MAGLEV Connecting the RGV & San Antonio

A typical day living in Brownsville:

I wake up at 5:30am ready to go to work, which starts at 8:00am. By 6:30am I'm ready and off I go. But work isn't in Brownsville, but in San Antonio! How's that possible? It takes roughly four hours by car to get there and a plane ride every day would be cost prohibitive. A regular rail line wouldn't cut it either because the faster rail line in the U.S is the Amtrack Acelera at 150 mph tops. So how do I get to San Antone in a mere 55 minutes?

I'm glad you asked! Welcome to the 21st century where trains lo longer have to run on a track but instead on a cushion of air! This is not theory or fantasy. It exists today and China already has one connected from the airport to downtown. This kind of train is called a MAGLEV Train (Magnetically Levitated Train). How does it work? Well, it's a little technically invloved but here's the untechnical version of how it works (if there is such a thing as untechnical):

Before explaining the workings of a Maglev, I had built one very similar to it at UTB for my Senior Design class in the Electrical Engineering Technology degree. So I know for a fact that it exists and is already in use. In fact, the technology has been around for about forty years! The train I based my project on is the Transrapid 007 built by, of course, the Transrapid Company located in Germany. Here's the company's version of how their system works:

The Levitation System

Electronically controlled support magnets located on both sides along the entire length of the vehicle pull the vehicle up to the ferromagnetic stator packs mounted to the underside of the guideway.
Guidance magnets located on both sides along the entire length of the vehicle keep the vehicle laterally on the track. Electronic systems guarantee that the clearance remains constant (nominally 10 mm). To hover, the Transrapid requires less power than its air conditioning equipment. The levitation system is supplied from on-board batteries and thus independent of the propulsion system. The vehicle is capable of hovering up to one hour without external energy. While travelling, the on-board batteries are recharged by linear generators integrated into the support magnets.
Quicktime-Movie levitation System (42 KByte)
Flash-Film levitation System (40 KByte)

Propulsion System

The synchronous longstator linear motor of the Transrapid maglev system is used both for propulsion and braking. It is functioning like a rotating electric motor whose stator is cut open and stretched along under the guideway. Inside the motor windings, alternating current is generating a magnetic traveling field which moves the vehicle without contact. The support magnets in the vehicle function as the excitation portion (rotor). The speed can be continuously regulated by varying the frequency of the alternating current. If the direction of the traveling field is reversed, the motor becomes a generator which brakes the vehicle without any contact. The braking energy can be re-used and fed back into the electrical network.
Propulsion System Animation:
Real-Video Movie (80 KByte)

The GuidewayThe Transrapid hovers over a double track guideway. It can be mounted either at-grade or elevated on slim columns and consists of individual steel or concrete beams up to 62 m in length.
The Transrapid maglev system changes tracks using steel bendable switches. They consist of continuous steel box beams with length between 78 m and 148 m (256 ft - 486 ft) which are elastically bent by means of electromagnetic setting drives and securely locked in their end positions.
In the straight position, the vehicle can cross the switch without speed restrictions, in the turnout position, the speed is limited to 200 km/h (125 mph) (high speed switch) or 100 km/h (62 mph) (low speed switch).

The Vehicles

Transrapid vehicles comprise a minimum of two sections, each with approx. 90 seats on average. According to application and traffic volume, trains may be composed of up to ten sections (two end and eight middle sections).
However, the Transrapid is suitable for transporting goods as well. For high-speed cargo transport, special cargo sections can be combined with passenger sections or assembled to form dedicated cargo trains (payload up to 15 tons per section). As the propulsion system is in the guideway, neither the length of the vehicle nor the payload affect the acceleration power.

The Operation Control System

The operation control system controls the operation and guarantees the safety of the Transrapid system. It safeguards vehicle movements, the position of the switches, and all other safety and operational functions. Vehicles location on the track is accomplished using an on-board system which detects digitally encoded location flags on the guideway. A radio transmission system is used for communication between the central control center and the vehicles.

A MAGLEV Bewteen the RGV and San Antonio

Before I could get to the story I want to tell, you all had to know the basics about the how this Maglev works. Unfortunately, this Blog only allows one picture. To see the actual page from where I got the above info and understand it better with pictures, please go here: http://www.transrapid.de/en/information/technik_txt.html

Now, to the story. A Maglev is capable og traveling up to 350 mph and achieving higher speeds every few years. Speed is the key here if it is to compete with the airliners. My idea then is to connect Brownsville to Harlingen and then on to McAllen. Eventually, a line would connect Harlingen with San Antonio either via US Hwy 77 or through a more direct route.

