Do Maglev Trains Have A Future?

"Shanghai spent $1.25 billion building the world's fastest train, running from the city to Pudong International Airport. Cindy Huang would rather catch a bus.

The fare - 50 yuan, or $6.60 - is too high for most residents of Shanghai, said Huang, a human resources officer. And the magnetic-levitation, or maglev, line terminates in Pudong's suburbs, 12 kilometers, or 7.5 miles, from downtown, meaning most travelers must get other transportation to reach their final destinations.

"It's much more expensive and time consuming to take it," said Huang, who has made 11 trips on the 431 kilometer-per-hour train, mostly escorting visitors to the city, a financial hub of China. "It's not my choice, if I travel on my own."

The Shanghai authorities have put on hold plans to spend $5.3 billion to extend the 30-kilometer line - the world's only commercial maglev train.

The project has been plagued by low passengers numbers - fewer than a quarter of what were expected - protests by residents concerned about radiation and construction costs twice as high as those for other high speed trains. Cancellation could force Siemens and ThyssenKrupp, the developers, to scrap the 73-year-old technology and write off at least $2 billion in costs, said Gerd Aberle, a professor of transportation economics at Giessen University in Germany.

"It's the last chance to convince the rest of the world that the maglev is an interesting system," he said. "If it's not realized in China, that may be the end.""