The Emsland Transrapid Test Facility (german: Transrapid-Versuchsanlage Emsland, TVE) is a defunct testing site for Transrapid

maglev Maglev (derived from '' magnetic levitation''), is a system of train transportation that uses two sets of electromagnets: one set to repel and push the train up off the track, and another set to move the elevated train ahead, taking advantage ...

trains in

Emsland Landkreis Emsland () is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany named after the river Ems. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Leer, Cloppenburg and Osnabrück, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (district of Steinf ...

, Germany.

Construction and use

Construction of the facility began in 1980 and was completed in 1984. The single track line runs between Dörpen and

Lathen Lathen is a municipality in the Emsland district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the location of the Emsland Transrapid Test facility, a testing site for Transrapid maglev trains. See also *2006 Lathen maglev train accident On 22 September ...

. Turning loops are at each end. The track is elevated for almost its entire length to allow continued farming and grazing of the land occupied. Until 2006, trains often carried paying passengers, possibly to "show off" the maglev. They regularly ran at up to 420 km/h. All runs, including those with passengers, were fully monitored, with the last car in the three car trains filled with monitoring computers and engineers.

Accident

In 2006, 23 people were killed in the Lathen maglev train accident on the track, involving a Transrapid passenger train and a maintenance vehicle. The accident was discovered to have been caused by human failure in implementing safety and checking protocols. After the accident, Bärbel Wempe, a 56-year-old emergency services worker, who was one of the first on the scene, observed that "the Transrapid has become a symbol of destruction and no longer one of optimistic times."

Closure

At the end of 2011, the operation license expired and the test track was closed. In early 2012, the demolition and reconversion of all the Emsland site, including the tracks and factory, was approved. Demolition work began around 2016, largely focused on stripping out the electrical equipment. As of 2021, none of the concrete structures had been demolished. Transrapid 09, the last test train, was bought in 2016 by H. Kemper GmbH & Co. KG, a sausage factory, and is now in use as a meeting and memorial space on the factory site in Nortrup. One of the members of the Kemper family, Hermann Kemper, invented the technic of

magnetic levitation Magnetic levitation (maglev) or magnetic suspension is a method by which an object is suspended with no support other than magnetic fields. Magnetic force is used to counteract the effects of the gravitational force and any other forces. The ...

Potential reprieve

In 2021,

IABG IABG (Industrieanlagen-Betriebsgesellschaft mbH) is a German analysis and test engineering company based in Taufkirchen near Munich. History The company was founded in 1961 on the initiative of the federal government as a central analysis and ...

, which is responsible for the former test track, confirmed that it had been approached by

CRRC CRRC Corporation Limited (known as CRRC) is a Chinese state-owned and publicly traded rolling stock manufacturer. It is the world's largest rolling stock manufacturer in terms of revenue, eclipsing its major competitors of Alstom and Siemens. I ...

about re-opening the site for use in testing CRRC's new maglev vehicles.

References

External links

{{coord, 52, 52, 18, N, 7, 20, 58, E, display=title, region:DE-NI_type:landmark_source:dewiki Monorails in Germany Railway test tracks Emsland 1984 establishments in West Germany