A high-speed driverless magnetic levitation train ploughed into a maintenance truck in northern Germany on Friday, in an accident that casts a shadow over the future of the cutting-edge technology.
At least 23 people were killed in the crash and another 10 sustained serious injuries. Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor, rushed to the scene of the accident close to Germany’s north-western border with The Netherlands. ”I want to show that I am with them,” she said.
Most of the 29 passengers on board the Transrapid train were friends and relatives of railway employees. Two Transrapid employees who were on the track were also among the dead. In all 15 bodies had been recovered, with others thought to be trapped in the wreckage of carriages left dangling in midair.
The train, which floats on a monorail via a magnetic levitation system called Maglev, was going at 200kph when it hit a stationary maintenance vehicle in north Germany, officials said. Several carriages plunged off the train’s elevated metal track.
Survivors on Friday night told officials of the train’s final moments. The Transrapid had accelerated rapidly after setting off at 10am from the German town of Lathen. Most of the group gathered at the front of the driverless train to look through its panoramic front window. They then saw the maintenance vehicle on the track.
With no driver to alert, the passengers could only watch as the train slammed into the works vehicle. Eyewitnesses say the train shunted the vehicle about 500 to 700 metres. The Transrapid burst into flame in two places and its front compartment was destroyed, witnesses said.
Kevin Coates, a former spokesperson for Transrapid, said it was the first time he had been aware of a magnetic levitation crash. He said he believed the accident was due to a communications breakdown — in other words, human error.
Rescuers retrieved one body immediately. But at least 18 people trapped in the wreckage were feared dead. The dead included two Transrapid employees working on the elevated track, a local councillor, Hermann Broering, said.
Firefighters retrieved the wounded using giant ladders, as two cranes attempted to lift the shattered carriages. The rescue effort was made more precarious because the carriages were suspended four metres off the ground.
The accident is the first involving the Transrapid system and calls into question the long-term viability and safety of magnetic trains. They had been hailed by some as an ecologically friendly alternative to conventional diesel-powered train travel.
The only commercial example of a Transrapid system is the high-speed shuttle to China’s Shanghai airport from the city centre.
Rudolf Schwarz, head of operations at IABG, the Munich-based company that operates the Transrapid, said human error was to blame. ”This accident would not have been possible if all regulations were adhered to,” he added.
The President, Horst Köhler, said he was ”shocked and upset”.
On Friday a spokesperson for Siemens, which helped to develop the Transrapid in a joint venture with ThyssenKrupp, said it was too early to say whether the experimental project would now be scrapped.
Over seven years nearly half a million passengers have paid â,¬18 to try out the train. It was due to be in service until the end of October.
Explainer: Concept with a long way to go
Derived from the term magnetic levitation, the Maglev was conceived by Professor Eric Laithwaite, a specialist in electrical engineering at Imperial College.
A brochure advertising Maglev in Britain describes derailment as impossible, because a magnetic current holds the train above a guide rail, which the train wraps around.
Germany’s Transrapid International, a joint venture between Siemens and ThyssenKrupp, used Laithwaite’s blueprint to make the train a reality. As a commercial project it is still in its infancy and a 30km service in Shanghai is the only commercial Transrapid service in the world. The line, which opened in 2004, attracts adulatory reviews from transport enthusiasts. – Guardian Unlimited Â