Berlin - Siemens and ThyssenKrupp are to dissolve their
partnership in the Transrapid International company making the
high-speed magnetic levitation train, the two companies announced
Thursday.
The decision came after the city of Munich decided in March this
year to abandon plans for a 37-kilometre line linking the city centre
with the airport.
Despite the dissolution of the company, 'the core competencies of
the Transrapid technology' would remain in the possession of Siemens
and ThyssenKrupp, they said.
The companies said they remained dedicated to promoting the system
and were continuing talks with possible customers in China and the
United States.
In announcing their decision after a board meeting in Erlangen in
the southern state of Bavaria, electrical engineering concern Siemens
and steelmaker ThyssenKrupp said Transrapid's main office in Berlin
would close on October 1.
Employees seconded to Transrapid would return to the parent
companies, they said.
The only Transrapid in commercial service operates in China along
a 30-kilometre route between downtown Shanghai and the city's
airport.
There is also a test track at Lathen in the Emsland region of
northern Germany, where 23 people were killed in a September 2006
accident.
Magnetic-levitation systems use powerful magnets to glide the
trains along a monorail without friction at speeds of up to 500
kilometres per hour.
Although the technology was first patented in the 1930s and
serious attempts to realize its potential began four decades ago, the
maglev train idea has to date failed to find a significant market.
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