The Route

The beauty of this Maglev is that it can be built as a monorail, where the train (not an accurate description of a floating train but it will suffice for now) would litterally be built above ground towering over most structures, say three stories so as to reduce the amount of space required on ground. Very similar to the picture I posted above. The Magalev would begin at the new Multi Modal Terminal (A good topic for next time) that will be built in downtown Brownsville right across the Tandy building at UTB along International Blvd. Since the terminal will be servicing all bus companies in one building, why not the Maglev? It's close to the university where thousands call home for most of the day and even students from SA can come to take classes and return home very conviniently and vice versa! From here the track will rise above most buildings in downtown and then head towards the Expressway 77/83 via the 6th and 7th St. then follow the expressway north to Harlingen. Before leaving Brownsville, it would make one more stop near the Sunrise Mall.

A transfer station would have to be built there. This way, the train can pick up or drop of people and then head towards Harlingen's dowtown or very near it. The maglev would only reach 200 mph between cities because it would require some amount of time to slow down but definately faster than a car at legal speeds! Basically, it would take roughly 12 1/2 minutes to get there along the expressway. Another transfer station would then need to be build right off the expressway, say near the Harlingen Valle Vista Mall. At this point, you would have two choices, go north to SA or west to McAllen. Let's just say we are going to McAllen this time. From Harlingen, the Maglev would not stop until it reached McAllen; another roughly 35 miles. At this point, the train would reach speeds of up to 250 mph in just about a few miles and arrive at McAllen's downtown's Multi Modal Bus station just as in Brownsville. The train would arrive in about 14 minutes. It's conviniently located between the Mall and the downtown area. The transfer time would be about eight minutes so the total time required to arrive to McAllen from Brownsville would be about 30 minutes. A full half hour or more off versus traveling by car!! The time savings would even be moe if you factor in vehicle traffic, clogs, and crashes that cause, at times, to close the entire expressway and getting rerouted. The upper valley really suffers a lot of traffic jams and road rage. So why bother driving when you can "fly" very conveniently to your destination? Even take a bkie with you to reach your final destination.

Suppose now that you are headed to work in SA. The first leg of the trip would be the same. 12 1/2 min to Harlingen. From there, you take the route to SA. There would be no stops in between Harlingen and SA. The maglev would travel up to 300 mph along Highway 77 and then via I-37 to SA. Total time would be about 55 minutes! The ride is very smooth as the train does not touch the guideway at all. The scenery would be fantastic and no more road rage. You sit back and enjoy the scenery. Get to SA, go to work, and finally come back home. No hassels at an airport, no losing luggage, delays, taking off you shoes, etc, etc.

With a maglev system in place that connects the RGV and with SA (maybe even all the way to Dallas) Texas could litterally be traversed in just a few hours without ever leaving the ground!! People could go to work in far off cities and come back home in time for dinner. Now that's the future!! All this is possible with the Maglev. Transportation in the 21st century just got a little faster.

Join Preservation Brownsville!

Have you ever gotten upset or even angry when drivin in downtown B'ville and seeing many of our hisotric structures slowly crumbling away? Ever wondered what you could do to rescue these buildings? Well, here's your chance. Join forces with those who have the exact same questions and feelings about the state of our downtown. Then, join Preservation Brownsville!!

Preservation Brownsville is an organization that advocates the protection of historic structures within the downtown area.

Eventhough many historic structures have been demolished or destroyed, Brownsville still has many more historic structures. I would even venture to say over 100 historic homes and commercial buildings still exist. Basically, the area that Preservation Brownsville is interested in protecting is from St. Charles St to the Expressway 77/83, and from UTB/TSC to Palm Blvd; though, the Kraigher House (on Paredes Line Rd) is also on our radar screen.

Currently, I'm the President of Preservation Brownsville (PB for short) and I'm looking to find more people interested in preserving and advocating for the preservation of our historic structures. I will most likely be holding a general meeting this coming October and talk about the following tentative outline:

1. Purchasing a historic building for renovation and for PB 1st headquarters.

2. Creating a website for PB

3. Creating a new logo for PB

4. Talk about the ordinance that deals with demolition by neglect.

5. Other as yet unknown

PB has been around for about five years but has started over agin with new faces and new hope. There are about 20 members in our organization and are looking for more to join. More voice means more action by our city officials. If the city officials see that there are many of us who want to see downtown rescured, the better the chance for our voices to be heard in numbers.

