UK Ultraspeed Project
UK ULTRASPEED PROJECT: NEWS RELEASE 2
EMBARGOED until
Weds 23 February, 2005 at the time that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has
completed his visit to the Shanghai Transrapid maglev system
GORDON BROWN RIDES ULTRA HIGH SPEED MAGLEV
In Shanghai, China, on Wednesday 23rd February 2005, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, Gordon Brown, rode the 267mph Transrapid magnetic levitation (maglev)
train between Shanghai and Pudong International Airport. The maglev which Mr Brown
sampled covers in 8 minutes a journey which can take up to an hour by road. It uses
the same German Transrapid technology which is proposed for UK Ultraspeed.
UK Ultraspeed* is designed to link Britain’s major population centres with the world’s
most advanced intercity transport network. It will use the proven Transrapid maglev
(magnetic levitation) technology**, to enable millions of passengers to travel in a safe,
reliable and environmentally friendly manner at speeds up to 311mph (500km/h). The
UK Ultraspeed project proposes to deploy the Transrapid system***, which is now in
regular service in Shanghai, China****, along Britain’s vital North/South transport
backbone.
To achieve speeds of 300mph+, the Transrapid vehicles used by UK Ultraspeed literally
float above a fixed guideway on an electro-magnetic ‘cushion’ and are guided, propelled
and braked by variable frequency electric currents passed through the guideway.
Preliminary studies suggest that friction free Ultraspeed vehicles could operate as
frequently as every 10 minutes and could achieve these approximate journey times:
 London to Birmingham – 30 minutes
 Newcastle to Leeds – 25 minutes
 Glasgow to Edinburgh Airport – 11 minutes
 Heathrow to Tyneside serving all major cities en route – 100 minutes
Dr Alan James of Expert Alliance, UK Ultraspeed Project Leader, welcomed Mr Brown’s
visit to the Shanghai system: “It’s great that the Chancellor has been able to experience
for himself the very high speed, the smoothness and the sheer normality of advanced
maglev transport. I’m sure when he looks at our figures the Chancellor will see that UK
Ultraspeed’s plans to bring maglev to Britain represents great value for money too.
Using Government’s own ‘value of time’ factors, 311mph intercity transport will boost
Britain’s economy by at least £2bn every year in journey-time savings alone, and that’s
before congestion relief and pollution reduction are factored in.”
Speaking elsewhere on his trip to China, an emerging world economic superpower, Mr
Brown said: “In the last industrial revolution Britain realised all too late that other
countries were not only catching up with us but doing better in applying technology to
products and processes. (This time) we can and must make the major changes
necessary to compete."
Alan James commented: “UK Ultraspeed will be a major boost to Britain’s international
competitiveness in the global economy, will support economic development in Scotland
and the English regions, and will bring about a more sustainable balance between those
areas and the South-East. We look forward to defining with Government how the
benefits of UK Ultraspeed can best be delivered in Britain.”
Ends
For more information, for video or photograph materials, or to set up an interview please contact
the UK Ultraspeed Press Office
Telephone
email
020 7861 2528
alawford@qbo-bellpottinger.co.uk
Full project information, is available online at www.500kmh.com
UK Ultraspeed: PRESS RELEASE – 23 Feb 2005
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UK Ultraspeed Project
Notes to Editors: 300mph ground transport for Britain:
What is UK Ultraspeed and what technology does it use?
*UK Ultraspeed is a proposed new national ground transport system, which drastically
reduces journey times between major cities in Britain by operating at speeds of up to 500km/h
(311mph). It has been developed by the UK Ultraspeed Project Team, led by Expert Alliance.
**Transrapid is the friction-free maglev [magnetic levitation] technology used by Ultraspeed.
Developed in Germany, Transrapid has been tested to aviation standards under the most
rigorous certification programme ever applied to ground transport. It is the only system in the
world safety-certified to carry passengers at up to 500km/h on the ground. It is the only very
high speed maglev system in regular commercial service.
The Transrapid system consists of three main elements, all of which are fully integrated with
each other:

A fixed guideway housing an electromagnetic linear motor. This can be built at
ground level, or elevated up to 20m above the ground, thus passing over existing
infrastructure without complex and costly civil engineering.

Maglev vehicles, comprising up to 10 sections, which are capable of seating up to
1,200 passengers in total, although 840 would be a UK norm. The vehicles levitate
above the guideway and are steered along it by magnetic ‘cushions’. They are
propelled and braked by variable electrical current passed through the linear motor.

A highly automated Operational Control System [OCS] engineers in to Transrapid
levels of safety and reliability which are impossible to achieve in rail, air or road
transport. The OCS constantly monitors every vehicle’s speed and position and
adjusts propulsion power supplied through the guideway to ensure that every vehicle
operates at the prescribed speed for each route section, maintains the correct
separation from other vehicles and operates precisely to a timetable defined to the
second.
Transrapid is not a train. It does not have wheels and does not run on railway tracks. Its
dedicated guideway, the vehicles which use it, and the OCS which controls it are designed as
an integrated system. Transrapid systems thus entirely avoid railway-style problems caused
by poor integration of track, trains, signalling and power supply: in Transrapid these are one
system.
Friction-free operation allows a cruising speed of 500km/h. This leapfrogs the 300km/h
typical of the TGV or Shinkansen railways which many of Britain’s competitors have built. As
a further comparison, a Pendolino tilting train on the UK’s West Coast Main Line is limited to
200km/h in normal operation.
***Transrapid International (a joint venture between German giants Siemens and
ThyssenKrupp) has provided full technical input to detailed preliminary studies. These were
conducted between 2002 and 2004 by British specialists grouped into the UK Ultraspeed
Project Team under the leadership of Dr Alan James of Expert Alliance, one of the world's
leading authorities in the field.
****Shanghai The Shanghai Transrapid system was begun in January 2001, made its
inaugural run in December 2002 and entered full commercial service in December 2003. The
Shanghai route has proved the system in daily commercial operation, intercity routes to other
Chinese cities are now under active development. Every few minutes Transrapid vehicles
transport up to 600 people at 430km/h (267mph) between Shanghai and Pudong airport,
accomplishing in eight minutes a journey that takes up to an hour by road. On November 12
2003, a Shanghai Transrapid carried its passengers to a new world record for standardspecification ground transport vehicles: 501km/h (311mph).
UK Ultraspeed: PRESS RELEASE – 23 Feb 2005
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