Transrapid rail link to Munich Airport

Transrapid is a proposed high-speed rail link between Munich central station (Hauptbahnhof) and Munich Airport. This magnetic levitation "flying train" will travel the 37km journey in just 10 minutes reaching a top speed of 500 km/h (310 mph). The first trains were scheduled to run in 2009 with a frequency of every 10 minutes. This will make getting to the airport an absolute dream. It's not certain, however, that the project will actually go ahead. The estimated cost of the Transrapid link is a massive €1.6 billion. Of course many people think the money could be better spent elsewhere.

Transrapid is a German company which was formed out of a collaboration between Siemens and ThyssenKrupp. The German government is now very keen to build a Transrapid link on German soil as a symbol of German's technology prowess. So far only one Transrapid link has been commissioned - and that is in China. The Transrapid Shanghai links the Shanghai city center with the airport. It is a route of 30 km and was opened by German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, amongst others, at the end of 2002.

There were plans to build a Transrapid in Nordrhein-Westfalen. This was the so called "Metrorapid Project" and would have been an 80 km connection between Dortmund, Essen, and Düsseldorf. The project was abandonded however in 2003 because it was deemed too expensive. So now the German government wants to build a transrapid in Munich instead. This would also fit in with Munich's image of being a high-tech center.

Many Bavarian politicians, and indeed a large section of the public, believe that €1.6 Billion for a Maglev train is pure waste of money. There is the argument that a new and improved express S-Bahn which would run non-stop Hauptbahnhof to the airport would be considerably cheaper and the travel time not much slower (20 minutes).

If it does go ahead then the planning stage should be finished by the end of 2004. The route will then be prepared and by mid-2006 the building will begin. The first train should run by the end of 2009.

Update: As of March 2006 The Transrapid project is still stalled in planning. A start building date still has not been reached, and thus a 2009 operation date is nolonger an option.

More info:

• Transrapid - official website

I don't understand why you would need to build a new line anyway. Why don't they use the existing S1 line and have an express train that starts at Ostbahnhof and stops only at Hauptbahnhof, Laim and Neufahrn.

That would be almost as quick, and cost a lot less.

I still say forget the Transrapid and build the much more important S-Bahn Ring Schluss thru Erding, and the new RE lines thru Erding to the airport.

that would be the long way round. Even quicker would be the S8 route from Hauptbahnhof via Ostbahnhof to Flughafen using the S8 route. It could also start at Laim but I wouldn't bother stopping anywhere else except Hauptbahnhof and Ostbahnhof.

All they need to do is to add a Frottmaning-Airport SBahn that doesn't stop in between. They should then connect Frottmaning with Unterföhring and Unterschließheim. That would solve a lot of problems with the airport route and the stadium.

I like eurovol's idea...though I'm sure they're not open for reasonable suggestions

see, such a simple express train, although it makes a great deal of economic sense, would not allow Siemens to build a demo (test? guinee pig?) line of their new high-speed system. Without a demo line, Siemens could not work-out the bugs, or have a nice running sales demo. But with a demo line, they might actually sell some trains to other cities and generate (keep?) some jobs here in Bavaria... so building the line is an investment... and all investments have risks...

Just build a Monorail. Springfield AND North Haverbrook were convinced

@Chicago
They have add a demo line up and running in Emsland (Near Bremen) since at least 2000.. The Transrapid
also has another working testbed in Shanghai. That system has been plagued with so many problems that it's
out of service more than it is in. The cost to use it is also much more expensive, thus the locals use other
forms of travel and the company that runs the transrapid is loosing lots of money..

Things the world doesn’t need (unless your Homer Simpson and get to drive it ;-)

Change the Existing schedule off the S1 and S8 to 10 minute "takt"

For the S1 my idea was always alternate the route as follows

-the normal schedule (which @ least for the S1 ridiculous stopping @ every station and the splitting the train)
-and a SBhan going from Hauptbahnhof stopping @ Feldmoching and travels directly to the Airport.

But as already mentioned that wouldn’t mean lot’s of kick backs for lots of Politicians and local companies…

Simple. There's a VERY big lobby that wants the line built as a "reference project" so they can export the product, and of course, the backhanders and juicy contracts, the same as the 2nd S-Bahn tunnel.

It won't offer the same connections, it won't be that much quicker, the fares will be expensive and it will be dear to build.

But welcome to Stoiber's world.

whats so special about Feldmoching? (your stop? ). Anyone know how long it would take for a non-stop train from HBF compared to the current 40mins? Is the track built for higher speed trains?

Hardly, coz there's a U-Bahn going from HBH to FM already.

