The Guideway

The Transrapid hovers over a double track guideway. It can be mounted either at-grade or elevated on slim columns and consists of individual steel or concrete beams up to 62 m in length.

The Transrapid maglev system changes tracks using steel bendable switches. They consist of continuous steel box beams with length between 78 m and 148 m (256 ft - 486 ft) which are elastically bent by means of electromagnetic setting drives and securely locked in their end positions.

In the straight position, the vehicle can cross the switch without speed restrictions, in the turnout position, the speed is limited to 200 km/h (125 mph) (high speed switch) or 100 km/h (62 mph) (low speed switch).

The propulsion in the guideway is activated only the section where the vehicle actually is.