Iran considering maglev train link for pilgrims

May 29, 2007, 15:23 GMT

Munich - Iran is considering building a magnetic levitation train line to transport pilgrims from Tehran to one of the country's main religious sites, a German engineering firm said Tuesday.

The company, Regierungsbaumeister Schlegel, said it had been asked to conduct a feasibility study for the 850-kilometre monorail link between the Iranian capital and the north-eastern city of Mashhad.

'If it is realized it will be the longest maglev track ever and a breakthrough for the technology,' said the company's managing director, Harald Spaeth.

Spaeth confirmed a report in Tuesday's Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily, which said Iran wanted the service, known as the Transrapid in Germany, to carry 12 to 15 million pilgrims a year.

Mashhad is Iran's second biggest city and its main tourist attraction. The shrine of Imam Reza, one of the most important figures in the Shiite Muslim religion, is located there.

Buses require two days to complete the journey, but the Transrapid, which is capable of speeds of up to 450 kilometres per hour, could cut travelling time to two hours.

The Iranian government is prepared to finance the project with 1.5 billion dollars in start-up capital, according to Spaeth, but was looking for private investors to act as co-financers.

Germany's Central Council of Jews protested against the plan, saying it would send the 'wrong political signal.'

The council's president, Charlotte Knobloch, said the idea of doing business with Tehran was 'scandalous' in view of the country's nuclear ambitions and the denial of the Holocaust by its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Transrapid, developed by German engineering firms Siemens and ThyssenKrupp, is powered by a frictionless electromagnetic system that allows the futuristic train to hover on a magnetic cushion.

The project was instigated during a visit to Tehran by former Bavarian economics minister, Otto Wiesheu, in May 2004, according to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung report.

Wiesheu, who is now a member of the management board at the German national railway company, Deutsche Bahn, said he hoped political issues would not derail the venture.

'The transportation of pilgrims in Iran is certainly not a project that is covered by political boycott measures,' he said.

China is the only country which has a Transrapid service in operation - linking Shanghai to the international airport in neighbouring Hangzhou.

There is a Transrapid test track in northern Germany where 23 people died when the train smashed into a maintenance vehicle during a trial run last September.