Now the S8 is double tracked the frequency could be incrased to every 10 minutes.

There's also line from Erding to the Airport in the planning stage.

I'm certainly in favour of extending the U2 to Feldkirchen for that, I hadn#' thought about an U6 extendione, cheers whoever mentioned that.

There was some discussion about this here:

Third runway for Munich Airport, Won't somebody think of the cows?

The Magnetbahn is basically a giant penis extension for Bavarian politicians - as the quote above demonstrates, they actually consider themselves to be in competition with cities like Frankfurt and London.

Although the S8 idea is excellent, it would have to be funded from the public purse. A Magnetbahn, however, would be built privately. The private company that then runs the line will be able to charge what they want - the Heathrow Express is the world's most expensive stretch of railway mile-for-mile. And so the only people using the Magnetbahn would be some rich businessmen, while us mere mortals are left sitting on the uncomfortable S-Bahns for 40 minutes. But remember, at least it won't cost the taxpayer anything!*

*Apart from the millions given to any private company working on a "public" service.

@BR Sussed! yes it's my stop but it also happens to be the connection to the UBahn (U2)

And I think it would be quicker by virtue off not stopiing @ every station.

@byrdbrain

What about those people that live too the north of HBF?

Feldmoching is "special" as its a U2 interchange giving more direct access to anyone who lives say north of Hohenzollernplatz. It's the interchanges that are important.

Even some DB trains stop at Feldmoching on their way to Landshut and beyond. The S1 line, however, is full to bursting even with the 20-Minuten takt, because it shares the track with 3 DB trains an hour in each direction, plus goods trains. There won't be any extra trains running on that line without extra tracks.

MonksTown - Feldmoching is just special :-)

I'm sure it would be quicker (esp without that faffing about splitting trains) but I was just wondering how much - 5 mins? 10. Is the track built for higher speed?

@BR: Apparantly an S8 travelling non-stop from Ostbahnhof to the airport would take 20 minutes (instead of 40). The train wouldn't necessarily travel at a higher speed.

Maybe someone can correct me here but if we take 2 min's as the average stopping / starting time for an SBahn multiply this by the number of stops 9 from HBF to the Airport then add the "faffing" time splitting the trains I reckon you could cut the jopurney time in half or?

all the more reason to have a local.. what are they calling it? ... a "reference project"? ... oh, that's right, "boondoggle"!

see, with it being closer to Siemens, they can get the repair people there quicker. and they can develop local knowledge on how to build the tracks - which will allow the local construction firms to bid on all future projects. same goes for the perifery engineering firms, maybe even a few software firms. oh and of course the local lobbyists.

I think I'm in the wrong line of business...

So then any money made will also go to the private sector and not the government coffers. Trains are available, the tracks are laid. So where's the big expense? Plus it would probably be a route that would generate money, rather than lose money. Make the express route 1 Euro more than the regular route to recoup any expenses. Additionally, reduced times would also encourage more people onto the trains rather than taxis, Lufthansa busses, etc. increasing revenue even more.

that would do me, although I'd like it to start at Marienplatz!

People like me? Hell, it doesn't matter if I go west to Feldmoching or east to Johanneskirchen. But as long as a U-Bahn connects two stops, they won't build an S-Bahn. Basta. What Munich did wrong and continues doing wrong: The public transport is based on a star-shape without connecting rings. One or two of them would improve the service big-style - like the Südring which was deliberated with intent to refuse.

thats what the buses do isn't it (provide 'connecting rings')?

Not at the weekends they don't. Anyway if there's any new S-Bahn lines to be built it should be the one connecting Petershausen and Freising, via Allershausen of course! Oh, and can they have it finished before the beer garden season starts?

If you have time to take a bus, sure. I should have narrowed my complaint down to U- or S-Bahn lines being star-shaped.

except they don't really do a good job of this. Especially the buses in the east. god awfull connections to the S-Bahn if you live near Arabellapark.

there was talk of converting the goods line that runs from Unterföhring parallel to the Frankfurter Ring into a norther ring line but that was scrapped because of the cost of investment in new stations.

oh I'm a west end boy. Wouldn't catch me venturing east of the river. Metrobuses seem to do an ok job over this side, or maybe I'm lucky with connections. Plus I take the car sometimes

anyone know anything further on the s2/ regional train connection between erding and the airport? i've heard that the staat and erding council are at loggerheads over whether the train should run from erding bahnhof (erding council argument), or whether they should build a new station on the north side of erding to connect to an extension of the regional network (staat argument).

as we live less than 5 minutes walk from the current bahnhof i'm right behind our local council but think that an extra 'erding nord' commuter station would make sense as there is no further room for car parking at the bahnhof.

