Germany Is Making Maglev Train a 262-M.P.H. Reality : Transportation: Perhaps in a decade, the 180-mile-long Transrapid line will be the world’s first intercity train system of its type.

It’s not perfectly smooth, but is it fast?

A test ride on Germany’s magnetic-levitation Transrapid, which may become the world’s first intercity train of its type, moves along at 262.5 mph.

Its backers see “maglev” as the future, arriving perhaps in a decade.

“It’s not a vision now. We have a real product here, a real train. This system is ready for real operation,” said Joerg Metzner, deputy director of the Transrapid research site at Lathen near the Dutch border in northern Germany.

Supporters tout its advantages: It’s almost twice as fast as high-speed conventional trains. It comes close to the speed of jet planes without white-knuckle takeoffs and landings. There are no moving parts, no wear and tear. It’s not as noisy as other transport systems. It can’t derail, and collisions are impossible. No seat belts are required.

The maglev hasn’t been built yet because it’s new and expensive--a risky investment. Detractors say conventional trains can be speeded up for less money though they wouldn’t go as fast, and the time that travelers would save isn’t worth the capital expense anyway.

Critics also expect cost overruns like those that have plagued the Channel Tunnel, and environmentalists dispute the claims of energy efficiency and low noise.

Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s Cabinet, nonetheless, has decided to build a 180-mile-long maglev line between Berlin and Hamburg and take world leadership in high-tech ground transport. If Parliament and private companies are persuaded to pay for it, the dreams of its developers will be realized in 2005.

The train looks like a fat snake swallowing a skinny snake, because the skirts of the Transrapid wrap around and under a monorail, embracing it.

One car is crammed with electronic gear to monitor technical functions. In the passenger car, seats the size of first-class airline seats fill up with people who reserved places for a test ride.

“It can be driven in the train, in the control center or by computer,” Metzner said. “In real operation, the train will be driven automatically.”

This is not the no-driver future, so driver Hans Thesing manipulates a joystick, and we’re off with a light hum of electrical sound.

The train uses two magnetic systems. One levitates the 90-ton train six inches above the monorail guideway; the other pulls it forward. Most of the propulsion system is in the guideway, saving weight on the train.

Digital signs show the speed in kilometers per hour: 170 (106 m.p.h.) is reached quickly but acceleration is comfortable. Slow to 140 (87 m.p.h.) to pass a switch and onto the 19.5-mile main circuit.

At 270 (169 m.p.h.), wind noise is noticeable. A bird flashes by, apparently flying backward very fast, as the train accelerates toward 400 (250 m.p.h.).

“You feel some shaking, but that won’t be present later in the development of the train,” spokesman Peter Wiegelmann assured the passengers. Better suspension will be used in a commercial train than in the research vehicle, he said.

Nearby treetops are a blur. Sunny weather at one end of the test track quickly gives way to a snowstorm down the line.

The Transrapid eases up to 262.5 m.p.h., the maximum permitted for now if passengers are aboard. The train set a record of 281 m.p.h. last year and is expected to cruise at 312.5 m.p.h.

A green wall beside the monorail at one point simulates going through a tunnel or meeting an oncoming train. It raises the noise level, but not alarmingly.

Germany has invested $1.06 billion in maglev research since 1966, and believes it has a product better than anything like it in the world.

Japan is testing two maglev technologies, but the Germans say their system is more reliable and better suited to long intercity lines.

One of the Japanese systems uses super-conducting technology requiring liquid hydrogen. “The components for that are not yet fully developed,” Metzner said. “We are using standard electromagnetic technology, and we will be able to lower costs for a real commercial system.”

The Transrapid plan calls for investing $5.2 billion for the Berlin-Hamburg line.

The government would invest $3.3 billion in the track. Private industry is to invest $1.9 billion for trains to make the trip, with one stop, in less than an hour.

The current partners are three of Germany’s biggest companies. Thyssen Henschel, in overall direction, makes the train cars and developed the magnetic concept. AEG, a subsidiary of Daimler-Benz, makes the electronic controls, and Siemens handles the electrical engineering.

If Parliament gives the go-ahead, the private companies will have to work out how to share the big investment. The mostly government-owned airline Lufthansa is part of the tentative package, along with Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest bank.

For Germany, the partially private financing is as innovative as the technology. “It is the first time for us to put risk capital into a tracked transport system,” Siemens board member Wolfram O. Martinsen said in an interview in the weekly Die Zeit.

The aim is to have the Berlin-Hamburg line demonstrate the commercial viability of the system and then export it. The potential market is seen as anywhere that people get on planes to make a one-hour flight and where no high-speed trains run.