Transrapid abandons Sydney-Canberra

[David Bromage <dbromage@omni.com.au>]

Page 1 of Wednesday's Canberra Times says that Transrapid has deemed the
Sydney - Canberra line not to be economically viable. An unnamed
Transrapid source (Phil Sellars?) took the journalist to lunch to advise
this, and to say they Transrapid would be pushing for Federal, New South
Wales and Victorian government funding to build a Sydney - Wollongong -
Melbourne line via the coast.


My comments:

By Transrapid's own estimates, a coastal line would cost $28.5 billion
excluding trains. The inland TGV line would cost $12 billion in total,
less the $3.7 billion for the current Sydney - Canberra project.

I can't see how the market could support a service more than twice the
cost of Speedrail without significant performance improvements. There is
very little speed advantage between capitals (2h 45m coastal maglev vs 3h
inland TGV, an 8.3% time saving for 237% of the cost), and no comfort
factors considering Transrapid's sardine-like accomodation.

Cheers
David