Transrapid

Levitation

The super-speed Transrapid maglev system has no wheels, no axles, no gear transmissions, no steel rails, and no overhead electrical pantographs. The maglev vehicles do not roll on wheels; rather, they hover above the track guideway, using the attractive magnetic force between two linear arrays of electromagnetic coils—one side of the coil on the vehicle, the other side in the track guideway, which function together as a magnetic dipole. During levitation and travelling operation, the Transrapid maglev vehicle floats on a frictionless magnetic cushion with no physical contact whatsoever with the track guideway. On-board vehicle electronic systems measure the dipole gap distance 100,000 times per second to guarantee the clearance between the coils attached to the underside of the guideway and the magnetic portion of the vehicle wrapped around the guideway edges. With this precise, constantly updated electronic control, the dipole gap remains nominally constant at 10 millimetres (0.39 in). When levitated, the maglev vehicle has about 15 centimetres (5.9 in) of clearance above the guideway surface.

The Transrapid maglev vehicle requires less power to hover than it needs to run its on-board air conditioning equipment.

In Transrapid vehicle versions TR08 and earlier, when travelling at speeds below 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph), the vehicle levitation system and all on-board vehicle electronics were supplied with power through physical connections to the track guideway. At vehicle speeds above 80 kilometres per hour (50 mph), all on-board power was supplied by recovered harmonic oscillation of the magnetic fields created from the track’s linear stator. (Since these oscillations are parasitic, they cannot be used for vehicle propulsion). A new energy transmission system, version TR09, has since been developed for Transrapid, in which maglev vehicles now require no physical contact with the track guideway for their on-board power needs, regardless of the maglev vehicle speed. This feature helps to reduce on-going maintenance and operational costs.

In case of power failure of the track’s propulsion system, the maglev vehicle can use on-board backup batteries to temporarily power the vehicle's levitation system.

Propulsion

The Transrapid maglev system uses a synchronous longstator linear motor for both propulsion and braking. It works like a rotating electric motor whose stator is "unrolled" along the underside of the guideway, so that instead of producing torque (rotation) it produces a linear force along its length. The electromagnets in the maglev vehicle that lift it also work as the equivalent of the excitation portion (rotor) of this linear electric motor. Since the magnetic travelling field works in only one direction, if there were to be several maglev trains on a given track section, they would all travel in the same direction thereby reducing the possibility of collision between moving trains.

Energy requirements

The normal energy consumption of the Transrapid is approximately 50 to 100 kilowatts (67 to 134 hp) per section for levitation and travel, and vehicle control. The drag coefficient of the Transrapid is about 0.26. The aerodynamic drag of the vehicle, which has a frontal cross section of 16 m² (172 sq ft), requires a power consumption, at 400 km/h (249 mph) or 111 m/s (364 ft/s) cruising speed, given by the following formula:

P = c w ⋅ A F r o n t ⋅ v 3 ⋅ ( density of surrounding air ) / 2

P = 0 . 26 ⋅ 16 m 2 ⋅ ( 111 m / s ) 3 ⋅ 1 . 24 k g / m 3 / 2 P = 3 . 53 ⋅ 10 6 k g ⋅ m 2 / s 3 = 3 . 53 ⋅ 10 6 N ⋅ m / s = 3 . 53 M W

Power consumption compares favourably with other high-speed rail systems. With an efficiency of 0.85, the power required is about 4.2 MW. Energy consumption for levitation and guidance purposes equates to approximately 1.7 kW/t. As the propulsion system is also capable of functioning in reverse, energy is transferred back into the electrical grid during braking. An exception to this is when an emergency stop is performed using the emergency landing skids beneath the vehicle, although this method of bringing the vehicle to a stop is intended only as a last resort should it be impossible or undesirable to keep the vehicle levitating on back-up power to a natural halt.

