Could levitating trams be the future of London commuting?

Nick Glass travels to Dresden, Germany to meet Ludwig Schultz, a pioneer of a new type of transport
Nick Glass and Ludwig Schultz test the 'hovertram' prototype
CNN
Liz Connor26 January 2016

No longer confined to the pages of science fiction novels, your commute may soon involve ‘flying’ to work on a levitating tram system, that could form part of London’s future transport network.

In the new CNN series Make Create Innovate, German physicist Ludwig Schultz introduces his breakthrough quantum levitation technology, that allows him to travel around the perimeters of his Dresden laboratory in what appears, to the naked eye, to be a floating vehicle.

The technology, he believes, will allow large-scale magnetised train carriages to travel to and from a destination, with minimum risk of derailing.

And while there are already levitating vehicles in use in China and Japan, Schultz says that his idea of replacing wheels with strips of powerless superconductors will allow his ‘hovertrams’ to be much cheaper than those currently in use in the Far East.

“The idea is simply fantastic”, says presenter Nick, “to move people and things by levitation.”

Schultz is currently working with a developer in Germany to bring the technology to fruition. “I’m absolutely convinced it’s going to happen”, he says.

Watch this space.

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