Maglev
The world's first commercial maglev system was a low-speed maglev shuttle that ran between the airport terminal of Birmingham International Airport and the nearby Birmingham International railway station between 1984 and 1995. Its track length was , and trains levitated at an altitude of , levitated by electromagnets, and propelled with linear induction motors. It operated for 11 years and was initially very popular with passengers, but obsolescence problems with the electronic systems made it progressively unreliable as years passed, leading to its closure in 1995. One of the original cars is now on display at Railworld in Peterborough, together with the RTV31 hover train vehicle. Another is on display at the National Railway Museum in York.
High-speed rail in the United States
In 2012, the Northeast Maglev, a small firm in Washington, D.C. with backing from the Central Japan Railway Company, proposed a new high-speed rail service along the Northeast Corridor with initial service between Washington, DC and New York City and they have spent $1.4 million lobbying Congress. The proposal calls for the use of maglev technology which will require infrastructure separate from the Amtrak's NEC networks. The company proposes to deploy the JR-Maglev trains on a service from Washington, D.C. to New York City with a travel time of 60 minutes. Previous proposals of deploying maglev in the area have stalled due to lack of funding and legislative support. In November 2015, the Federal Railroad Administration approved a grant of $27.8 million to Maryland Department of Transportation and Maryland Economic Development Corporation to conduct studies on building a high-speed Maglev line that would carry passengers between Washington and Baltimore.