Market segment, ecological impact and historical parallels

Compared to classical railway lines, Transrapid allows higher speeds and gradients with lower wear and tear and even lower energy consumption and maintenance needs. The Transrapid track is more flexible, and therefore more easily adapted to specific geographical circumstances than a classical train system. Cargo is restricted to a maximum payload of 15 tonnes (14.8 long tons; 16.5 short tons) per car. Transrapids allows maximum speeds of 550 km/h (342 mph), placing it between conventional high speed trains (200–320 km/h or 124–199 mph) and air traffic (720–990 km/h or 447–615 mph). The magnetic field generator, an important part of the engine being a part of the track, limits the system capacity.

From a competition standpoint, the Transrapid is a proprietary solution. The track being a part of the engine, only the single-source Transrapid vehicles and infrastructure can be operated. There is no multisourcing foreseen concerning vehicles or the highly complicated crossings and switches. Unlike classical railways or other infrastructure networks,as jointly administrated by the Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Agency) in Germany, a Transrapid system does not allow any direct competition.

Ecological impact

The Transrapid is an electrically driven, clean, high-speed, high-capacity means of transport able to build up point-to-point passenger connections in geographically challenged surroundings. This has to be set in comparison with the impact on heritage and or landscape protection areas (compare Waldschlösschen Bridge). Any impact of emissions has to take into account the source of electrical energy. The reduced expense, noise and vibration of a people-only Transrapid system versus a cargo train track is not directly comparable. The reuse of existing tracks and the interfacing with existing networks is limited. The Transrapid indirectly competes for resources, space and tracks in urban and city surroundings with classical urban transport systems and high speed trains.

Track construction cost

The fully elevated Shanghai Maglev was built at a cost of US$1.33 billion over a length of 30.5 kilometres (19.0 mi) including trains and stations. Thus the cost per km for dual track was US$43.6 million, including trains and stations. This was the first commercial use of the technology. Since then conventional fast rail track has been mass-produced in China for between US$4.6 and US$30.8 million per kilometer, mostly in rural areas. (See High-speed rail in China).

In 2008 Transrapid Australia quoted the Victoria State Government A$34 million per kilometer for dual track. This assumed 50% of the track was at grade and 50% was elevated. In comparison, the 47 kilometres (29 mi) Regional Rail Link to be built in Victoria will cost A$5 billion, or A$105 million per kilometer, including two stations.

From the above it is not possible to say whether Transrapid or conventional fast rail track would be cheaper for a particular application.

The higher operating speed of the maglev system will result in more passengers being delivered over the same distance in a set time. The ability of the Transrapid system to handle tighter turns and steeper gradients could heavily influence a cost comparison for a particular project.

Train purchase cost

In 2008 Transrapid Australia quoted the Victoria State Government between A$16.5 million (commuter) and A$20 million (luxury) per trains section or carriage. Due to the 3.7 m (12 ft 2 in) width of the Transrapid carriages they have a floor area of about 92 square meters (990 square feet). This works out at between A$179,000 and A$217,000 per square meter.

In comparison, InterCityExpress which are also built by Siemens cost about A$6 million per carriage. Due to the 2.9 m (9 ft 6 in) width of the ICE carriages they have a floor area of about 72 square meters (775 square feet). This works out at about A$83,000 per square meter.

This shows Transrapid train sets are likely to cost over twice as much as ICE 3 conventional fast rail train sets at this time. However each Transrapid train set is more than twice as efficient due to their faster operating speed and acceleration according to UK Ultraspeed. In their case study only 44% as many Transrapid train sets are needed to deliver the same amount of passengers as conventional high-speed trains.

Operational cost

Transrapid claims their system has very low maintenance costs compared to conventional high speed rail systems due to the non-contact nature of their system.

Critics

Critical voices, such as Rod Eddington refer to recent developments of railway and other competing technologies and draw parallels between Transrapid and previous high technology hypes without broad market impact outside niche applications.

