Although Japan & Germany has developed & tested Maglev trains on their test- tracks since decades, but China took the lead in putting German technology into commercial operation using their technology. This maglev called Transrapid runs between Shanghai Pudong international airport and the city covering 30kms distance in about 8 minutes @430kmph top speed.
Other countries does not have either financial justification of the huge costs (as very high traffic density is required to generate respectable revenues), or they could not muster enough courage to take risk what China has done.
In...
more... addition to Japan, another probable country which could finance the Indian Maglev project could be China and that too if it is convinced that High speed Maglev train could find enough passengers in India.
European countries are themselves struggling to put maglev trains into operation in their country, they funding Indian Maglev is a remote possibility.
In USA concept of HSTs is more opposed than supported by majority of Public and Govt. authorities.
Only source left for funding is India! and it should be done after upgradation of existing rail network after investing at-least Rs. 10-20 lac crores!! I have tried to give complete picture of Evolvement of Maglev train in world through following salient points.
(1) 1913- Emile Bachelet of New York USA demonstrated a prototype magnetic levitation of rail car
(2) 1979-Hamberg Germany, 908m long maglev track constructed and showcased on the event of first international transport exhibition when the maglev carried about 50000 passengers, at speed of 75kmph (Transrapid 5).
(3) 1984-1995 First commercial run of Maglev was started in UK between Birmingham's International Railway Station and Airport on 625m track at 42kmph which was stopped since 1995 due to high maintenance costs.
(4) 1984-06 31Kms single line test track constructed in Germany by Transrapid. , a German maglev company. Passengers were given paid rides (Transrapid-6 Max speed-400kmph, Transrapid-7 max speed 500 kmph)) till an accident occurred in 2006. Track dismantled in 2012
(5) 1989-91 Second commercial venture of Maglev trains called (agnet)-Bahn was in Berlin, Germany with 1.6 km long maglev track with 3 stations were operated at speed of 80kmph. Today it is defunct.
(6) 1.1.2004 Third commercial Maglev venture and first with high operational speed of 431kmph (500kmph max speed) began with 30.5 km line with 2 stations Pudong international airport and the Shanghai city in China.
(7) 6.3.2005-Fourth Maglev commercial venture, Linimo started commercial operation with top speed of 100kmph between Fujigaoka and Yakusa (Nagoya city, Japan) with 9 stops on 9 km stretch.
The only high speed maglev venture is 30 km Chinese Maglev project which costed 1.2 bi$ (i.e. >8,000 crore Rs) for construction in 2001-4 i.e.. Keeping in view the inflation, the project cost of high speed maglev in India for construction period, 2016-21 could be about 25000-30,000 crores. i.e. around 1000 crore/km!!
Although history is not very encouraging, the Maglev train is able to keep the enthusiasm alive due to possibility of very high commercial speeds >430 kmph, which is not possible today with wheel & rail HSTrains.
