BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Berlin’s governing mayor Kai Wegner sees magnetic levitation trains as an option for better connections to the outskirts of the city. “The construction of a magnetic levitation train is an issue for the outskirts,” said the CDU politician to the “Berliner Zeitung” on Saturday. “You could wonderfully connect the southern part of Spandau to Spandau train station with a magnetic levitation train.” Further examples are Krampnitz or Lichtenberg in the direction of Brandenburg.
A working group set up by the Senate is currently discussing whether, how and where magnetic levitation trains could be built in Berlin. Wegner had already promoted the option in 2020. Now he said: “We also have to think about other forms of mobility in Berlin. There are several companies in Germany that offer this technology and are already selling magnetic levitation trains to China, for example.” They are quiet and climate-friendly and can be built faster than subways.
A magnetic levitation train runs on a kind of rail, but is kept suspended by an electromagnetic field and can therefore travel very quickly. The best-known model in Germany is the Transrapid, which should be used, for example, to connect Munich Airport to the city. The project was stopped after lengthy planning due to expected high construction costs./vsr/DP/he