[www.ing.dk, April 19, 2007, by Thomas Djursing]
THE DANISH ENGINEER PAPER COVERS THE SCHILLER INSTITUTE RESPONSE TO THE TRAFIC MINISTER’S REJECTION OF A DANISH MAGLEV NET
In a response to the letter from the Danish traffic minister Flemming Hansen against the idea of building a Danish maglevnet Tom Gillesberg wrote a reply that was send to the press yesterday night. Today the internet version of the "ingenioeren" (The Engineer, the paper of the Danish Engineering Society) covered the polemic:
Traffic Minister about maglev: No, no and no again
The traffic minister Flemming Hansen doesn’t want to be bothered with the technological possibility of having maglev trains, since he thinks they’re too expensive. Therefore we will not have a 30 minute train ride between Aarhus and Copenhagen.
"The dream of travelling in train between Copenhagen and Aarhus in 25 minutes suffered a blow, when traffic minister Flemming Hansen rejected the idea of having maglev trains in Denmark.
The politically association The Schiller Institute propose, that Denmark invest in a nation-wide maglevnet that among others connect Aarhus and Copenhagen.
The maglev trains, also called Transrapid maglev, can run 431 km/h and are known from Shanghai.
The traffic minister considers a Danish maglevnet for an enormously high expenditure and point to the fact that the Schiller Institute itself proposes to spend 190 billion crowns (25 billion euro) on maglev trains and a new connection over Kattegat Sea.
"It would be technologically possible to construct a maglev train that can travel from Copenhagen to Aarhus in half an hour, but the expenses would be very high" says the minister that seldom receives proposals of that magnitude.
When the German couldn’t, neither can we
According to Flemming Hansen the construction of a maglev track between Hamburg and Berlin was thoroughly investigated in the 1990’s but the idea was dropped because of the high costs.
"When it on the given premises was unprofitable to establish the project between two big metropolises as Hamburg and Berlin I do not think it appropriate to occupy me with the question of introducing the technology in this country" the traffic minister writes in an answer to the Schiller Institute.
Schiller Institute: Take the budget glasses of
The president of the Danish Schiller Institute, Tom Gillesberg, calls it insane not to make the investments and asks the minister "to take his narrow viewing budget glasses of for just a moment".
"If Denmark had followed the logic of Flemming Hansen about just following in the footsteps of Germany, we would have had neither a bridge over Greater Belt or one over Oresund today – and we won’t get one over Femern Belt" says Tom Gillesberg.
He references that former governments also had to spend a great part of the national budget on building a road- and railroad net.
The Schiller Institute is an international political movement that works closely with the American economist and former Democratic presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche."
End of article that is posted on http://ing.dk/article/20070419/MILJO/70419003?senestef
Most of the press release Tom Gillesberg’s response was covered, excepting his suggestion for the traffic minister to join the parliament in studying Lyndon LaRouche’s writings on a Capital Budget.