Transrapid Fact Check
Plenty of misinformation circulates about maglev trains. Here you will find the most common claims and what is really behind them.
Demand and technology
There is no longer any need for the Transrapid.
The rail network is operating at its capacity limit and is often unreliable. Domestic air traffic in Germany is also heavily loaded: between Hamburg and Munich alone there are around 180 flights per week. It was precisely for this growing traffic pressure that the Transrapid was developed more than 50 years ago.
Regular trains are already just as fast as the Transrapid.
Wheel-on-rail trains wear heavily at high speed. In regular service they therefore hardly run faster than 300 to 320 km/h in Europe, and Deutsche Bahn's ICE 4 is designed for 265 km/h. The TGV record of 574 km/h was a test run, and no passenger benefits from it. The Transrapid is designed for over 500 km/h, and its wear there is hardly higher than at 250 km/h.
The Transrapid has higher running resistance than an ICE.
The opposite is true: the ICE's running resistance at 350 km/h is higher than the Transrapid's at 450 km/h.
TU Dresden, system comparison of Transrapid and wheel-on-rail high-speed rail
The Transrapid only has advantages on very long routes.
The Transrapid accelerates to 500 km/h (266 s) faster than an ICE to 300 km/h (324 s). That is why it significantly shortens travel times even on routes with many stops.
Maglev technology offers no advantages other than speed.
Besides an operating speed up to twice as high, the system brings lower energy demand, lower maintenance costs and greater reliability. Read more on the Advantages page.
The Transrapid cannot carry freight.
ThyssenKrupp developed a freight Transrapid, the "Freightrapid." It was never built for lack of routes. A middle section carries 61 tonnes and up to four stacked FEU containers, and a train with 20 sections up to 1,226 tonnes.
The guideway has to be heated when it snows.
There are around 15 cm of air between the top of the guideway and the vehicle. Snow does not interfere there, nor between the magnets and stators. Wheel-on-rail trains, by contrast, need special measures in snow and are canceled more often.
Costs, history and China
The Transrapid is more expensive than new ICE lines.
Investment costs are on par, with double the top speed, around 70% lower maintenance and 40% less energy per seat at 350 km/h. Because the Transrapid can handle steeper gradients, it needs fewer tunnels and less land clearing in difficult terrain.
- Transrapid Hamburg–Berlin: €17 million per double-track kilometer
- Transrapid Shanghai: €25 million
- ICE Nuremberg–Ingolstadt: €30.9 million
- ICE Cologne–Frankfurt: €31.5 million
Siemens, price levels of 2001 and 2002
The accident ended the project.
Even after the accident, politicians and experts remained convinced of the system's safety. The test facility in Emsland, northwestern Germany, kept running until 2011, and the new TR09 received approval from the Federal Railway Authority (Eisenbahn-Bundesamt). New guideway girders were developed, and projects in Munich, on Tenerife and in Brazil were pursued further.
China has given up on the Transrapid.
China is developing a Transrapid for up to 600 km/h (CRRC 600) and is planning several new routes. There is no question of giving up.
The Transrapid was sold to China.
What was sold was a roughly 30 km line in Shanghai, and later licenses for individual vehicle components. The core technology stayed with ThyssenKrupp in Germany. Nothing would have to be "bought back" for a German line.