China may eschew foreign technology for a proposed high-speed rail line between Shanghai and Hangzhou to slash costs by a third, a Shanghai rail official said on Tuesday in the latest blow for Germany's Transrapid.
Song Xiaojun, the general manager of Shanghai Maglev Transportation Development Co. Ltd. — Transrapid's partner in the city — told reporters the government was considering Chinese technology to keep costs to 200 million yuan ($24.2 million) per kilometer, or about 34 billion yuan ($4.1 billion) for the estimated 170-kilometer (105-mile) link.
A spokesman for Transrapid declined to comment.
Song's comments came as German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder visited Beijing to drum up business for German firms. Schroeder was also on hand in late 2002 alongside then-Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji to test-ride a trial magnetic levitation (maglev) track in Shanghai.
Song's statement was the latest blow for Transrapid, following a report by China's official Xinhua news agency in late November that French rival Alstom had been awarded a deal for a 1,300-kilometer rail line connecting Beijing to Shanghai.
That deal, reported to be worth $12.25 billion, was later denied by Alstom, which is competing with Transrapid and a Japanese firm for the contract.
Transrapid — grouping Siemens AG, ThyssenKrupp and the German government — and Shanghai Maglev now operate a 30-km link between Shanghai's international airport and financial district — cutting an hour-long journey by car to an eight-minute hop.
Asked if the same maglev technology would be used for a link to Hangzhou, Song said: "It would be quite different. For the Shanghai one, it was wholly imported. For this one, much would be localized. That's in line with policy."
"The Zhejiang government hopes to finish the construction of the line by the year 2010," before the World Exposition kicks off that same year in Shanghai, Song said.
Song's comments came just days after ThyssenKrupp announced that Beijing was set to grant approval for the Shanghai-Hangzhou line. Speculation had raged last year that Transrapid would win a coveted deal to build a maglev link between Shanghai and Beijing.
But other industry officials at a railway conference in the capital said the central government had dropped the idea of using magnetic levitation trains — which float on a magnetic cushion and can hit speeds of up to 430 kilometer per hour (270 miles per hour) — for a link between Beijing and Shanghai because of its prohibitive cost.
Instead, double wheel-rail lines allowing speeds of up to 200 kph would be built, said Wang Mengshu, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
Song declined to predict when the government was likely to approve the Shanghai-Hangzhou project.
"If the project is approved next year, it can be completed before 2010. Otherwise, it would be hard to meet the time," Song told a railway conference in Beijing. A feasibility study of the project had been completed, he said.
Shanghai city was expected to transport some two million people a day during Expo 2010, he said.
The first line, which officially opened in April after a series of delays, has been criticized for expensive fares, infrequent service and the inconvenient location of the downtown station.