Proposed Transrapid link to Munich Airport

Everyone's talking about it, so are you for or against it?

Proponents argue that it's needed to provide a high-speed link between the city centre and the airport, that it will help Munich to develop further and help sell this German technology to foreign countries.

Opponents argue that it's dinosaur technology that no-one else wants, costs far too much at €1.85 billion, and that an Express S-Bahn could be built for half the amount and still take only 20 minutes between Munich and the airport.

So, yea or nay?

Related topic: Demonstration against planned Transrapid

you didn't leave much of a middle ground. Where is the option for I know it's a waste of money but it would look damn cool?

Yeah STB where's your sense of democracy!?! ;-)

That's what the discussion threads for, this one is the one where you stand up and be counted, no wishy washy, yeh or nay!

Come on people! Vote yes! A no vote is the back door to a speed limit on the autobahn, banning patio heaters and closing biergardens because they make noise. Don't let these people destroy the very values that make the west the best.

How would the Transrapid help Munich "grow" in any way?

well it puts more people in the centre of the town faster and therefore we will have a pile of tourists in the centre of town. Because of the transrapid brings them their really really fast and this pile will grow until it gets so big you can barely walk from marienplatz to the trains station! actually what will the difference be?

i can think far better projects that would make Munich grow for much less money. This is just a ridiculous waste of tax-payers money and just goes to show how unaccountable the decision makers are in this country.

we already have two s-bahn lines running in ten minute tack that will get you to the airport in 40 mins. what else do you want? For that kind of money everyone in munich could take a taxi (funded by the city) for the next, what, twenty years? Pile 'o shit in my opinion, build a few extra kindergartens instead.

The S8 only runs on 20 min. takt.

That could definitely be changed, every time I'm on it, it's packed.

S1 as well, and on Sundays some run Freising only.

well, 31 million passengers a year. €55 for a single taxi ride is € 1.7 (us) billion per year (assuming everyone gets their own taxi), so basically ones year's worth of taxis could be funded

...and how long would it take to send an RE train up there? 20-25 minutes? That would decrease the # of tourists on the S1 and S8 dramatically. How are those ICE's doing, anyways?

To be fair, I think most people are in agreement that the current situation is miserably embarrassing; 40 minutes to travel 40km on a rock-hard seat with no toilets or luggage racks is pretty pathetic. The remarkable aspect is that this was actually planned – the airport is only 15 years old.

The choice, however, is between the Transrapid, which would solve the problem for some people – namely those for whom Hbf is a convenient destination and are prepared to pay €20-30 for the journey – and an Express S-Bahn, which would be used by all airport commuters plus many regular commuters, and cost half the amount.

I assume we can't have both? the state paying for transrapid and the city paying for the express S-bahn? I can dream, can't I?

The Transrapid is unviable as it is; ANY improvement to the current S-Bahn situation would kill it off completely.

There are luggage racks, people just don't use them. Try getting a seat going to town on a Monday morning - cases in the aisles, cases between the seats, and if you ask the person politely to remove them they roll their eyes and pull a face.
Are there luggage racks in the Transrapid?

EDIT: Looks like it but the lights seem to be integrated in them. You also have to stand in the middle of the group of four seats to heft your cases onto them.

I would like this thing to be built now. Munich airport is growing so fast that it will need the Transrapid + S1 + regular S8 + express S8 in a couple of years. Plus, S1 and S8 are heavily overcrowded during rush-hours anyway (ever tried to squeeze onto a packed outbound S8 during morning rush?). It would be very nice to relieve these lines from at least a part of the airport passengers and their baggage. Thousands of commuters living/working north of Munich would be the happiest people ever.

what happened to the poll?

I very slightly edited my original post, which apparently is sufficient to reset all the votes to zero. Sorry about that.

For the record, we were on about 35 against and five in favour, with one confused person.

Is that the guy who likes to use the Lufthansa Bus from Nordfriedhof?

I only want it if there is still a stop near Johaniskirchen/Englischalking/Daglfing. Then I will be home faster that the current 20min Sbahn, 5 min walk and 10-20 min wait for the bus for a 5min bus ride!
Or extend the Streetcare from Effnerpl... yes, I know another thread.

...and doesn't allow you to re-submit your vote, either. That's what really sucks.

Doubtfull. ExpreS-bahn would probably only be Unterföhring and or Ismaning.

i doubt that vey much. Englschalking is planned as a future interchange (if it will ever happen, its been planned for many years now but still doesn't have a green light) for the U4 and S8. Any express is bound to stop there if that happens.

Totally right, and that's what will possibly kill the Express S-Bahn. Ismaning and Unterföhring with their fancy tunnel stations and their important commercial parks will want the Express service to stop at every price. Englschalking will be a stop, too. So what's the point of an Express S-Bahn if only three stops are skipped (that would be Daglfing, Johanneskirchen and Hallbergmoos)? Leuchtenbergring will be a stop as the Express is bound to use the still-to-build second S-Bahn tunnel which will make Leuchtenbergring a major interchange point.
So, where will the S8 Express save time? Skip three stops, fine, that's three minutes. Speed up service between Leuchtenbergring and Unterföhring by better trackwork, maybe another three minutes. You can't speed service up between Unterföhring and Flughafen anymore as trains operate at their highest speed here already. So a total savings of about 6 minutes plus maybe four more minutes by using the second tunnel from Marienplatz?

The just replaced all the tracks on the S8line from Ismaning to Daglfing about 2 years ago. Was a mess too!

Two weeks ago I had to wait two hours for a train from Garmisch to Munich. So what help is the transrapid for those from the suburbs who cant reach Munich in a serious time.

If the transrapid should be a tourist attraction, than there should be a killer looping included.

The project is just nonsens, like the franz-josef-strauss channel, which costed billions and is used by a handfull of ships a day only.

I doubt that any fast train will stop at BOTH Ismaning and Unterföhring. Besides, it would skip more than 3 stations as it would probably go from Hauptbahnhof to Ostbahnhof directly, so that misses Marienplatz, Isrator and Rosenheimerplatz. Then it would skip Leuchtenbergring, Daglfing, Johanneskirchen and probably one of either Ismaning and Unterföhring and then skip Halbergmoos and possibly also Besucherpark. So that is between 7 and 10 stops missed out.

OG I'm pretty sure the commercial interests in Unterföhring will push for the train to stop there as opposed to Engelschalking. Same goes for Ismaning. Although Ufg has more clout with Allianz and Swiss Re BR etc etc.