We found this article on German website and will post the translated link for you to follow. It appears that this will be the last year for the Transrapid test track near Lathen. The IABG testing group that had tested the Transrapid 09 version has already stated that they have closed their portion of the facility.
There is additional hope on the horizon however, for Transrapid. It appears that the Chinese will be expanding their test line in Shanghai (see other story); Brazil Olympics bid; and for either the Pittsburgh or Vegas routes in the U.S.
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Lathen: money or for up to one year
Federal government wants to get out of Transrapid
As the CDU member of parliament said Gitta Connemann our newspaper, are available for 2011 again € 5.95 million. This, we have five million euros blocked until the traffic and the Ministry of Finance with the industrial facilities operating company (IABG) in Ottobrunn and the Emsland district have agreed on a settlement concept.
Connemann District and Hermann Bröring (CDU) hope that the plant can not be demolished, but can be converted into a center for electric vehicles. This concerns for example the further development of battery technology and the non-contact inductive power transfer. According Bröring the preliminary contract with the operator of the IABG test facility has already been closed. "In Lathen all infrastructural and personnel requirements for such a center of excellence exist," the county government. "It would be for the Emsland a great opportunity university remotely to this seminal issue process." Therefore, it was "economically shame" if the track would be dismantled in the Emsland region and would have to be created somewhere else in a few years a new facility for this future task.
The district is therefore in principle prepared to lead, together with IABG negotiations with the federal government over the continued existence of the pilot plant, and thus "to apply for a fee, restoration obligations," said Bröring. The costs are estimated at about 40 million €. After a raise in 1984 with the former track operator MVP concluded contract, the federal government this amount. If there were an agreement to re-use in the direction of electric vehicles, the money to the district and the IABG would be made available for use on their own. The federal government would dismiss it out of its obligations.
Gitta Connemann said that it regretted the development, but I also see a chance to get 60 jobs in Lathen. "I would have wished, however, from Berlin, a tangible commitment to the Transrapid. The monorail is for me the means of the future. "This has been seen in the Department of Transportation only. In the consultation document therefore further six million euros for 2012 were provided. This had, however, can not, despite the huge efforts of their colleagues Georg Schirmbeck (Osnabrück) from the budget committee to enforce said Connemann.Concerns have been mainly the FDP members Claudia Winterstein from Hanover.
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