【正文】 Fast Track November 2020 CIVIL ENGINEERING MAGZINE by Walter Antlauf， .,Francois G. Bernardeau,.,and Kevin C. Coates. The highspeed magic levitation rail line now in operation in Shanghaithe first of its kind in the worlddemonstrates that this extraordinary technology can move people in a way that is fast, reliable, and cost effective. Extending 30 km above a sparsely populated alluvial plain in southeastern China is a hightech concrete bridge that at first might not attract one’s notice. But this is no ordinary bridge. It is the elevated dualtrack guideway for the world’s first highspeed mercial magic levitation, or maglev, transportation system. In addition to linking the city of Shanghai to Pudong International Airport, which is 30 km away, this new system bridge the technological and time gap between conventional rail and air travel and opens a new era of reliable, energyefficient, and lowmaintenance highspeed ground transportation. ...... Limited mercial operations began in early 2020, and since then the SMTDC, which owns the system, has shuttled nearly 2 million passengers between Shanghai’s Long Yang Road station, at the southeastern edge of the city, and the airport at speeds up to 430km/h. The 464seat maglevs depart every 10 minutes during peak travel periods, arriving at the airport less than 8 minutes later. According to a report published by the SMTDC in July of this year, puterized operations have resulted in arrivals and departures that are on time to the second percent of this time, a remarkable feat for any transportation system. At present the system operates from 8 am to 5:30 pm, but service is to be expanded to 18 hours a day in the near future. With an acceleration force only a 10th that from gravity, the maglev’s ride is so smooth that travelers would be unaware that they were leaving the station if they did not look out the window. It takes just four minutes for the cars to attain their operational cruising speed of 430 km/h, which is held for 52 seconds prior to the threeminute deceleration ending the trip. As the cars near their maximum speed, there is some detectable vibration, but the ride is still smooth enough for passengers to easily walk the aisles without bracing themselves. Despite the speed, the ride is fortable and the interior noise is significantly less than what one experiences in the cabin of a turboprop traveling at the same speed. The system cuts the trip from the long yang station to the airport from 45 minutes –via a sixlane highway that runs adjacent to the maglev line—to just 8 minute and offers other ,less tangible advantages to the city of shanghai as well .Because a maglev consist can prise as many as eight vehicle ,the potential passenger capacity of the system is several times greater than the highway ,negating any immediate need for additional highway expansion to handle the city’s everincreasing traffic. Since the entire maglev route is elevated , there are no atgrate crossings , eliminating any interference with vehicular traffic and providing a high degree of safety for maglev travelers. What is more , the elevated guideway is visually integrated with the nearby highway infrastructure . In areas where the guideway deviates from the alignment of the highway , the land beneath is used for such other purposes as farming , industry , and mence .Plans exist to expand the line further into the city and beyond , and as this expansion occurs it is expected that real estate development will increase around the maglev stations , just as it has in countries where highspeed rail has been implemented . …… Rather than adopting a system based on one of the highspeed rail technologies now found in Japan and Europe , officials with the SMTDC (shanghai maglev transportation development pany ,ltd) favord maglev ,which they saw as a lowmaintenance way of quickly moving passengers across vast distances in fort. Prior to the construction of the maglev line ,the sixlane highway was shanghai’s only link to putong international airport . Faced with increasing congestion and the prospect of continual highway expansion , planers ultimately decided that a maglev would be the fastest and most reliable way of delivering travelers to the airport . It also required less energy than other options and offered the lowest lifecycle cost . Looking to future line expansions ,the officials saw that longer maglev routes would allow routine operating speeds of up to 500 km/h ,making it possible for business travelers , for example ,to attend meetings 1000km away and return in single day . By constructing this demonstration line , the owners would be able to accumulate and analyze date from a mercial application of this electronic transportion system. In the summer of 2020 the Chinese prime minister ,zhu rongji ,an electrical engineer by training and a man with a strong interest in maglev technology ,arranged for the SMTDC engineers to visit a 30 km long maglev test facility in the Emsla