--FILE--A maglev train drives past the Shanghai Pudong International Airport in Pudong, Shanghai, China, 19 September 2008. Due to a concurrent construction of an express railway along a similar route, Shanghai has suspended a maglev railway project that would have connected Hangzhou and Shanghai. The section of the maglev railway connecting Shanghais Pudong and Hongqiao airports remains in progress. At the Shanghai Peoples Congress, Shanghai mayor Han Zheng discussed only the maglev railway between the two airports, neglecting mention of the larger project between the two cities. The local governments have not officially cancelled the project. The Zhejiang government wrote in a plan published in August 2008 that the maglev construction will begin in 2010. But a member of Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission, which is in charge of the project, told the media that there is great uncertainty about whether the project will continue. According to online sources, the Shanghai-Hangzhou maglev project would have stretched 175 km from Hangzhou to Shanghai Pudong Airport. The train would travel at a speed of 450 km per hour in the suburbs and nearly 200 km per hour in urban areas. The total investment was estimated to be 35 billion yuan (US$5.12 billion). The State Council approved the project in March 2006. It was expected to be completed at the end of 2008, used on a trial basis in 2009, and put into full use in 2010 before the World Expo, but construction has not yet begun.
