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The Train Soon Arriving...
By CRYSTYL MO |
...is hoped to be the answer to China's
urban traffic issues. So is the Mag Lev the cure-all that
it's makers claim it to be?
The midnight run for the Shanghai maglev
Shanghai's speedy magnetic levitation train (or maglev),
a US$1 billion project, is supposed to be one of the solutions
to the city's transportation challenge. Set for launch around
late 2003, the first commercial maglev in the world will link
the city to the Pudong airport, boasting not only a seat for
every airline ticket holder - no elbowing necessary here -
but even a first-class car with leather upholstery. "Flying
on the Ground" is how Transrapid, the German developers and
builders of the train, describe the wonders of the train's
super speed abilities. In around a year's time, Shanghai passengers
will enjoy being whisked along the 30-kilometer ride at 430
kilometers an hour, the whole trip lasting just eight minutes.
On a longer track, the Transrapid is capable of speeds up
to 505 kilometers an hour.
Getting this "flightless airplane" off the ground has been
a long process. Both Germany and Japan have developed competing
maglev technologies. China also considered Japanese and French
technology for traditional high-speed trains. The country
is in the midst of a massive build-up of railway nationwide,
including light rail, long-distance and massive urban subway
systems. Bidders for the Shanghai airport line saw this contract
as vitally significant to their prospects of winning rail
projects all over the country.
"Shanghai's project might appear to be just a municipal project,
but its repercussions will spread much wider than just this
a single city," says Professor Wei Qingchao, director at the
Transportation & Environment Project Institute at North
Jiaotong University. "I have already heard about a lot of
options for future railway plans including a Beijing-Shanghai
line, Shanghai-Nanjing line, Shanghai-Hangzhou line, Beijing
downtown to the airport, and even Hong Kong-Guangzhou-Beijing
line."
Chinese officials spent months comparing the railway systems,
even going for rides on the test tracks of both Japanese and
German maglev trains.
"Zhu Rongji rode our train about two years ago, and about
half a year later, he rode the Japanese one," says Harmut
Heine, chief representative for Transrapid International,
a joint venture between German companies Siemens and ThyssenKrupp.
"He was clearly in favor of the German train because of some
very clear technical advantages."
One of those very clear advantages was the fact that Germany,
in its eagerness to win future contracts, was willing to share
some of the Transrapid technology, while the Japanese were
inflexible about tech transfer. "One of the biggest objectives
that China had with this contract is to get some technology
transfer from the German side," says Professor Wei, "China
would like to follow the same road as it did with its television
and motorcar industries - cooperating with foreigners to introduce
the technology and then learning and developing its own industry."
Magnetic levitation technology has been in development for
over three decades in Germany, according to Heine. Although
the basic concept behind the workings of the train-two opposite
charged magnets repelling each other is simple - putting it
into practice on a real-world scale was tricky, even for German
engineers.
"It's not difficult, it's an old system," says Heine of the
maglev's technology, "But to industrialize it takes time.
It's like an airplane, it takes years to develop it to a very
high precision."
Even after building a test track in Germany and setting a
world record for passenger carrying trains of 450 kilometers
an hour in 1993, Transrapid still had been unable to market
the train to any country, up until the Shanghai contract was
signed in January 2001. Not even the Germans themselves wanted
to build a maglev, considering the huge expense of building
a track and the experimental nature of the train - which has
never run on anything besides a test track. After numerous
cancelled and delayed projects, two German Transrapid lines
look like they will finally go forward in spite of Green Party
opposition to building a new track and political squabbling
over funding.
So how is it that China - once depicted as the bicycle capital
of the world and a country with a vast rural population -
will become the first country to build a super-speed levitating
passenger train?
The opportunity to be the first country with the power to
"fly on the ground" seems to have been one of the contributing
factors in China's leap into this costly technology.
Since opening up to the wonders of global commerce over twenty
years ago the country has thrust its big coastal cities into
development overdrive. The push to build hundreds of gleaming
skyscrapers and pour investment into high-technology has helped
to maintain the country's vigorous GDP growth, a necessary
balance to China's mammoth problems with unemployment and
bad loans to failing state enterprises. However, this passion
for progress is seen as also partly fueled by the Chinese
determination to gain "face" and recognition from the other
great economic powers of the world: the US, Europe and the
once mighty Japan.
"Building the first commercial maglev rail in the world will
be a thing of great pride for the country," says Professor
Wei.
While Zhu Rongji is said to be happily contemplating his
legacy as having overseen China's hosting of the world's first
maglev, not everyone is singing the glories of the train.
The powerful Ministry of Railways, which has been managing
the country's booming railroad expansion, including a plan
in Shanghai which will create the world's longest urban subway
system, argues that traditional track high-speed trains should
be used. They contend that such high-speed trains, which can
reach speeds of over 300 kilometers an hour, could be built
more cheaply, more reliably, and using more of China's own
technology and labor.
"Most people in the Railway Ministry support the traditional
track railway," says Professor Wei, "The foundation of their
opinion is based on the immaturity of the magnetic levitation
technology. "
Wang Lan a research fellow at the Science Research Department
for the China Academy of Railway Science, which is directly
under the leadership of the Ministry of Railways confirms
the conservative position of the Ministry. "Even if Shanghai's
airport line is successful there are still two problems for
the Beijing-Shanghai line to use the maglev technology," says
Wang, "Firstly, there is no evidence anywhere in the world
that proves this technology could be used for long line transportation.
Secondly, the investment in the maglev train would be several
times that of the high-speed wheel-track railway."
Maglev supporters argue that the low cost of maintenance
- the floating train creates no friction so wear and tear
is significantly reduced for all parts - makes up for the
initial investment in the track and train wagons. The maglev
is also faster, much quieter, and with its sleek vacuum-sealed
cabins (similar to an airplane) passengers are cushioned from
feeling the momentum of the train like they would on traditional
high-speed trains.
If the Shanghai maglev is fantastic enough to win over Ministry
of Railway officials or at least wow some powerful supporters,
the maglev could be the victor in the coveted bid to build
a Shanghai-Beijing line. A report released last week says
a 137-kilometer Beijing-Tianjin line, which would help alleviate
a transportation crush predicted for the 2008 Olympics, is
already being discussed between Chinese experts and Transrapid
officials.
Whatever system wins out on the long track, China can be
rest-assured that the Shanghai airport line will always be
the world's first commercial super-speed maglev train. And
Shanghai, a proud city that already enjoys boasting about
such modern triumphs as its Grand Hyatt, the tallest hotel
in the world, can add another jewel to its crown.
  
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