It's been a while since we heard anything about the proposed Anaheim-Las Vegas maglev train. As of Friday, the project is moving forward as part of a transportation bill signed by President Bush that puts aside $45 million for the 300 mile-per-hour train. While the project initially called for a $3- to $5 billion budget, this little chunk of money will get things rolling (or, as the case may be, floating). The train is projected to whisk people from Disneyland to Vegas in under two hours. No word on proposed launches or actual construction, but we assume Disney will get involved with some extra cash at this point.

[Via Slashdot]

Although the mention of a magnetically levitating train outside of US borders won't grab too much attention, saying that phrase here most definitely perks up ears. Sure enough, a maglev project that would shuttle folks from Disneyland to Las Vegas at up to 300 miles-per-hour is now jousting with a cheaper diesel-electric alternative (dubbed DesertXpress) for support. Reportedly, the latter would cost "just" $3- to $5 billion to construct -- compared to $12 billion for the former -- but rather than escorting folks from Anaheim or even Los Angeles, its origin would be planted in Victorville, California. Still, the trip from there to Vegas would only take three to four hours including the 1.5 hour drive to Victorville, but that still doesn't sound nearly as nice as "well under two hours" for the maglev. As it stands, there's quite a bit of red tape to wade through before either option goes forward, but kicking back on a whizzing train sounds an awful lot better than staring at pavement and blasting the air conditioner for five or so hours.

[Via Gadling]

So here's the good news: Central Japan Railway Company (JR Tokai) has announced its intentions to construct a swank maglev railway in Japan. The bad news? It's not scheduled to open until 2025. Reportedly, JR Tokai will be coughing up around ¥5.1 trillion ($44 billion, give or take a few mil) of its own change to build the system that will stretch between the "Tokyo metropolitan area and the Chukyo region, with Nagoya at the center." Of course, we're all going to be cruising around in personal flying saucers in a decade anyway, so we wouldn't be too worried about the wait.

[Image courtesy of FYS]

We've seen a couple innovative wind power solutions pop up, but none that claim to offer the benefits of maglev wind turbines, which use full-permanent magnets to nearly eliminate friction by "floating" the blades above the base. According to developers, the technology is capable of scaling to massive sizes, with a proposed $53M turbine able enough to replace 1000 traditional windmills and power 750 thousand homes. Additional benefits include the ability to generate power with winds as slow as three miles per hour, operational costs some 50 percent cheaper than windmills, and an estimated lifespan of 500 years. That all sounds great, but the real proof will come when these things get put to use, which may happen sooner than you'd think: Development is proceeding rapidly in both the US and China, with Chinese power company Zhongke Hengyuan Energy Technology currently building a $5M factory to produce the turbines in capacities from 400 to 5,000 watts.

While folks living near Shanghai are already enjoying the luxuries of a maglev (magnetic levitation) railway, Germany is getting set to build a similar line to shuttle citizens from Munich's city center to its airport. The €1.85 billion ($2.61 billion) project is finally on track to become a reality after securing the necessary funding, and it should be able to whisk travelers around at nearly 310 miles-per-hour when it's complete. Sadly, there's no word as to when the Munich service will launch, but at least we're moving in the right direction, eh?

[Via Slashdot]