I will let everyone know when the general meeting will take place as soon as I meet with my board members sometime next month.

If you are interested or just curious in joining us or just to come to the next meeting, let me know and I will keep you posted on the latest events. There are currently no fees (just donations) and I plan to keep it fee free for the forseeable future. Remember, things don't change if you just sit there and get upset, make a difference and join our organization nad do something positive and focus that anger into one voice, Preservation Borwnsville; helping to preserve our history.

To contact me to learn more about our organization, please e-mail me to the following address:

tonyclehmann@yahoo.com.

TonyL

My Website: A Pictorial History of Brownsville

To those of you who have not seen my website as titled above, then what are you waiting for? click here to view it: A Pictorial History of B'ville, Tx

It's pretty much a website about B'ville's past, present, and future growth. It covers topics from the history, demographics, before and after pics, info on individual buildings, current and future construction projects and much more!

It's been online since April but I'm still working on it. Some pics and not working and I'm still uploading many pictures. It'l be about another year before it's fully developed. I hope to have about 500+ pics uploaded this year and I'm about 60% there. Remember, it's not completly done cuz I'm doing this on my spare time. Enjoy this free website and hope you all learn something about this wonderful city, on the border, by the sea!

Demolition By Neglect

Defined as the destruction of a building through abandonment or lack of maintenance.

Seen one lately? You will if you live in Brownsville. There are several (or many) historical buidings and homes that are on the verge of extinction. Examples: The Hotel El Jardin, The Kraigher House, The Yturria Building, The Puegnat Building, and many more.

The city is going to consider soon on implementing an ordinance that deals with demolition by neglect. The El Jadin is a prime example of this issue. Although I have talked about the El Jardin in this blog, I'm concentrating on the ordinance more than on the building. Pieces of the hotel have been falling for some time now but rarely does it get any coverage. The only time that I can remeber that I saw it in the Brownsville Herald was when a large piece of molding from the roof came crashing down on the building next to it. But nothing more was mentioned thereafter.

Basically, if an owner can not afford to fix the building or can't sell it, the other option for the owner is to neglect the building until it's unsafe or structurally unsound and be forced to tear it down. The owner may then be able to rebuild something else on this property. That's what appears to be happening with the hotel, but I have no proof or it. But it would not be too far from reallity since the hotel is being neglected and it's slowly coming apart. There are other historical buildings that are in lack of maintaince but the hotel is in more emminent danger.

The ordinance is a good start but here's what I want to know about the ordinance:

1) Will it be enforced?

2) What will the ordinance entail?

3) What would be the consequences/fines if the owner(s) disregard the ordinance?

4) Would the fines and/or consequences be heavy or just a slap on the wrist?

5) Will the ordinance be enforced equally (meaning that there are no loop holes or compadrismo going on)?

6) If the owner(s) still disregard the ordinance, will the city be able to take action of some sort?

I'm sure that there's more questions but these are the basic ones. If the ordinance will not be enforced, then what's the point of having one? Just the same, if the fines are not heavy enough or the city simply looks the other way, again, what's the point? If the city is serious about this ordinance, then I want to see real progress being made for the downtown and making sure that owner(s) do follow the ordinance. Period.

As soon as I find out more about this new ordinance, I will write it here as an update and see if all the questions above will be answered in a positive way.

Until then, downtown will reamain where it's at, decaying and going into oblivion.

Brownsville in The 21st Century

A new century, rr, millenium has dawned upon us with ever expanding techologies, population growth, enviromental issues, and growing cities among many other things.

Brownsville is no different. I'm only going to concentrate on issues regarding B'ville and its infrasctucture or lack of that will plague B'ville in this new century and propose ideas to help alleviate these problems. I'm sure that some of my ideas may already have been thought of but I will go ahead and mention them.

Highways/Loops

It's interesting to note that B'ville has only one major limited access highway (77/83) going through it. B'ville is currently booming and with that boom comes people. People bring cars, and cars bring headaches. The following are ideas that will help the congestion of B'ville.

West Loop

This West Loop idea is already being discussed and may become a reality as soon as the West Rail Relocation Project moves forward with the cosntruction eliminating the railroad that runs through the city to the B&M Bridge. After the new rail bridge gets built southwest of B'ville, the current railraod tracks of Union Pacific would be turned into the West Loop. This is a good idea and great foresite for whom ever thought this up. One way to ruin a good idea is to turn the West Loop into a boulevard. Why? Cuz this would create infinite city lights to deal with and create more bottleneck than move traffic smoothly.

