Maglev

I love maglevs. You read the papers, take a nap and bam, you're halfway across the country.

— Parece Hardy, commuter

The magnetically levitated train, or maglev for short, is a staple of modern transportation infrastructure. Since they require no physical contact with the rails, maglevs can reach speeds of up to 700 km/h at maximal passenger comfort, making them ideal for long distance travel.
The underside of the train features a series of permanent magnets arranged in a Halbach array, while the track contains loops of electric conductors. When the train moves along the track, the loops experience an alternating magnetic field, which induces a current. The current causes a magnetic field to form, which repels the magnets and keeps the train afloat above the track. Since a minimum speed is required for the levitation effect to kick in, the train also aquires a set of wheels for low velocity operations.
Maglevs may be powered by a different methods. The most common are linear induction motors. The advantage of this electrically powered motor is that it does not require the train to carry it's own fuel supply. The disadvantage, however, is that it makes the track more complicated, which needs to feature the counterpart to the train's motor as well as a method of wireless power transfer to the vehicle. For the maglev connecting the Alena Melinkova Spaceport to Nadezhda City, another option was thus chosen. Since at one of the ends of the route there is a ready supply of hydrogen fuel, it was decided to power the maglev using a jet engine. This made the train less weight efficient and more noisy, but drastically simlified the construction of the tracks.

See Also