Back on track - Beijing to build world's slowest maglev train

Beijing began building the world's slowest maglev line in its westernmost district on Monday, using technology developed by the military.

The project's chief scientist, Professor Chang Wensen from the National University of Defence Technology, said the 10-kilometre S1 line would move passengers around the capital's Mentougou district when completed in 2013.

It will crawl along at 60km/h, compared to the 500km/h top speed of the demonstration maglev line built in Shanghai by the German firm Siemens.

But Chang said the competition between Chinese and German technology would be a tortoise-and-hare race and 'we will win'.

For Chang and the project's biggest investor, the municipal government-owned Beijing Enterprises Group, the demonstration line is just a stepping stone. They do not see the maglev technology being limited to Mentougou, Beijing's poorest district, and have designs on richer and more populous inner-city areas.

'If the technology works, which I am sure it does, city planners will introduce it downtown and make it part of public transport because maglev is quiet, pollution-free, safe and simply breathtaking,' he said.

Maglev trains seem to have fallen out of favour with government leaders, who decided against backing the construction of a maglev line between Shanghai and Hangzhou and have splashed out on high-speed rail lines across the mainland. Unlike their predecessors, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao seem to prefer trains with wheels. That might change with next year's impending leadership reshuffle. Hu's heir apparent, Vice-President Xi Jinping, took a test ride at Chang's experimental facilities in Tangshan in July and gave the technology the thumbs up, Xinhua reported.