Maglev

I'm in a good mood this morning - I should seriously consider getting up half an hour later after a short snooze and then wander outside for five minutes every morning! So this morning's environmental story is a little more constructive than most - a possible solution to some of our woes.

One way to cut back on global warming would be to revolutionise our public transport infrastructure so travelling between British cities by plane becomes too uneconomical because more practical alternatives exist (and before the plane lobby starts moaning, it's called "progress"). One such idea is maglev technology, which enables trains to accelerate beyond 300mph, and could cut down journey times between cities to as little as 25 minutes between Brum and London, or two hours between London and Glasgow. Unfortunately the cost is rather prohibitive - a conservative 16 billion for the London-Glasgow route, but surely those costs could be driven down over time?

Anyway, it's making the news in the Independent (here) and Guardian (here).

As an aside, these stories are all part of Britain's realisation that it has a serious problem with the number of cars on the roads. As for the AA's predictable response in today's Times (see here), the impact on tourism will be to make people think twice before heading out on to the roads. Perhaps they'll choose to spend longer at the seaside to make the trip more economical instead, thus counteracting the effects of fewer visitors? Just a thought...