>>1556361It is possible that maglev survived because many types of companies are able to profit from its construction and operation. Construction companies can build the steel and concrete guideways, aerospace companies can build the vehicle and its control systems, electrical component manufacturers can provide the linear motor, the windings, the cooling fans, and the electrification system, and power companies can sell large amounts of electric energy to the operators. Nevertheless, an initial investment needs to be made by someone, and this has killed every German and Japanese initiative up to this point.
The oil crises caused Western governments to slash research funding in the area of high-speed ground transportation. They had decided that all of the exotic proposals were too expensive and too risky. In the United States, research funding stopped completely in 1975. Only research into conventional high-speed rail was funded, and only at a low level. There was also some federal funding of maglev research in Germany and Japan (about $1 billion between 1969 and 1993 in each of the two countries).
The emphasis on conventional steel wheel-on-rail technology in the 1970s resulted in the French gas turbine-powered turbotrains, the United Kingdom's diesel-electric High Speed Trains (HSTs), and Germany's electric Class 103.1 locomotives for its IC (Inter-City) network. By the late 1970s, Advanced Passenger Trains (APTs) were introduced in the United Kingdom, and TGVs (Train a Grande Vitesse) were nearing completion in France. The prospect of a united Europe gave rise to plans for a European high-speed rail (HSR) network that would connect Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom. In the United States, AMTRAK was created in 1971 to consolidate the declining passenger rail system.