New compatible Kayrapid concept also for transportation of ISO containers and with optional quick drive in/out partly vacuum tunnel and alternative better or old rail compatible version

Trains can be driven also in far future directly with atomic power electricity and today with more durable always cheapest available energy sources like from own coal, gas and water for about a quarter price per kWh than with oil at given engine efficiencies and are more used if secure, fast, comfortable, quiet and cheap like new Kayrapid by Kay Uwe Böhm compatible with transrapid improved with better aerodynamic over using a spoiler like new ICE train etc. but automatic levelized about 1cm over concrete surface with easy exchange cheap plastic, flexible flaps closing the gaps between the units and sandpaper like surfaces like in modern airplane wing construction decreasing macro swifels with micro swifels. Additionally titanium alloy (Ti-15Mo-3Nb-3Al-.2Si 0.2% elastic limit 1400N/mm² and/or aluminium, glass-, carbon -fibre etc.) weight reduced units with automatic aerodynamic flap closing for standard (sea) ISO container 30.4t/unit (1 heavy or up to 4 * 7.5t) increasing the utilzation and main railway income from freight. The carrying weight can be increased compatible again with additionally permanent magnets inside concrete railway surface and automatic levelized magnetic skids for driving (partly) also super heavy load. Later the whole system can be extended with adapted pressure increased units using adapted airplane technology and a vacuum tunnel around out of concrete, glass or plexiglass etc. and quick drive through iris doors with a flexible near train touching rib ring section not letting much air inside that way for driving >1000km/h but with much reduced consumption and noise and all year snow. ice, falling trees etc. protection. The train can be driven also economic slowly with different speed time frames at day and in night for only freight with increased vacuum and to special long container train stations at a ring around huge cities. Addable again for driving greater than speed of noise are flexible from inside to outside forward directed rib rings reducing the sonic boom reflecting inside the tunnel reduced already by partly vacuum, tunnel and less engine noise. Vacuumization can be done over water steam air replacement and condensing and vacuum pumps for creating about 1/8 vacuum with passengers (depending also on outside temperature far below blood boiling point) or more vacuum with just freight. Addable are also fast 1 to 3 or 1 to 5 switch points using against each other movable lubrified steel segments with adaptable maximal side movement block srew and on sides round cutted away steel for not overstanding and with a flexible thin steel layer around. Train interior equipment and (catering) service about same like for airplanes with first, business and economy class including the (sleep) seating, entertainment and information system electronic telling about what to see outside, maps, speed, times, distances, driver view etc. Instead a crash box at train front keeping stones etc. under a pointed hard plough share like on old trains with a shock absorber behind breaking also through not opend iris doors and an automatic brake system watching if the railway is free and intact at day, night and fog situation also far before curves with also directly at railway preinstalled computer controlled watching system. Multiple automatic ventilization system, doors, oxygene masks and bottles and pick axes for quick pressure increase inside vacuum tunnel in emergency cases etc. The titanium (60% density of steel) weight reduction is about 1/3 and can be used also for a double storey unit versions rebuildable to a single storey version if a vacuum tunnel is added. The railway can be pillared also upon old railways and roads special for driving inside huge cities. Nonsense is building the Kayrapid only for coming to airports as a competitor for airplanes also without vacuum tunnel with less travel time for about 1000km distance because two times the long ways to and in airport and the check in time >=30min can be saved. Electric wiring can be done with thick aluminium instead with expensive rare copper inside the railway or upon with iron wires for high efficiency combined with about 85% linear motor system efficiency and brake energy recovery system. Recommended first railways between huge cities like Brisbane-Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne-Adelaide or Hyderabad-Bangalore-Delhi-Mumbai or Hongkong-Shanghai-Nanjing-Tianjin-Bejing(Peking)-(with short way also for containers through russia and to) Moscow-Berlin-Paris or Krung Thep(Bangkok)-Kuala Lumpur-Singapore or in combination with airplane stopp done normally EU to Istanbul-Bagdad-Kuwait-Quatar-Bahrain-Dubai-Abu Dhabi-Muscat to Asia or Riad-Mekka etc. of course also serving between stations. Addable are also railway building machines like existing for normal railways for cost and time reduction. financing can be done also international over stock market etc. also from system competitors and governements but international railways revenues are high and rising like for russian railways >1 trillion rubles/a or for india railways >US$19 billion/a. Development and building up can be done also over licensing in own country for staying independant also in long time future. Also another maglev base technology than already finished and high developed transrapid technology could be choosed but the future maglev railway not the train should be standardized first. Other suggested maglev systems but to be developed first are using more stainless steel in a time of steel overproduction in a rectangluar U shape direted with opening to the inner side between two rails with gliders inside the U attrackting magnetic controlled upwards, sidewards to boith sides always holding a gap distance and disattracting downwards in case of junctions the train glider ist just attracting to one side against disattrackting magnets that way without movable parts and switch time. Another likely possible solution is with compatibility to the old railway system just with for rail head surrounding of the gliders changed junctions and changed magnetism of the old rails for surrounding of the rail head and leg keeping a defined magnetic gap combined with linear engine over always changing horizontal magnetic polarization (made after heated up with strong magnetic fields not taking the rail out) of the rail head and a vertical polarization for disattrackting downwards of the glider but mainly atrtrackting upwards to the rail head and the legs from both head sides of both rails usable also for normal trains at wheel case against derailing and added linear engine.

