SHANGHAI — The world’s first commercial magnetic levitation train will hurtle an influential group of passengers across Shanghai at up to 430 kph (270 mph) on January 1 if a crucial trial of the technology proceeds to plan, reports a wire service.
Transrapid International, the German consortium behind the project, hopes the eight-minute dash from Shanghai’s financial hub to its international airport 33 km (20 miles) away will convince the Chinese decision makers on board to expand the so-called maglev system to other parts of the country.
The test run, carrying VIPs including city leaders, could determine the future of maglev technology developed over 30 years and of contracts worth billions of dollars.
“No one in the world has built such a line in such a short period of time. It’s a kind of world record,” Transrapid’s Shanghai general manager, Guenter Weckerlein, told Reuters.
“It was the wish of the Chinese side and to some extent I can understand. In order to move something ahead you need to prove the capability of the system,” he said late on Monday.
The consortium, comprised of Siemens AG , ThyssenKrupp AG (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: TKAG.F) and the German government, began work last year on a 1.2 billion euro ($1.37 billion) loop connecting Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport with the city centre.
By the end of 2003, the first maglev passenger train will be ready for the commercial hub’s 16 million people.
Engineers hope the 66-km (40-mile), S-shaped circuit can help sell maglev — which uses opposing magnets to provide a frictionless, driverless ride as fast as 430 kph (270 mph) — elsewhere in China, in the United States and at home in Germany.
“They want to see the success of our project first,” said Weckerlein, who has worked on high-speed rail since 1992 and on the Shanghai project since it began in June 2000.
ALL EYES ON SHANGHAI
Both Germany and Japan have been developing and testing magnetic levitation for years, but the Germans got a leg up with the Shanghai contract, the first ever commercial application.
China is considering a maglev link between Shanghai and Beijing at an estimated cost of $22 billion, joining the capital’s airport to Tianjin port 100 km (60 miles) to the southeast and perhaps a southern loop joining Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.
Shanghai’s former mayor Xu Kuangdi said on Monday reliability, stability and cost were paramount considerations for the Shanghai-Beijing line.
“Just because Shanghai chose the maglev technology doesn’t mean the Shanghai-Beijing line will automatically use it,” said Xu, now Communist Party secretary to the country’s top engineering institute, the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
“When Shanghai’s 30-km line is completed, it will probably influence our future decision,” Xu told a news conference.
Ninety-nine percent of the pillars and 40 percent of the girders for a one-way trip are in place, Weckerlein said. Testing will begin next month and continue until September when ThyssenKrupp is scheduled to deliver the first of three trains.
The return leg of the circuit will be built next year, when Transrapid will be able to test for the first time wind-speed effects when two trains pass each other. The test track in Lathen, northern Germany is not a full circle.
Trains travelling at top speed can push air in front of them as fast as 1,000 kph (600 kph), he said.
JOINT-VENTURES NEXT?
Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji complained he “felt a little dizzy” when he first rode the train in July 2000.
But Weckerlein said if the trains were well designed, the only indication of speed should be the scenery zipping by. The VIPs on the test run will hit the top speed for only part of the journey.
Transrapid would also study power consumption, weather, noise and other effects during testing, he said.
The project was on track, Weckerlein said, and dismissed some media reports on squabbles with China on technology transfer.
Under the Shanghai-Pudong contract, Siemens keeps the rights to the trains’ magnetic propulsion system and ThyssenKrupp keeps its manufacturing technology for vehicles and switches, he said.
Future deals were likely to involve closer cooperation with the Chinese government, Weckerlein added.
“It had to be that way because of the short time period,” he said. “The next phase will likely include a technology transfer …a joint venture or several joint ventures. It depends on what they want.”