Maglev vehicles have been recognized as the transportation technology for the 21st century due to its advantage of being able to run on guides without wheels. However, applications of Maglev vehicles for material transportation have not been extensively studied in the past due to the technological limitations on achieving high energy efficiency. Recently, limitations have been circumvented with the advent of computer-aided engineering software tools and high-energy product permanent magnets. In this paper, a Maglev system employed for material transportation applications has been designed and analyzed based upon a novel concept by using hybrid levitation magnets for the rotor together with the linear synchronous motor for the stator. With the help of high retentivity of permanent magnets, the hybrid levitation magnets would consume little electrical energy when near-zero power control has been applied for levitation control. First, before going into design details, levitation stability of the hybrid magnets has been carefully investigated. Furthermore, possible responsive interactions between levitation and propulsion controllers have also been examined. This paper develops a fundamental approach to controller design and analysis on the Maglev system by going through simulations and experimental verifications. With the assistance of a commercial CAE package, the design and optimization of electromagnetic circuits has been accomplished for construction of a levitation controller. Simulated control results are compared to experimental results from a prototype built in-house. The future of the Maglev system is very promising and applicable in practice.