The German-designed Transrapid magnetic levitation train will be the first of its kind in Europe and trim the current 40 minute journey from Munich to the airport down to 10 minutes. But concerns remain over the project's 1.85 billion euro ($2.6 billion) price tag.

Money to build the Transrapid will come from the European Union, Germany's federal government, the Bavarian government, the Munich airport, Germany's state-owned Deutsche Bahn (DB) rail company and German companies. The major participants reached a deal on the financing late Monday, Sept. 24.

The Transrapid will hover on a track above the ground and will travel at speeds up to 450 kilometers (280 miles) per hour. The 37-kilometer (23-mile) route is scheduled to be completed by 2014.

Technology made in Germany

Stoiber's "parting gift"

The project is seen by critics as a "parting gift" for Bavarian Premier Edmund Stoiber, who heads the conservative Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU). After 14 years in power, Stoiber will step down next month.

Stoiber denied that the Transrapid was being done as a personal favor, saying Tuesday that the project was the "guiding light for high technology made in Germany."

German engineering giants Siemens and ThyssenKrupp developed the project. So far, the technology has not been broadly adopted due to safety concerns. In September 2006, 23 people died and 11 were injured when a Transrapid crashed into a maintenance vehicle during a test run near the western German city of Osnabrück.

Currently only China has an operational Transrapid track. It runs between Shanghai and the city's airport.

Government warns of cost overruns

The only operational Transrapid is in Shanghai

As part of the deal, the German government will pay no more than 925 million euros for the magnetic levitation train and has stipulated it will not be responsible for cost overruns. Germany's Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück voiced his continuing opposition to the project Tuesday, saying that it will be much more expensive than originally planned.

"The project will be considerably more expensive," the Social Democrat was quoted saying in the Tuesday edition of the Stuttgarter Nachrichten newspaper. "The costs will definitely not stay at 1.85 billion euros."

In his former position of premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, Steinbrück quashed a proposal to build a similar project.

The city of Munich is also unhappy about the Tranrapid. Munich's socialist mayor, Christian Ude, said he will fight in court against the plan.

Accident last year killed 23 people

"Naturally, the regional capital of Munich will initiate legal measures against the plan's official approval," Ude was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

While this week's financial agreement was an important step, CDU expert Steffen Kampeter said it doesn't mean the project will get a green light in the end.

The recent agreement brought the project "nearer to being financially viable," Kampeter told the DPA news agency Tuesday in Berlin.

"The devil is in the details," he said.

Stoiber said he was confident the project would go forward despite ongoing opposition.

"Nobody will reverse this step," he said Tuesday.

See also:

Germany moves toward building high-speed maglev line from Munich to airport

The Associated Press: September 25, 2007

MUNICH, Germany -- Munich is to get a high-speed magnetic-levitation rail link to its airport, Bavaria's outgoing governor said Tuesday, but city officials pledged to fight the project and Germany's transport minister expressed caution.

Bavarian Governor Edmund Stoiber said the expensive project — currently slated to cost €1.85 billion (US$2.6 billion) — would be "a beacon for high technology 'made in Germany.'"

Germany has sought to promote the so-called Transrapid for export, and a line has gone into operation from Shanghai, China to the city's airport. However, plans to operate the trains in Germany have stalled for years, with cost a major concern.

Construction of the roughly 40-kilometer (25-mile) stretch from Munich's main station to its airport could start in summer 2008, Stoiber said.

Once completed, perhaps as early as 2012, the line would cut the journey to about 10 minutes, compared with the current 40 minutes by commuter train.

Maglev trains float just above the track on a magnetic field, cutting resistance and enabling extremely high speeds.

The German federal government is to shoulder half the cost, providing some €925 million (US$1.3 billion).

Stoiber said the state government, railway operator Deutsche Bahn and the companies involved agreed Monday to increase their contributions and cover a €165 million (US$233 million) financing gap. He proclaimed that "the way is clear for the start of construction."

He said he was confident that the costs would not exceed the planned €1.85 billion (US$2.6 billion) — a major concern among skeptics.

However, Federal Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee said the agreement was not a "definitive solution" and building would only start if the project could be kept within budget.

