Originally Posted by
anacapamalibu
I think the Shanghai Maglev could have been a great welcome greeting for travelers. The ticket price should have been adjusted to a rate that semi fills it up and discounted for travelers with same day boarding pass. The main problem is terminates in no man's land. If it stopped in Pudong near Jin Mao Tower then went on over to People's Square it would have really made sense.
I don't buy the arguement that route would have been impossible.
Whenever I'm in the presence of my MOR contacts and the Maglev topic comes up, they're quick to point out that its primary purpose was to serve as a demonstration of the technology (with the idea that it could be used on useful routes in the future). This is supposedly why it's route is 30 km (as opposed to 25 or 35); that was the amount of track they needed for it to show off its capabilities.
Obviously, the people that worked on the project envisioned that it would evolve into something more useful. The fact that that hasn't panned out (and probably never will) isn't really their fault.