New transit system powered by magnets underground

Hovercrafts not mentioned; remain highly anticipated

An amusement park in South Korea recently unveiled a new transit system that powers itself via electricity transferred from subterranean magnetic strips.

This is very cool. Electric buses are not particularly new, but there’s something novel and fun about a transit system that recharges itself off magnetic strips hidden underground. Aside from reducing the ungainly system of overhead electric lines required to run bus and light rail systems, it turns out that only 20% of a route would need to have power strips installed. In fact, by maintaining the power system below ground, the engineers were able to keep a bunch of weight off the vehicle by drastically reducing the size of the battery onboard.

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology’s president wasted no energy in modesty about the achievement:

Of all the world’s electric vehicles, this is the most economical system,” Suh told reporters, adding the operating cost is only about one-third of ordinary electric vehicles. “The potential for application [of this technology to public transport systems] is limitless. I dare say this is one of the most significant technical gains in the 21st century.”

I just hope it doesn’t go the way of the monorail.

Image by OLEV picture courtesy KAIST.