Hi DJ, <<I sure hope it becomes an accepted and running reality ... rather see future customers visit Shanghai than Munich>>
:0) why not, since your tax Euros paid for it :0) !!! Or, as the Chinese say, 'the price is right' :0)
seattlepi.nwsource.com
Wednesday, January 1, 2003
Magnetic-levitation train hits blazing 260 mph
By MARTIN FACKLER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SHANGHAI, China -- The sleek white train zipped noiselessly out of a futuristic station in Shanghai, carrying Chinese and German leaders -- and hopes for a new era in railway technology.
The world's first commercial magnetic-levitation train performed flawlessly on its maiden journey yesterday, hitting 260 mph between Shanghai's gleaming financial district and the 3-year-old Pudong airport. A German-built high-tech marvel, the train can outrun a World War II fighter plane by riding above its track suspended by powerful opposing magnets.
Its VIP passengers, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, said they hoped the 14-minute, 19-mile journey would build confidence in the expensive new technology.
"The completion of the Shanghai magnetic levitation train test project . . . holds important meaning for the construction of a high-speed rail network in China," Zhu said in a speech after the ride.
The Shanghai train is being watched closely, as much for the speed and performance of its 21st century technology as for its jaw-dropping $1.2 billion cost -- partly covered by German subsidies.
High construction costs of "maglev" trains have prevented them from finding customers elsewhere in the world, including Germany, where a proposed Berlin-Hamburg link was scuttled two years ago because of costs. Many in China fear Shanghai's high-speed airport shuttle will end up a white elephant, unable to recoup costs because airport users will shun its one-way ticket price of $6 -- a hefty sum for most Chinese.
Such concerns were nowhere to be seen as Zhu and Schroeder boarded a maglev carriage, which looks like an aerodynamically curved subway train.
The train then shot silently away on a single, gray track raised several stories above ground.
Germany has poured decades of research and billions of dollars into the train. Maglev is the fastest rail system in the world, far outstripping conventional trains because it floats on air -- held a fraction of an inch above its rail by powerful opposing magnets.
Germany was so keen to have a working version that it essentially offered the trains for free if China built the track. The maglev's German developers were also generous in handing over technology, which reportedly allowed them to beat out the only other maglev makers, the Japanese.
Although China is in the midst of a five-year, $31 billion upgrade of its railway network, foreigners have so far had little success winning business.
Premier Zhu, whom Schroeder thanked for personally overseeing the Shanghai construction, said he hoped maglev trains would be "quickly localized" -- produced entirely in China.
Chugs, Jay |