Thanks for metioning the northern ring OG. They COULD actually be using that to provide a combined tram/light rail combined thingy on a kind of Moosach-Frankfurter Ring - Ismaning access.

@grazzenger
Last I heard they decided to keep the old station, and make the sbahn run upto the new station, then on to the Airport & Freising via a new line
also shared with the new RE route coming from Walpertskirchen and Dorfen..

But like everythingelse in germany, don't hold your breath.. The planned start building time is something like 2010..

That is a very good question. I live north, in Unterschleissheim. I would get 0 benefit from this new transrapid because I would have to take the SBahn into town and then hop onto the Transrapid. No time savings there. Plus, the TR would run along the same path as the A92 which would lower the value of real estate near there. From where my house is now, I can sometimes hear the Autobahn, but only when the wind is blowing in the right direction. It is unlikely that I will hear the TR either but othe people who live closer to it will lose.

The bottom line is that it is money wasted on something we don't need. Why are German politicians so stupid??

I'm no expert on maglev bit wouldn't something levitating along be considerably quieter than an autobahn full of cars? The problem with regard to property prices would I guess be more of an issue if it didn't follow the A92

kitkat

Eaxctly this reason (having to go back into the city to catch the transrapid) is why I think the alternating model for the S1 would be cheapest and most effective solution.

and btw

"...Why are German politicians so stupid??"

Not stupid just corrupt and greedy

There have been sound tests/studies compairing just that.. Look on the Munich TR site or search google to find to info..

the word German there is fairly superfluous really!

@Darkknight. Sounds good but as you say, no holding our collective breath. Would make buying property in Erding a possible good investment as I'm sure the prices would jump if this were to go ahead.

From Deutsche Welle

Are they getting desperate? ThyssenKrupp estimates that the train will cost 1.8 billion euro.

Well seeing as the Transrapind in China Caught fire and burned a months or so ago and has been outta service since, I say let TK move to China.
China will need TK in country to continue the constant maint. and repairs that their TR requires, or even building new TR's to replace the ones that catch
fire and burn

On a 2nd note, why is it only china that has a TR and wants the tech? No other country wants TR trains due to their Building costs and reoccuring maint
fees. China want the tech, so they can fix there own trains and perhaps build more TR lines in china cheaper than what the Germans charged.

1.8 billion euro!!! Is that just for the train or does that include the tracks too?? If it doesn't include the tracks you might as well double that
price and add a little more for the late constructions and delays that will occur... The entire Express S-bahn Project, The 2nd Stammstrecke
tunnel, and the Erding ext. and a few more much needed projects can all be done for that price. So you can either have 1 big project (Political Penis ext)
or 4-6 other projects.. I choose the 4-6 projects that will benefit the people better..

Indeed. I linked to a recent BBC article about this issue in a different thread, but I guess it would have been more suitable here. They're basically saying that the UK isn't considering Maglev technology because it's just far too expensive.

Should UK trains look to magnets?

I still don't understand why they can't run the S8 more often. If they ran it every 5 or 10 minutes, there'd be no problem. Plus I'd have the best Sbahn line EVER. They should also run it all night so I don't get stuck in the city and require a 25 Euros taxi ride home.

Totally agree. I don't understand why the airport line only runs every 20 minutes even during rush hour.

I take the S8 everyday and it is packed beyond capacity all the time.

initially it was because the S8 line to the airport was single track for a quite a long section but they have now made the whole line double track and improved the station at Unterföhring. Now i believe the reason is objections from people living near the line about noise disruption. The S8 line is also used for freight trains.

The problem is that there is little spare capacity along the Hauptbahnhof to Ostbahnhof stretch. You would have to have the S8s starting at Ostbhf, which isn't particularly convenient for most travellers going to the airport.

Together with the S1, there is currently a train leaving the airport for Munich every 10 minutes. The problem isn't the frequency, it's the journey time.

Exactly. During the World Cup they ran some express trains. They took 22 minutes from Hauptbahnhof to the Airport, stopping only once (I forget where). Who the hell would be so stupid to spent 1.8 billion on something that would get you there only 10 minutes quicker? Who really cares?

If they ran the express, and then ran the trains every 10 minutes this would be perfectly fine. Maybe they need to upgrade the tracks or build some new ones, but its not going to cost 1.8 billion ffs.

The magnetbahn would be a great showpiece. Without it jobs/technology will move to China.I believe there is a similar system in Japan using the German system and Germany/Europe should stay at the forefront of this technology.