from the train's-future-is-"up-in-the-air" dept.
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: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @06:57PM
Maglev passengers should be prepared to die. When Musky says it, it becomes true.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday October 12 2016, @07:04PM
I'd like mine air dropped across all lanes of the 405.
I'll take aerial pictures of the resultant mess and title them "that's what happens when you don't support public transport, fuckers! :)"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @07:12PM
I want a "futile" mod.
For anyone outside USA, the 405 is a major highway in Los Angeles that is usually clogged.
(Score: 3, Touché) by bob_super on Wednesday October 12 2016, @07:19PM
We'd need too many extra mod points, since just about everything we say in our tiny corner of the web is futile.
Yes, the 405 is that free parking lot with multiple entrances and exits which is almost as iconic of LA as the airport and the Hollywood sign.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @07:22PM
Free? Obviously you've never tried to tailgate with some beers at 5 :P
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Wednesday October 12 2016, @07:26PM
On the contrary, this is frabjous news! Maglev is entering the private sector. Throw off the shackles of government and levitate on your own terms!
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @07:33PM
Unfortunately for train fans, a packed, speedy train would be a tempting target for terrorists (not just Jihadis either) and there would be hundreds of miles of opportunities for attack locations.
If the automobile hadn't been invented, it would be as a counter to that threat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 12 2016, @07:39PM
...and I believe that it takes very little to cause a major wreck when the maglev car is at speed(??) No need to blow anything up, maybe just a cable with a rock on the end, tossed across the maglev guideway?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by pe1rxq on Wednesday October 12 2016, @09:31PM
If the automobile hadn't been invented the middle east might not have become the terrorist incubator it is now....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 13 2016, @02:42AM
Before there were car bombs, terror rained from the skies [nocookie.net] in the Middle East.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday October 12 2016, @10:06PM
There are hundreds of miles at the end of runways where planes are an easy target for bad guys using the overly powerful weapons they can buy for free in the US, but neither the weapons nor the planes have been banned or abandoned as high-profile terror objects..
(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.
(Score: 3, Informative) by richtopia on Wednesday October 12 2016, @11:38PM
If you are ever in Shanghai, ride the maglev from the airport or at least check out the museum. The museum is small but pretty cool. It goes into discussion on how the Germans really made the technology happen.
(Score: 1) by marknmel on Thursday October 13 2016, @05:01PM
I have been on the Shanghai mag-lev. It's pretty awesome. I rode during non-peak time of day , where the speed topped at ~300 Km/h. Apparently during busy times / rush hour it does about 450Km/h. It is pretty silent aside from wind noises passing over the cabin.
Does anybody know why the speed restriction is in place?
There is nothing that can't be solved with one more layer of indirection.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday October 12 2016, @11:41PM
It is sad that almost every advance in transport increases risk and opportunity.
More people in a high speed tube (plane, levitating train, train in vacuum tunnel...)
We need autonomous single occupant vehicles, able to move up, down, sideways..
We could call them "coffins"
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex