The Guangdong authorities recently revealed that they will reserve space to build two maglev railroads to connect Beijing, Hong Kong, Macau and Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Some railroad experts strongly question the capacity and cost effectiveness of maglev trains, describing the plan as a pipe dream, but some scholars believe that traditional and even super high-speed railways are in line with China’s national conditions.
The Department of Natural Resources of Guangdong Province recently published a planning document, revealing that six important transportation corridors will be reserved, including two high-speed train railroads, the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao high-speed maglev and the Shanghai-Shenzhen-Guangzhou high-speed maglev, in addition to several high-speed railroads.
However, Zhao Jian, a professor at the School of Economics and Management of Beijing Jiaotong University, is not optimistic that the construction of a long-distance maglev railroad in Guangdong is neither mature nor realistic from an engineering or economic perspective, especially since maglev trains are not compatible with other railroad tracks and affect passenger flow.
At present, high-speed railway stations in Beijing and Shanghai and the city’s rail transit can be connected together, the maglev does not have this connection.” Pictured, a safety officer on the platform next to a Maglev train in Shanghai.
Zhao Jian: “First of all, its cost is much higher than the current high-speed rail. After it is repaired there is no capacity, because its speed is around five or six hundred kilometers, the intermediate stops are very few, it is impossible to form a network system, no capacity, the loss will be very serious, more serious than high-speed rail. At present, Beijing and Shanghai high-speed rail station and the city’s rail transit can be connected together, maglev is not this connection.”
The cost is 11 times higher than high-speed rail, but the passenger volume is greatly reduced.
The Guangdong authorities’ plan does not mention the cost of the Maglev train railroad. For reference, Japan’s “Chuo Shinkansen,” a high-speed magnetic levitation railroad linking Tokyo and Nagoya to be opened in 2027, is designed for a maximum speed of 500 kilometers per hour and is expected to cost nearly 1.2 billion yuan per kilometer. At present, the cost per kilometer of China’s high-speed rail is generally not more than 200 million yuan.
Until the third quarter of last year, the total debt of the national railway group has reached 5.57 trillion. Zhao Jian believes that if we now engage in magnetic levitation train railroad, it is a nightmare in the sky.
Zhao Jian: “There must be resistance. Who pays for it? Such a long main line. Who will do it? The national railway group? There’s no way the National Railroad Group can do something like this now. It’s already burdened with debt. Can the local area afford to do it? There is no possibility at all.”
China currently has two magnetic levitation trains, the Shanghai Maglev Line, built with German technology, and the Changsha Maglev Express Line, which was developed in China at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour. Visitors wait to board the world’s first passenger maglev train at a station in Shanghai on Dec. 31, 2002.
The proposed Maglev railroad in Guangdong province has been compared to Japan’s “Central Shinkansen”. Zhao Jian said that the traditional high speed railway “Tokaido Shinkansen” connecting Tokyo and Osaka has been saturated with passengers for a long Time, but Guangdong’s preliminary planning of the magnetic levitation route already has a high speed railway, magnetic levitation trains will only be more difficult to make money than the high speed railway.
Zhao Jian: “East Japan Railway Company earns too much money. If you don’t use it, the state will take it back. The Tokaido Shinkansen is basically saturated, so it has to build a backup. The density of our Beijing-Shanghai line has not yet reached the level of the Tokaido Shinkansen, and there is still a lot of capacity, and there is no need (to build maglev).”
Xu Zhen, research director of Hong Kong’s Chi Ming Institute, said Guangdong Province, with an economy large enough to rank among the world’s top 10 economies, even surpassing South Korea, and among the top in China in the high-tech sector, is in a better position than other Chinese provinces and cities to conduct in-depth discussions on the construction of a long-distance maglev railroad.
Can magnetic levitation trains replace airplanes?
Xu Zhen also believes that the magnetic levitation train railroad is generally in line with China’s national conditions.
Xu Zhen: “Whether it is magnetic levitation or high-speed rail, the power is electricity. And China is the world’s most powerful investment in electricity technology. For example, wind power in the South China Sea and solar power in Xinjiang. From this perspective, China is vigorously developing high-speed rail, and then in the future, when the technology is mature, the high-speed rail upgrade into magnetic levitation. The general direction should be all like this.”
Xu Zhen, research director of Hong Kong’s Chi Ming Institute, believes that magnetic levitation train railroad is in line with China’s national conditions.
He said that if the technology is mature, theoretically maglev trains are enough to replace civil aviation services.
Xu Zhen: “If maglev takes shape, it can basically replace civil aviation. At a time when China is emphasizing internal circulation, whether it’s conventional high-speed rail or maglev high-speed rail, it’s basically in line with China’s and international and energy policies, and even environmental policies.”
Xu Zhen said that with reference to China’s past experience in developing conventional high-speed rail, there are a number of issues to be resolved in terms of project planning and scale control, which could potentially lead to financial risks.
Xu Zhen: “High-speed rail from the beginning is concentrated in the southeast coast, to later, many prefecture-level cities and even county-level cities may have high-speed rail, but in fact, more and more talent, information, logistics, money is flowing into this kind of super city, that so the traditional high-speed rail network will be a problem, instead of maglev is basically a link between the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, or at best, between Beijing and Shanghai, the future Will there be such a situation that the traditional high-speed rail will become the so-called second-class high-speed rail, and several economic cores will use super high-speed rail magnetic levitation. This can still be explored. “
At present, there are two magnetic levitation trains in China, namely the “Shanghai Maglev Line” built with German technology, and the “Changsha Maglev Express” developed by China at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour. Two months ago, the world’s first high-temperature superconducting high-speed magnetic levitation train was unveiled in Chengdu, Sichuan, said to be developed by China, the maximum speed of more than 600 kilometers per hour, twice as fast as the current high-speed rail.
Recent Comments