Doesn't run in Fla. Stalled at ODU. Now maglev maven is in Georgia.

Tony Morris told an Atlanta newspaper he plans to repay a $7 million loan he got from Virginia for the ODU project. (Calvin Cruce/Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

By DEBBIE MESSINA
The Virginian-Pilot

The Georgia businessman behind the ill-fated maglev train at Old Dominion University is testing his magnetic levitation ideas again - and claiming his newest vehicle, outside Atlanta, has reached speeds of 60 mph.

ODU researchers, who are still trying to make the Norfolk train run properly after $16 million has been spent on the project, said they find such a speed hard to believe.

Thomas Alberts, an aerospace engineering professor leading the research, said it's unlikely the vehicle could reach that speed and then return to a stop on its 2,000-foot track, which is much shorter than ODU's 3,200-foot elevated guideway.

Tony Morris and his company, American Maglev, pulled into Virginia nearly a decade ago with a promise of a quiet, affordable, high-tech system that would whisk passengers around and attract international attention as the world's first commercial maglev system. The train was supposed to begin transporting passengers across campus in 2002.

Two years later, it still wasn't working properly. The train levitated and moved, but instead of floating on a cushion of air, it bumped, rattled and vibrated. Morris left, and ODU took over the project.

Before coming to Norfolk, Morris had a test track in Volusia County, Fla. He accepted local tax dollars there and made promises of technology jobs but later abandoned that site.

Once he left Norfolk, there were overseas media reports of Morris vying to land big contracts in places such as Pakistan.

Some maglev enthusiasts say Morris has given the technology a black eye in this country.

"We call him whack-a-mole," said Phyllis Wilkins, referring to a popular arcade game. "He pops his head up, then goes underground and pops his head up someplace else."

Wilkins, who manages a maglev pilot project in the Baltimore-Washington area that uses a different technology, said Morris "makes audacious claims about what his technology can do... and never delivers."

Unlike in his previous ventures, Morris is operating in Georgia with little fanfare. In fact, Morris told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an interview published last week that he was trying to keep his latest experiment under wraps, but the elevated track and futuristic vehicle piqued the interest of passers-by.

He claimed his newest vehicle has reached speeds of 60 mph on the test track in Powder Springs, just outside Atlanta.

No one from ODU's maglev team has visited American Maglev's new facility. Based on pictures in the Atlanta paper and others posted on blogs and the company's Web site, it appears that significant money has been invested, Alberts said.

"It's a little surprising, with the record that they have, that they still have people backing them," he said.

Morris declined to be interviewed.

Tad Leithead, a Georgia businessman, recently toured Morris' new operation. He said he was aware of Morris' interest in maglev but was surprised to find him "operating a maglev system sitting 10 miles from my office."

"I went out there, got on it and it levitated, which is pretty cool," Leithead added. "We didn't go forward, but he's invited me back to ride it some time. For some reason, they were not moving it that day."

Leithead also chairs the Cumberland Community Improvement District, which has invested $875,000 to help pay for a $10 million study of high-speed travel between Atlanta and Chattanooga. Maglev is one of the options under consideration.

"The technology itself has a little bit of 'Star Wars' to it," he said. "Many say, 'You're kidding, that can't possibly work.' But the fact is, it's working in at least one place in the world."

Shanghai, China, has a commercially operating system that carries passengers about 18 miles to its airport at speeds topping 250 mph.

Leithead said that when the time comes to choose a technology, any system, including American Maglev's, would have to demonstrate that it is technically and financially sound and reliable.

At ODU, maglev is no longer a transportation system, but a research project with a goal of producing a low-cost prototype.

The university's Office of Research last year invested $94,000. ODU officials say the train could be years and millions of dollars away from being usable as mass transit.

Alberts and his team succeeded in levitating a test sled in a campus laboratory and briefly levitated and moved the full vehicle on the guideway, without any shaking and vibrations, before having to temporarily suspend work because of nearby construction.

Alberts said he hopes this summer to improve the alignment of the track and operate a test sled on it. But progress is slow.

"We're working here with tens of thousands of dollars," Alberts said. "In a million-dollar business, you don't go very fast with tens of thousands of dollars."

He said he wouldn't be surprised if American Maglev moves faster in its development because it has more resources.

"If Tony Morris can develop and demonstrate the technology, it contributes to the same goal we have of getting a viable maglev technology out there," said Jeremiah Creedon, ODU's director of transportation research.

Morris told the Atlanta paper that he hasn't forgotten his debt to Virginia taxpayers. He said he plans to repay a $7 million loan from the state for the ODU project with revenue from a working project in Virginia sometime in the future.