Maglev trains won’t end traffic

Regarding the story “Ports push expansion despite rocky economy” (Dec. 15):

Port-area environmental activist Jesse N. Marquez really ought to know better than to spin fairy tales about maglev trains moving cargo out of the ports. Despite the bold predictions of starry-eyed engineers, magnetic levitation is a technology like nuclear fusion: perpetually a decade from commercialization.

Even if it were possible to build a maglev system tomorrow that would whisk containers to the Inland Empire logistics district, experience with the Alameda Corridor rail expressway shows that such a system would not come close to eliminating truck traffic near the ports.

Peter McFerrin

Los Angeles