Magnetic levitation trains : Only one version for public use has been built that is the Shanghai airport Express. It is supported by the Chinese government to foot the bills. The ridership is substantial but costs can't be recovered via ticket sales alone.
MagLev Costs are due to technical complexity. Maglevs are basically like two same polarity magnets floating on top of one another due to magnetic repulsion, continiously balancing out one another. But here is where the Similarity ends.
One needs electromagnets for lifting a train which itlsef is another electromagnet, and it is heavy because of passenger, batteries (to keep the train powered and the magnets), magnetic shielding and heat dissipation (heating happens due to eddy induced current). These magnetic rails are made up of superconductors which have to be maintained at very low temperatures, (an even though they are switched on and off very fast, the cooling is mantained at atleast a 100 Degrees Centigrade below Zero, this costs money). And you have to have computers to keep every thing balanced.
This is how it moves.
Sit back and admire the effort taken to remove the wheels & rails, technically this is an engineers space age dream project. I'd love to do this, provided if anyone is ready to fund me.
. Now fathom the energy costs, electrical and control & instrumentation system, networking required to keep all that going...At 600kmph the train still has to remove that volume of air out of its way and keep moving forwards, the propulsion system must deliver the energy required to overcome drag forces. This will be more or less a constant till 2000m form MSL. So those wont change.
Hence we find ourselves here.
