After nearly two years of commercial trial operation, Shanghai maglev train has been checked and accepted by the government on April 26, and will be put into official operation soon.

The appraisal committee members from the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Science and Technology as well as Shanghai municipal government held that the project tallies with national regulations and demands, and the trial run is successful.

"The project has given us a thorough understanding of the maglev structure, techniques and localization. Meanwhile, we have also mastered rail technology, which is one of the four core technologies, and made breakthroughs in homemade equipment. Now we can operate and maintain the system by ourselves. Apart from that, we have accumulated rich and valuable experiences in terms of R&D, design, construction and operation," said Zhang Xiaoqiang, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Zhang further pointed out that the development of maglev traffic can help form a high-tech industry group so as to push forward the advancement of other industries such as manufacturing, metallurgy, mechanical and electrical equipment, information, trains as well as construction.

Shanghai maglev is the world's first commercial maglev traffic railway, with a total length of 29.873 km and a designed highest speed of 430 km/h. It was put into commercial test run in May 2004.

The accumulated mileage for safe operation has exceeded 2.5 million km by the end of April 2006, carrying some 6.5 million visits and going through bad weather like snow and hard wind.

(People's Daily April 27, 2006)