Shanghai '04

摘要

A part from a dozen Chinese tourists posing for a photograph, the platform at the oval dome-covered Longyang Road Station is nearly empty as the world's fastest train pulls in. Minutes later, with all but a handful of its 500 seats unoccupied, the train glides off, levitating on an electromagnetic cushion that propels it with barely a judder to its top speed of 43okph (267mph). It takes just eight minutes to complete the journey to Pudong International Airport, an ultra-modern structure of glass and steel 30km (19 miles) away. Considering the thrill of being on the world's first maglev train in commercial use―and the half an hour or more saved on the journey―it might seem odd that so few people are trying it out. Since daily services were launched on December 29th, about 1,000 tickets a day have been sold on weekdays (out of 12,000 available). At weekends, when novelty-seekers are out in greater numbers, the total still only rises to about 5,000, according to Song Xiaojun, general manager of Shanghai Maglev Transportation Development Co. If the arrival of maglev is a great boon to Shanghai's overburdened transportation system, few appear to be aware of it.