Munich Mayor Christian Ude, who favors a cheaper express railway link, said he would take legal action to prevent permission being granted to build the maglev link.

The agreement comes days before Stoiber is due to leave office after 14 years as Bavarian governor. However, he insisted that "the Transrapid is a German project and certainly not a going-away present for me."

The German maglev trains are built by Transrapid International, a consortium including ThyssenKrupp and Munich-based Siemens.

Germany has a well-developed network of conventional high-speed trains. The only Transrapid line in Germany so far is an experimental stretch in the rural northwest.

In September 2006, that line was the scene of a crash between a Transrapid train and a maintenance vehicle, in which 23 people were killed. Investigations pointed to human error as the likely cause.

See also:

Munich Airport Transrapid Link Wins Funding Agreement

Bloomberg: Sept. 25
By Brian Parkin

Germany may become the first country in Europe to build a commercial Transrapid rail link, after the southern state of Bavaria forged agreement on a high- speed line connecting downtown Munich with the city airport.

Edmund Stoiber, Bavaria's prime minister who retires next month, persuaded a group of investors to bridge a gap in funding between the state and Deutsche Bahn AG, Germany's state-owned railway, paving the way for the delayed project to proceed, Bavaria's state government said in a press statement today.

"We've finally achieved a breakthrough to build the Transrapid,'' Stoiber told a news briefing in Munich broadcast live on national television. The project is a "beacon for technology made in Germany.'' Building can begin in summer 2008, he said.

The deal brings to an end squabbling over cost-sharing between the Berlin-based federal government, the states and industry that has dogged the history of the German-developed Transrapid. The system is a collaboration between Siemens AG, ThyssenKrupp AG and Deutsche Bahn.

Transrapid trains run on an elevated concrete track at speeds in excess of 400 kilometers per hour (250 miles per hour) using a magnetic-levitation system patented in 1934 and developed 30 years ago. The technology is in commercial use in only one city worldwide: Shanghai's Transrapid system has linked Pudong International Airport and the Lujiazui financial district since 2002.

Project Costs

Construction of the 37-kilometer (23 mile) rail link in Bavaria may cost about 2.2 billion euros ($3.1 billion), according to Bavaria's state economy minister, Erwin Huber. Federal Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee has pledged 925 million euros, leaving the gap to be funded by the city, Deutsche Bahn and investors.

Bavarian authorities face extra costs for post-Sept. 11 security and more extensive safety measures following a crash at the Transrapid test site in northwestern Germany last year in which 23 people were killed, Germany's worst rail accident this decade. That raised questions about the train's safety. The rail-hugging Transrapid is less susceptible to derailment than ordinary rolling-stock, experts have said.

The project will boost Munich airport, "one of the most important motors for growth in the region,'' Stoiber said. Huber told reporters the announcement was "the news of the decade.''

Opposition Friction

Opposition parties to Stoiber's Christian Social Union criticized the accord as expensive and outdated.

Actual building costs may be higher than Huber's estimate because it was made four years ago, pre-dating the accident in Lathen in northwestern Germany last September, according to Thomas Beyer, a Social Democrat lawmaker in the state's Munich- based parliament.

"Frankly, we need faster affordable links between the city and airport, not a new Oktoberfest attraction,'' Beyer, the Social Democrats' deputy chairman in parliament, said in an interview, citing surveys showing a majority of Munich citizens are against using taxpayers' money to pay for the project. The cost of a one-way trip on the Transrapid will be some 15 euros, he said.

"This is Stoiber's retirement gift to Munich -- a terrific tax burden to remember him by,'' Beyer said. SPD-run Munich city will try to block the project in court, Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported, citing mayor Christian Ude.

Stoiber rejected that allegation, telling the news conference that the Transrapid project was "definitely not a going-away present.''

Stoiber, who turns 66 in three days' time, has ruled Bavaria as prime minister since 1993, promoting business- friendly policies credited by analysts as helping the state -- home to companies including Siemens AG and Audi AG -- to contribute about a fifth Germany's gross domestic product in 2006. Stoiber will retire from the chairmanship of his party on Sept. 29 and as state premier on Oct. 10.