China

The only commercial implementation so far was in the year 2000, when the Chinese government ordered a Transrapid track to be built connecting Shanghai to its Pudong International Airport. It was inaugurated in 2002 and regular daily trips started in March 2004. The travel speed is 431 km/h (268 mph), which the Maglev train maintains for 50 seconds as the short, 30.5 km (18.95 mi), track only allows the cruising speed to be maintained for a short time before deceleration must begin. The average number of riders per day (14 hours of operation) is about 7,500, while the maximum seating capacity per train is 440. A second class ticket price of about 50 RMB ( Renminbi) (about 6 Euro) is four times the price of the Airport Bus and ten times more expensive than a comparable Underground ticket.

The project was sponsored by the German Hermes loans with DM 200 million. The total cost is believed to be $1.33 billion.

A planned extension of the line to Shanghai Hongqiao Airport (35 km (22 mi)) and onward to the city of Hangzhou (175 km or 109 mi) has been repeatedly delayed. Originally planned to be ready for Expo 2010, final approval was granted on 18 August 2008, and construction was scheduled to start in 2010 for completion in 2014. However the plan is cancelled, possibly due to the building of the high speed Shanghai–Hangzhou Passenger Railway.

Germany

To date, the Emsland test facility remains the only existing Transrapid track in Germany. It has since been deactivated and is scheduled to be disassembled.

Iran

In 2007 Iran and a German company reached an agreement on using maglev trains to link the cities of Tehran and Mashhad. The agreement was signed at the Mashhad International Fair site between Iranian Ministry of Roads and Transportation and the German company. Maglev trains can reduce the travel time for traversing the 900 km (559 mi) between Tehran and Mashhad to about 2.5 hours. Munich-based Schlegel Consulting Engineers said they had signed the contract with the Iranian ministry of transport and the governor of Mashad. "We have been mandated to lead a German consortium in this project," a spokesman said. "We are in a preparatory phase." The next step will be to assemble a consortium, a process that is expected to take place "in the coming months," the spokesman said. The project could be worth between 10 billion and 12 billion euros, the Schlegel spokesman said. Siemens and ThyssenKrupp, the developers of a high-speed maglev train, called the Transrapid, both said they were unaware of the proposal. The Schlegel spokesman said Siemens and ThyssenKrupp were currently "not involved" in the consortium.

Switzerland

SwissRapide AG in co-operation with the SwissRapide Consortium is developing and promoting an above-ground magnetic levitation (Maglev) monorail system, based on the Transrapid technology. The first projects planned are the lines Bern – Zurich, Lausanne – Geneva as well as Zurich – Winterthur.

Colorado I-70

Transrapid is one of a number of companies seeking to build a 120 mi (190 km) high speed transit system parallel to the I-70 Interstate in the US state of Colorado. Submissions put forward say that maglev offers significantly better performance than rail given the harsh climate and terrain. No technology has been preferred as of November 2013 with construction mooted to begin in 2020.

