Shanghai-Hangzhou Maglev Train - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Shanghai-Hangzhou Maglev Train (Chinese: 沪杭磁悬浮交通项目) is a proposed maglev train line from Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

to Hangzhou

Hangzhou

Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...

, to be built by Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

's Transrapid

Transrapid

Transrapid is a German high-speed monorail train using magnetic levitation. Based on a patent from 1934, planning of the Transrapid system started in 1969. The test facility for the system in Emsland, Germany was completed in 1987...

consortium (mainly ThyssenKrupp

ThyssenKrupp

ThyssenKrupp AG is a German multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Duisburg Essen, Germany. The corporation consists of 670 companies worldwide. While ThyssenKrupp is one of the world's largest steel producers, the company also provides components and systems for the automotive...

and Siemens

Siemens AG

Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....

). Originally planned to be ready for Expo 2010

Expo 2010

Expo 2010, officially Expo 2010 Shanghai China was held on both banks of the Huangpu River in the city of Shanghai, China, from May 1 to October 31, 2010. It was a major World Expo in the tradition of international fairs and expositions, the first since 1992...

, the controversial project was repeatedly delayed, with final approval being granted on August 18, 2008. Construction was scheduled to start in late March 2009, with the target for completion having been 2014. According to China Daily as reported in People's Daily Online on February 27, 2009, the Shanghai government was considering building the maglev line underground to allay the public's fear of electromagnetic pollution, and a final decision would need to be approved by the National Development and Reform Commission

National Development and Reform Commission

The National Development and Reform Commission , formerly State Planning Commission and State Development Planning Commission, is a macroeconomic management agency under the Chinese State Council, which has broad administrative and planning control over the Chinese economy...

. In March 2009, the project was reported to be "suspended", although it had not been officially cancelled. The October 26, 2010 opening of the Shanghai–Hangzhou High-Speed Railway

Shanghai–Hangzhou High-Speed Railway

The Shanghai–Hangzhou High-Speed Railway , also known as the Huhang High-Speed Railway or Huhang Passenger Railway is a high-speed rail line in China between Shanghai and Hangzhou. The line is in length and designed for commercial train service at . It was built in 20 months and opened on October...

makes construction of this line unlikely.

Plan

The high speed line would run between the two Chinese cities of Shanghai and Hangzhou. The total length would be 169 km (105 mi), of which 64 km (40 mi) would be within the City of Shanghai and 105 km (65 mi) in the province of Zhejiang

Zhejiang

Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...

. Four stations would be built: at the Expo 2010

Expo 2010

site in east Shanghai; in south Shanghai; Jiaxing

Jiaxing

Jiaxing is a prefecture-level city in northern Zhejiang province of Eastern China. Lying on the Grand Canal of China, Jiaxing borders Hangzhou to the southwest, Huzhou to the west, Shanghai to the northeast, and the province of Jiangsu to the north....

; and east Hangzhou. The proposed design speed is 450 km/h, which would allow the train to travel the 169 km total distance in just 27 minutes. The total budget of the project was to be 35 billion RMB

Renminbi

The Renminbi is the official currency of the People's Republic of China . Renminbi is legal tender in mainland China, but not in Hong Kong or Macau. It is issued by the People's Bank of China, the monetary authority of the PRC...

(about US$5.0 billion as of April 2008).

If built, the line would become the first inter-city

Inter-city rail

Inter-city rail services are express passenger train services that cover longer distances than commuter or regional trains.There is no precise definition of inter-city rail. Its meaning may vary from country to country...

Maglev rail line in commercial service in the world and also the fastest inter-city train. The line would be an extension of the only Maglev line in China (and the only commercial service high-speed Maglev line in the world) so far, the Shanghai Maglev Train

Shanghai Maglev Train

The Shanghai Maglev Train or Shanghai Transrapid is a magnetic levitation train, or maglev line that operates in Shanghai, China. It is the first commercially operated high-speed magnetic levitation line in the world...

at Pudong International Airport.

Concerns

Media reports on 26 May 2007 said the Shanghai city government announced that the project had been suspended, citing "radiation concerns". The Shanghai government quickly denied those reports. An environmental assessment report released 2 January 2008, for citizens to comment on until 15 January, says the rail link would have minimal impact on the local environment.

In January and February 2008, hundreds of residents demonstrated in downtown Shanghai against the line being built close to their homes. The residents were reportedly concerned with potential health hazards, noise, and loss of property value. The Shanghai scheme has a buffer zone around the track that will be 22.5 m wide, which compares unfavourably with German standards that require houses to be 300 m away from the line. Representatives of the residents filed a formal request to demonstrate with the Shanghai Public Security Bureau, which was rejected.

In October 2010 the Shanghai–Hangzhou High-Speed Railway

Shanghai–Hangzhou High-Speed Railway

was opened that brought the travelling time between the two cities down to 45 minutes. Maglev link is to be shelved, an official has revealed.

External links

Shanghai°N Zhejiang°W

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