Fort Worth, Texas, inventor Kirston Henderson of MegaRail Transportation Systems has been awarded a patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office for major breakthroughs in high-speed magnetic levitation (maglev) transportation technology. Breakthroughs possible with the approach include true all-weather operation, an 85% reduction in maglev system cost, and ability to avoid unnecessary station stops for faster service.

The Fort Worth company plans to develop a low-cost, all-weather 150-200 mph transportation system based upon this approach. The company will raise additional capital to fund development through sale of stock. The patent (number 6,357,358) was awarded on March 19, 2002. The company founder and inventor also holds patents for the MegaRail® and MicroRail™ systems that are currently in development and has several other patents pending.

The patented maglev system uses strong permanent magnets located on vehicles and uses passive levitation rails in the guideway. The combination of (1) permanent magnets instead of expensive electromagnets (2) passive guideway and (3) full-speed, car-based switching will allow the company to develop a high-speed inter-city transportation system that is about 85% lower in cost than current maglev train systems. The system employs enclosed levitation rails that fully shield the suspension magnets, levitation rails, electrical power supply rails and control and communication elements both from the effects of weather and possible damage from foreign objects. The enclosed rail design will allow the system to operate at full speed in any type of weather, including heavy snow and ice.

Inventor Henderson says that the system approach also allow switching of vehicles at full speed from one guideway to another without any mechanical movement of guideway elements as is necessary with other maglev guideway systems. This feature allows switching of vehicles at short inter-vehicle spacing onto and off of main guideways without effect upon other vehicles on the line. This approach reduces cost of guideway switches and increases reliability by eliminating moving parts.