Germany is auctioning off a maglev train that officials once hoped would speed up transport at home and become a major export success.
The Transrapid train is on show Tuesday and Wednesday to would-be buyers at a former test track in northwestern Germany, near the Dutch border. Bidding closes on Oct. 25.
The government hasn't set a minimum bid price for the train, a prototype built in 2007 for an abandoned high-speed maglev link project that would have linked Munich with its airport.
A Transrapid line went into operation between Shanghai and its airport, but various proposals for links in Germany flopped.
In 2006, 23 people were killed when a maglev train crashed with a maintenance vehicle on the German test track. The track hasn't been used since 2011.
Sad news for maglev fans.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 13 2016, @08:05AM
Unfortunately for homo sapiens hipsterius, a packed, unmoving cities would be tempting targets for terrorists (not just Jihadis either) and there would be hundreds of miles of opportunities for attack locations.
If the cities hadn't been invented, it would be as a counter to that threat.