Instead, West Loop should be built as a limited access highway, such as the Expressway 77/83. The loop is suppose to start at Palm Blvd and end somewhere at Alton Gloor (Tejon Rd) Blvd. If this is to be so, then not only should West Loop be limited access but also connect to the Expressway 77/83 via interchnages. This way, traffic on Expressway 77/83 can exit on West Loop without having to come to a light. More flowing traffic equals shorter time travel. Lets hope that our city leaders do the right thing and build West Loop into a limited access highway.

East Loop

Although the first phase of this loop has been completed (now called University Blvd) and connects Elizabeth St (Downtown) with the Expressway 77/83, the next phase will run from Expressway 77/83 to the airport and then from the airport to the Port of Brownsville. Again, this 2nd phase should be built as a limited access highway to aliviate bottlenecks at traffic lights and adding more traffic lights to just about every intersection. Brownsville doesn't need more traffic lights. The great thing about this project is that it will connect the airport directly to the Expressway 77/83.

Currently, to get to the airport is a hassle, which ever direction you choose to take; I've tried them all! More direct access to/from the airport means more business to our city as people, especially those not from here or familiar with this area, do not like to try and guess their way out.

FM 511

This highway is currently a very dangerous two-lane road. There are current plans to expand it to a four lane highway with a possiblity of adding a dedicated truck lane in the center part. I'm not sure if this expansion would be a limited access highway or not but sure would be a good idea to do so. The expansion of the section of FM 511 would be from the Expressway 77/83 to the Port of Brownsville. It may even to intergrated into the I-69 if it happens to come down in the future. FM 511 would connect to the proposed East Loop, which would then connect to the airport.

Boca Chica Expressway

OK, this is my ideabut I think is the best idea to ever be imagined. Here it goes:

Currently, the major bottlenecks in Brownsville happens right at the intersections of the expressway with the major thoughrough fares. Try driving in these areas between 4:00pm to 6:00pm and you will see what I mean!

The idea here is to create Boca Chica Blvd into a limited access highway that would connect HW 281 (Military Highway), which inturn goes to Canada, to International Blvd, which also connects to HW 48 (goes to Port Isabel and SPI). An interchange would definately be required and this idea would aleviate many of the bottlenecks going from the east/west dirrection. Boca Chica is already a seven-lane (one center/turning lane) and would be large enough to accomodate the expressway without buying rights of way. Not to mention that Boca Chica Blvd literally connects South Padre island to Canada!!

Highway 281

Highway 281, as mentioned before, connects to Canada but is at this time, only two-lanes. It goes to McAllen along the Rio Grande River, and from there, it heads north to San Antonio and then to Canada. The stretch of 281 from Brownsville to McAllen should be expanded into a four lane, limited access highway. Imagen the amount of visitors to Brownsville form Monterrey and other parts of Mexico! This would be a hit. Mexicans from Monterrey are already bypassing McAllen because McAllen is just to over crowded and congested and they are coming over to Brownsville in large droves. I believe that there is a plan to expanded it but again, I'm not sure if it would be a limited access highway.

I-69

This is definately what Brownsville needs, an intersate highway. For too long the Rio Grande Valley has been underserved by a major federal highway. Especially considering that there is a lot of truck and car traffic along highway 77. Now that the Expressway 77/83 is being expanded to six lanes, there may be a good chance that I-69 could come our way, but don't hold your breath. It could take up to five years or more! Even if it gets approved now.

I recently went to a meeting that occured at the Brownsville Events Center that showcased the new highway and to see if there is support for this highway in this area. I left a comment with my huge support!! With the I-69 is also the TTC (Trans Texas Corridor) that Governor Rick Perry wants to see built. For more on this, please visit TxDot at: TTC

Finally, the ideas is to have a limited access highway that completely loops around the city, starting at the FM 511 to the Port of Brownsville, connecting to the East Loop with the airport, and then reconnecting to the Expressway 77/83 near the university in downtown, and Finally East Loop to West Loop and back up to the Expressway 77/83 near Alton Gloor. Boca Chica Expressway would connect HW 48 to HW 281 literally connecting SPI with Canada!!Phew!!!!

Brownsville will never look the same if and when these ideas come to fruition. What are your alls view of this? Let me know.