Time is money on Maglev train

A Maglev train stands at a station in Shanghai on January 8, 2010. (Photo: CFP)
By Guo Qiang

Controversy has erupted over the possible construction of a 200-kilometer magnetic levitation train line connecting Shanghai and Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, with critics saying the project is a waste of over 20 billion yuan.

The Ministry of Railways chief planner Zheng Jian revealed last Saturday that China has given the green light to the Maglev project, which was suspended in 2007 over environmental and cost concerns.

Opponents of the project contest it is unnecessary, as one high-speed railway has already been built, reducing the travel time to 80 minutes from two hours on a conventional train. Strengthening their argument is the fact that a new express railway, to be completed at the end of this year, will run at speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour, cutting travel time further, to 48 minutes.

The Shanghai-Hangzhou Maglev, which requires investment of 22 billion yuan ($3,23 billion), would run at a top speed of 430 kilometers per hour, reducing the travel time by just 10 minutes to 38 minutes.

The new line will link the Shanghai South Railway Station, Hongqiao Airport, Pudong Airport and Hangzhou.

It will extend the existing 31 kilometer-long Maglev project, which connects Shanghai Pudong International Airport and the Longyang Road Station. The 1.2 billion yuan airport line, launched in 2004, is China's and the world's only commercial high-speed Maglev service.

The Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission told the Xinhua News Agency that there is no schedule for the start of construction and the project is still subject to feasibility studies.

A previous Xinhua report said construction on the project would begin this year and was expected to be finished in 2014.

The State Council gave a go-ahead to the extension in 2006, but radiation and noise concerns, and residents' fears that they would lose their property along the planned route, prompted authorities to suspend the project in 2007. The line was originally due to be finished before the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

Safety and cost concerns have become major reasons for other countries, including Germany, where the technology was born, to suspend Maglev train projects.

Germany has called a halt to three major Maglev projects, including the Hamburg-Berlin, Metrorapid, and Munich airport link projects, due to cost concerns.

Source:Global Times
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