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Challenges

The measure of sustainability has always been a matter of juggling the needs of the

present mass as well as those of the future. Modes of transportation, especially for the general

populace, would do well to ensure not to compromise the needs of the future for the sake of

simplifying or glossing over ramifications presented by the status quo.

This is a prevalent issue in many forms of transportation today, predominantly in the use

of the automobile, which remains for the large part, the dominating form of public transportation.

Even more generalized forms of transportation, like buses or some trains, would use petroleum,

like the automobile. While this works for now, this definitely looks towards a compromised

future, which is why sustainability is equally a factor to consider on top of what is usually just

considered the cost to produce a new means of public transportation. When ushering forth a new

mode of transportation, base cost and sustainability amalgamate to form a pivotal factor: cost

effectiveness.

The first form of mass public transportation on land was the railroad locomotive, first

successfully made by George Stephenson. Challenges for him included the actual production of

the lines as well as gaining approval of the citizens nearby who feared the consequences of

having an automated line, whether it be for people or goods, particularly oats and coal [7]. Once

these lines became more popular and widespread, he had to go through issues with roadway

construction, bridge designs, and manufacturing. Newer railroad locomotive engines today face

similar issues to those of other very prominent perpetrators like the automobile and public buses

in that they produce unacceptable amounts of emissions compromising Earth’s atmosphere [6].
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On the other side are light rail systems, which are increasingly becoming more and more

popular today. Unlike the aforementioned, light rail systems are predominantly powered by

overhead power lines. This is for a matter of safety for nearby passengers as well as eliminating

the dependence on fossil fuels for power sources. On the other side though, like many other

transportation rail systems, initial and operations costs are relatively high, Seattle’s new light rail

system costing around $179 million per mile [8]. In comparison, a freeway lane expansion would

cost no more than ten million per line but even then, that’s a very high upper bound. This high

price ticket stems from a need to tunnel in poor soil conditions, creating stations or elevated

sections which makes it very similar to rapid transit systems in fact. Nonetheless, after initial

setup, costs per passenger mile are much more sustainable with light rails as opposed to say,

buses because of a high rideship, average speed as well as a longer shelf life. As it is, the price

point in setting up a light rail is a deciding factor in preventing the spreading of its ubiquity for

the general populace; costs need to be lowered before it can contend with buses or even see a

sizable shift in prevalence.

Engineering is also even more a pressing matter for even more modern, prospective

forms of public transportation. Granted, current existing forms of public transportation also have

engineering concerns but more so along the ends of optimizing sustainability and or overhead

cost. This might also be due to geographical concerns mandated by the location or nearby

administrating governance or societal demands that the mode of transportation would have to

accommodate for, it being different from the established capabilities. However, for newer forms

of technology like the Maglev and the impending Hyperloop, the basic engineering execution is

still an issue.
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The Maglev of sorts has already broached that initial gap, the first commercial maglev

system in Birmingham, United Kingdom starting in 1984. The maglev is a transport technology

that uses magnetic levitation to move the particular vehicle so it doesn’t make contact with

anything really. Much of the power needed for this mode of transportation actually doesn’t go to

the powering of the magnets but rather overcoming the drag that encounters the system, seeing as

the Maglev holds the speed record for trains. Like the aforementioned railroad locomotive and

the light rail system, the Maglev also has overhead cost challenges and potential extenuating

engineering concerns levied either geographically or to meet the demands of the populace, but

it’s also got basic engineering challenges of its own.