the energy consumption of this vehicle compare with other forms of transportation?

[The information follows:]

The following chart depicts the comparative consumption value for various modes of transportation and the Tracked Levitated Vehicle system.