In Alwegs homeland Germany monorails were never taken seriously. Plans for a high-speed intercity line connecting Hamburg and Berlin were scrapped for financial reasons. Now plans are underway for a high-speed interregional system linking various cities in North Rhine Westfalia. The Transrapid would if built then be called Metrorapid. The fact that Germany will in the year 2006 host the soccer world championship games might be an incentive to build such a system just to show off some German hi-tech to the rest of the world.
Regional politicians support plans for such a system.
Alweg in the 1950s never had such support and was of course not backed by a huge and experienced consortium of firms. It would be a bit ironic if a controversial and unproven system like this were to be given the go-ahead after years of costly mismanagement of conventional fast interregional service. An Alweg system for the exact same purpose could already have been built in the 1950s. But in those days regional politicians saw no chances to be able to show off such a system to an international audience. Just like Alweg in the early 1950s the Transrapid people are now decelerating their project and are adapting it to high-speed regional transit requirements and therefore renaming it Metrorapid.