Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev unlikely to go ahead after all
Zhejiang province is not to blame for delays to the long-overdue Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev line, and there is only a 'low possibility' it will go ahead in any case, a senior provincial government planning official told the media.
Liu Ting, deputy director of Zhejiang's Provincial Development and Reform Commission and director of its Provincial Development Planning and Research Institute, told China News Service he doubted the 35 billion yuan (HK$41 billion) project would go ahead, due to the findings of a feasibility study.
The comments, the first by a named official, add weight to suggestions that the project has been shelved, almost six years after it was approved by the State Council.
However, Liu told the news agency that the power to give the go-ahead lay with the central government, not Zhejiang's.
Liu said his committee had completed an initial feasibility study into the project, but 'according to the current circumstances, the likelihood of work starting on the Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev project is not high'.
He denied this was due to conflict with a high-speed rail link that went into operation between the two cities in October and completes the route just seven minutes slower than the proposed maglev. Liu said there would be no conflict in having the maglev and conventional high-speed rail lines running side by side.
The high-speed link was announced in late 2008, but was fast-tracked along with other high-speed rail links as part of the national economic stimulus package. Work began in February 2009 and the line was completed exactly 20 months later, with the quickest direct trains completing the journey in 45 minutes.
By contrast, the 175 kilometre maglev link was approved by the State Council in April 2006, but has been repeatedly delayed.
Media reports in March last year suggesting that work was about to commence sparked a public outcry, with widespread criticism of government largesse and questioning of whether the massive investment made sense in light of the negligible time saving.
A Ministry of Railways official told the South China Morning Post at the time that the reports were due to a misinterpretation and that the government had no immediate plans to go ahead with the maglev. However, that official refused to be named.
The 30 kilometre maglev line linking Pudong International Airport with the suburbs of Shanghai was the first commercially operated high-speed maglev when it opened in January 2004. Trains travel at up to 431km/h and can complete the trip in under eight minutes. The original plan for the Hangzhou maglev was to include an extension to the Pudong airport train, connecting both links with the new transport hub at Hongqiao, Shanghai's second airport.
However, the project was delayed after noisy protests in 2008 by residents along the proposed route who said it posed a health hazard.
