MAGLEV Dreams Busted by London’s 2012 Dreams

shanghai-maglev.tower-horizontalshanghai-maglev.tower-horizontal, originally uploaded by jianshuo

If you were dreaming of taking a MAGLEV train anytime soon, you should be angry that Baltimore lost to London for the 2012 Olympics:

The project in Maryland has been under study since 1994. Preliminary studies indicate the project would serve between 20,000 and 40,000 trips per day, even with continued Amtrak service in the corridor. It would provide residents and visitors to Washington, D.C. with a second airport only 15 minutes from Union Station and take some of the pressure off Reagan National Airport that is currently operating at capacity with rationing of gate slots. The project is visualized as the initial stage of a high-speed maglev system that would serve the entire Northeast Corridor between Boston and Charlotte, NC. In the event the Baltimore-Washington area wins its bid for the 2012 Olympic designation, the system would provide rapid transportation between the sports venues in both cities and the airport.
emphasis added

While the FRA is still funding the MAGLEV Deployment Program, without a real need presented to DOT to support the enourmous financial outlays a MAGLEV program entails, I doubt the program has much support.