Los Angeles to Las Vegas

The California–Nevada Interstate Maglev project is a proposed 269 mi (433 km) line from Las Vegas, Nevada to Anaheim, California. One segment would run from Las Vegas to Primm, Nevada, with proposed service to the Las Vegas area's forthcoming Ivanpah Valley Airport. The top speed would be 310 mph (500 km/h). In August 2014 the backers of the scheme were seeking to revive interest in it.

Other USA

There have been several other evaluations conducted in the USA including Washington DC to Baltimore, Chattanooga to Atlanta and Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. So far no actual project has been started.See List of maglev train proposals:United States

Tenerife

A two line, 120-kilometers (75-mile) long system has been proposed for the island of Tenerife, which is visited by 5 million tourists per year. It would connect the island capital Santa Cruz in the north with Costa Adeje in the south and Los Realejos in the northwest with a maximum speed of 270 kph (169 mph). The estimated cost is €3 billion. Transrapid has advantages over a conventional rail plans which would require 35% of its route in tunnels because of the steep terrain on the island.

High-speed competition

The Transrapid originated as one of several competing concepts for new land-based high-speed public transportation developed in Germany. In this competition, the Transrapid primarily competed with the InterCityExpress (ICE), a high-speed rail system based on "traditional" railway technology. The ICE “won” in that it was adopted nationwide in Germany, however Transrapid development continued. A number of studies for possible Transrapid lines were conducted after the ICE had entered service, including a long-distance line from Hamburg to Berlin.

Munich link

The most recent German Transrapid line project, and the one that came closest to being built, having previously been approved, was an airport connection track from Munich Central Station to Munich Airport, a 40-kilometre (25 mi) project. The connection between the train station and airport was close to being built, but was cancelled on 27 March 2008, by the German government due to a massive overrun in costs. Prior to the cancellation, the governing party, the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU), faced internal and local resistance, in particular from communities along the proposed route. The CSU had planned to position Transrapid as an example of future technology and innovation in Bavaria. German federal transport minister Wolfgang Tiefensee announced the decision after a crisis meeting in Berlin at which industry representatives reportedly revealed that costs had risen from €1.85 billion to well over €3 billion ($4.7 billion). This rise in projected costs, however was mostly due to the cost estimates of the construction of the tunnel and related civil engineering after the designated operator Deutsche Bahn AG shifted most of the risk-sharing towards its subcontractors - and not due to the cost of the maglev technology.

United Kingdom

The Transrapid was rejected in 2007 by the UK government for a maglev link between London and Glasgow, via Birmingham, Liverpool/Manchester, Leeds, Teesside, Newcastle and Edinburgh.

September 2006 accident

On 22 September 2006, a Transrapid train collided with a maintenance vehicle at 170 km/h (106 mph) on the test track in Lathen. The maintenance vehicle destroyed the first section of the train, then lifted off the track to complete two full rotations before landing in a pile of pre-exploded debris. This was the first major accident involving a Transrapid train. The news media reported 23 fatalities and that several people were severely injured, these being the first fatalities on any maglev. The accident was caused by human error with the first train being allowed to leave the station before the maintenance vehicle had moved off the track. This situation could be avoided in a production environment by installing an automatic collision avoidance system.

SMT fire accident

On 11 August 2006, a Transrapid train running on Shanghai Maglev Line caught fire. The fire was quickly put out by Shanghai's firemen. It was reported that the vehicle's on-board batteries may have caused the fire.

Alleged theft of Transrapid technology

In April 2006, new announcements by Chinese officials planning to cut maglev rail costs by a third stirred some strong comments by various German officials and more diplomatic statements of concern from Transrapid officials. Deutsche Welle reported that the China Daily had quoted the State Council encouraging engineers to "learn and absorb foreign advanced technologies while making further innovations."

The China Aviation Industry Corporation said in its defence that the new Zhui Feng maglev train is not based or dependent on foreign technology. It claims it is not only a much lighter train, but also has a much more advanced design.