Maglev is not going to float

The maglev train from Shanghai to Pudong airport is already in service, but it looks like the planned Beijing-Shanghai maglev express is a non-starter. However the European consortium behind the maglev plans is in denial according to Expatica.com:

“BEIJING/BERLIN – A spokesman for the German consortium that built China’s magnetic-levitation railway denied a report Thursday that China had decided against the system for a new high-speed rail link between Beijing and Shanghai.

“That is a false report from a Chinese newspaper,” said Peter Wiegelmann, spokesman for the Transrapid consortium. “No decision has been made”.

The Jinghua Times reported that conventional, rather than the German-developed maglev technology would be used for a prestigious new line between China’s two most important cities.

The world’s first commercial maglev line, a 30-kilometre link to Shanghai’s main airport, formally opened to passengers last month. The USD one billion (EUR 1.27 billion) project used a system from Transrapid, which is led by Siemens and Thyssen-Krupp.”

Well, Mr Wiegelmann, it seems that you disagree with the People’s Daily, the China Daily and just about every other news source in China. Here is a China Daily story about the maglev decision, here is a People’s Daily article, while the Expatica.com denial is here. PRC News has plenty of links and commentary on the death of the maglev express here.

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