Plans for a magnetic levitation railway between Beijing and Shanghai were shelved yesterday.

Sources attending a January 7 meeting of the State Council said the new high speed railway link will be built using the less expensive wheel-track method, the Beijing Times reported yesterday. The meeting was chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao and focused on mid and long-term railway planning.

However, sources with the long-term planning office of the Ministry of Railways said yesterday discussions on which technique to use are ongoing.

"We have not got any information (that the wheel-track technique will be adopted) from our superior department,"the sources said, refusing to comment further.

The Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway Project was first proposed in 1997 and was later listed in China's 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05). The 1,300-kilometre railway line is expected to cost 120 billion yuan (US$14 billion).

There are several options for construction of the railway. Among the techniques under consideration are Japan's Shinkansen, France's TGV and Inter-City-Express (ICE) and the magnetic levitation (maglev) from Germany. Shinkansen, TGV and ICE would be wheel-track based.

There have been heated debates among Chinese experts on it.

Ultimately, however, the maglev technique was excluded because it does not match the wheel-track technique used by railways in China, Wang Derong, vice-chairman of the China transport association, was quoted as saying.

Given that the 1,300-kilometre Beijing-Shanghai line links up more than 20 other railway lines, it has to be compatible with other trains, Wang said. And the maglev cost is as high as 300 to 400 million (US$36 to 48 million) per kilometre, twice that of wheel-track lines, he said.

Wang said the next step will be to decide which technique to adopt and how to raise funds.

(China Daily 01/16/2004 page1)