Following the termination of the Transrapid project in Munich, ThyssenKrupp and Siemens decided at an advisory council meeting in Erlangen on May, 08, 2008 to restructure their Transrapid activities. Due to the reduction in sales and planning activities, the Berlin-based office of the joint venture Transrapid International (TRI) GmbH & Co. KG, which currently has 38 employees, is to be closed effective October 1, 2008. The employees assigned to the office will return to their respective parent companies.

The core competencies of Transrapid technology will remain with ThyssenKrupp and Siemens. The two companies are keeping faith with the Transrapid system and will continue their negotiations with interested customers e.g. in China and the USA.

Transrapid International was established in 1998 by the member companies of the Transrapid consortium to carry out the Transrapid project Berlin – Hamburg. They subsequently worked on the Transrapid Shanghai project and on the “Metrorapid” projects in North Rhine-Westphalia and Munich. Most recently, their main task has been planning for the Transrapid project in Munich.