The Emsland Transrapid Test Facility () is a defunct testing site for

Transrapid Transrapid () is a German-developed high-speed monorail train using magnetic levitation. Planning for the system started in the late 1960s, with a test facility in Emsland, Germany, inaugurated in 1983. In 1991, technical readiness for ...

maglev Maglev (derived from '' magnetic levitation'') is a system of rail transport whose rolling stock is levitated by electromagnets rather than rolled on wheels, eliminating rolling resistance. Compared to conventional railways, maglev trains h ...

trains in

Emsland Landkreis Emsland () is a districts of Germany, district in Lower Saxony, Germany named after the river Ems (river), Ems. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Leer (district), Leer, Cloppenburg (district), Cloppenbur ...

in the west of

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Construction and use

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

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 2024, none of the concrete structures have 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 levitation (physics), suspended with no support other than magnetic fields. Lorentz force, Magnetic force is used to counteract the effects of the gravitation ...

. In April 2024, updated drone footage revealed that although the electrical components of the Transrapid test track had been removed, the full 31.5 km of concrete infrastructure remained intact.Video zeigt aktuellen Drohnenflug über Transrapid-Versuchsanlage im Emsland
Notebookcheck. 2024-04-02. Retrieved 2025-05-13. In the same year, a local association reopened the former visitor center, offering exhibitions and access to preserved Transrapid vehicles.SE 316 – Lathen Transrapid Besucherzentrum
Schöne Ecken Podcast. 2024-09-26. Retrieved 2025-05-13.

Potential reprieve

In 2021, IABG, 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. ...

about re-opening the site for use in testing CRRC's new maglev vehicles. At the same time, several universities from Lower Saxony confirmed they would consider reactivating the track to further develop the

Hyperloop Hyperloop is a proposed high-speed transportation system for both passengers and freight. The concept was published by entrepreneur Elon Musk in a 2013 white paper, where the hyperloop was described as a transportation system using capsules supp ...

technology.

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