Situation

• The Emsland region is traditionally known to be a poor region in Germany
• After the oil-crisis in 1973 the German industry was eager to open up new technology and infrastructure. 
• There was a poor rail link between Berlin and Hamburg after the fall of the Berlin Wall. 
• By that time the argument that the classical railway system was not modern (fast, clean, cheap) enough seemed logic.
• An argument was to make use of the ‘speed gap’ between trains and planes (700 km/h)
• French and Japanese High speed systems where growingly succesful. The German industry feared a technological disadvantage.

• To research and develop further the idea of magnetic levitation and use this technology to stimulate economic progress.
• To install a pilot range to also persuade the market of the makebilaty of the Transrapid system.
• The creation of faster and better connections between Berlin and Hamburg. 

• Since 1934 Germany owns the patent on a technology based on magnetic elevation.
• An eager industrial cluster, persuasive key-figures with a good network and a political lobby within a pro-technique society.
• German spatial and economic structure has ‘target-regions’ for the technology (dense agglomerations + big cities on 200 km distance from each other) 
• A new transport technology that allows higher speeds and even lower energy consumption and maintenance needs.
• Strong support within national government and the bigger political parties. 
• A willing remoted region for the test track. (home of the ‘inventor’ of the technology) with cheap space and interest in an economical impulse.
• A common believe of all parties that there is a big ‘cake’ to be shared.

Strategy

• To implement the new technology throughout the country and world (there have been plans to build a Transrapid in Nordrhein-Westfalen, a fast route between Hamburg and Berlin and the most recent one between Munich Airport and its city center)

Actions

• The “Magnetbahn Transrapid” consortium is formed and work begins on the Test Facility in Emsland in 1978, in 1979 a first test track was shown on the international fair of transportation in Hamburg.
• 1987 : Completion and commissioning of the Transrapid Test Facility in Emsland TVE.
• The Hamburg-Berlin line was finally abandoned in 2000. Bavarian politicians decided the Transrapid wasn’t worth the €3 billion new calculations showed it would have cost. The system was sold to China.
• In 2004, the first commercial implementation was completed. The Shanghai Maglev Train connects the rapid transit network 30.5 km to the Shanghai Pudong International Airport. 
• In 2006 23 people were killed on the Emsland test track due to a ‘human mistake’. This catastrophe marked the end of political support in Germany.
• At the end of 2011, the operation license of the Emsland test track has expired, and it has been closed. Early 2012, the demolition and reconversion of all the Emsland site, including the factory, has been approved.