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First passenger maglev train set for lift-off


16:01 06 December 02

NewScientist.com news service

The world's first magnetic levitation passenger train will begin running on 1 January 2003 in Shanghai, Chinese officials have announced.

The train has reached 500 kilometres per hour (312 miles per hour) in testing and will carry passengers at a top speed above 400 km/h (250 mph).

The Transrapid 08 will transport travellers between Pudong International Airport and Shanghai's financial district, a distance of 30 kilometres. It will cover this route in just seven minutes. "It will be the fastest commercial train in the world," a spokesman for Transrapid, the German company that built the train, told New Scientist.

The bottom section of the train wraps around the track. A set of magnets on either of the train pushes the train upwards so it floats 10 millimetres above the track. Another set exerts a sideways force to keep the train in the correct position.

The magnets also manipulate the magnetic field beneath the train to propel it along. Power is provided by batteries stored on the train.


Maximum velocity


The train was built by Transrapid, a German company based in Berlin, while the track was built by the Shanghai Maglev Transportation Corporation.

The train was propelled to over 500 km/h on a testing track in Germany. An experimental maglev, developed by the Railway Technical Research Institute in Japan, has also been tested at this speed.

And French-made TGV trains, which use electric engines to drive wheels, have also been tested at such high speeds. But the top speed for passengers is 186 km/h.

Transrapid signed an agreement to develop the system with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology in November 1999. The entire system was constructed in just over 18 months at an estimated cost of $1.57 billion.

A one-way ticket on the train will cost the equivalent of $6.25, which some observers suggest may be expensive for regular passengers. But if the Shanghai line does prove successful, the authorities may develop a much longer line linking Hangzhou, 120 miles away, or Peking, 800 miles away.

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