A GERMAN consortium has unveiled plans for a £2.6 billion extension to the world’s fastest train line as a forerunner to building a similar system from London to Scotland.

Transrapid, a joint venture between Siemens and ThyssenKrupp, plans to extend Shanghai’s 19-mile magnetic levitation line to Hangzhou, a provincial capital 125 miles away with a population of six million. The existing line, from Pudong Airport to the outskirts of Shanghai’s new financial district, operates at 270mph. It is more than twice as fast as Britain’s fastest domestic train and 80mph faster than France’s TGV or Japan’s bullet trains.

Transrapid hopes the opening of the extension in 2010, in time for the World Expo in Shanghai, will persuade the British Government to commission a £30 billion “maglev” from London to Glasgow.

Gordon Brown travelled on the Shanghai maglev in February and Transrapid’s UK team has briefed Tony Blair.

In a letter to Jack Cunningham, the former Labour MP for Copeland who is being made a peer, Mr Blair wrote: “We are ready to look at the potential of maglev alongside more conventional high-speed rail technologies in the work being taken forward.”

But the Department for Transport wanted proof that a maglev could successfully link distant cities before adopting the technology. Shanghai’s line has failed to meet projections for passenger numbers because the line stops several miles short of the city centre. There were also reports that the concrete pillars supporting the line were sinking into soft soil.

Günther Weckerlein, Transrapid’s chief representative, admitted that the Chinese state-owned company operating the line had been forced to make minor height adjustments.

Transrapid was holding talks with several American states about building intercity lines including Los Angeles to Las Vegas and Baltimore to Washington.

In Germany the Government has spent £700 million subsidising Transrapid’s development of maglev technology.

TRACK RECORD

Maglevs need fewer tunnels than conventional trains since they can climb gradients of 10 per cent

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