A leading railway technology researcher on Friday said most Chinese experts do not favor the use of magnetic levitation technology, or maglev, for a planned high-speed link between Beijing and Shanghai.
"Most of the experts consider it is rational to stick to conventional railway technology [for the Beijing-Shanghai line]," Wang Derong (
A maglev line would be too expensive and too hard to integrate with conventional lines, said Wang, a retired railway engineer who has researched technology for the proposed Beijing-Shanghai line for the past 10 years.
PHOTO: AP
A conventional line would cost only about half as much as a maglev one, he said.
Wang's comments follow a China Daily report saying China has abandoned plans to build a high-speed magnetic-levitation railway between Beijing and Shanghai.
The reports say that China has decided to build less expensive conventional trains instead.
A maglev system can cost up to 300 to 400 million yuan (US$36 to US$48 million) per km, twice that of wheel-track lines, the paper said.
The paper, citing unidentified sources, said Premier Wen Jiabao (
The Railways Ministry had no immediate public comment on the matter. At least one newspaper, the Beijing Morning Post, said the decision to abandon the maglev plan had not been finalized.
The scrapping of the nine-year-old maglev notion -- two weeks after the country's first maglev, a short stretch in Shanghai, began regular operation -- represents a setback for the development of maglev technology in China, which many had seen as one of maglev's key markets.
It also appears to open the market for alternatives on the proposed Beijing-Shanghai line.
Other options for the railway, according to state media, include styling it after the Shinkansen, Japan's high-speed bullet train, or two methods used in France -- TGV and Inter-City Express. The Shanghai maglev is German-built.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Friday he still believes there are chances for the German Transrapid consortium in China, despite the reports that China will not use the group's maglev technology for the Beijing-Shanghai line.
In comments aired on German, Schroeder said he believed "that the train which functions well ... will have its chances" in China.
China began daily runs of the world's first commercially operated maglev in Shanghai on Jan. 1, but the US$1.2 billion German-built system spans only 30 km. It connects Shanghai to its 3-year-old airport, the city's second.
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in artificial-intelligence (AI) chips, yesterday said that small-volume production of 3-nanometer (nm) chips for a key customer is on track to start by the end of this year, dismissing speculation about delays in producing advanced chips. As Alchip is transitioning from 7-nanometer and 5-nanometer process technology to 3 nanometers, investors and shareholders have been closely monitoring whether the company is navigating through such transition smoothly. “We are proceeding well in [building] this generation [of chips]. It appears to me that no revision will be required. We have achieved success in designing
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for
PROJECTION: KGI Financial said that based on its foreign exchange exposure, a NT$0.1 increase in the New Taiwan dollar would negatively impact it by about NT$1.7 billion KGI Financial Holding Co (凱基金控) yesterday said its life insurance arm has increased hedging and adopted other moves to curb the impact of the local currency’s appreciation on its profitability. “It is difficult to accurately depict the hedging costs, which might vary from 7 percent to 40 percent in a single day,” KGI Life Insurance Co (凱基人壽) told an investors’ conference in Taipei. KGI Life, which underpinned 66 percent of the group’s total net income last year, has elevated hedging to 55 to 60 percent, while using a basket of currencies to manage currency volatility, the insurer said. As different
RSS